[FOSS4G-Oceania] Forum on Diversity

Wed Sep 5 18:29:21 PDT 2018

The pyconfau organising team was female majority, see below:
https://2018.pycon-au.org/about/
Shall we talk to them?
Maybe invite them for a perspective?
The R conf is here: https://user2018.r-project.org/

M.

From: Daniel Silk <dwsilk at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, 6 September 2018 at 11:04 am
To: Martin Tomko <tomkom at unimelb.edu.au>
Cc: adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com>, Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com>, "foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org" <foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [FOSS4G-Oceania] Forum on Diversity

+1 Martin

It also seems we're heading down the path of failing the Bechdel test for tech conferences: https://twitter.com/mrogati/status/665962306694615040<https://twitter.com/mrogati/status/665962306694615040>

On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 11:42 AM Martin Tomko <tomkom at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:tomkom at unimelb.edu.au>> wrote:
Dear all,
(apologies, a white mail weighing in).
I would not dare stating why there are less women represented in our submissions and community, just state that it is no good and their publicly facing involvement is lesser than their contribution to the discipline.
I wonder if we can learn something from the organisers of the PyConAU conference, judging purely by the twitter thread, it had a great diversity, and the community is certainly even more geeky than us.

Similar for the RConf. Should we reach out, at least for best practice hints? I know that in R, there are some very vocal female present,which probably helps – Di Cook from Melbourne is one of those.

Better late than never…
M.

From: FOSS4G-Oceania <foss4g-oceania-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:foss4g-oceania-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> on behalf of adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com<mailto:adam.d.steer at gmail.com>>
Date: Thursday, 6 September 2018 at 9:06 am
To: Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com<mailto:alexgleith at gmail.com>>
Cc: foss4g-oceania <foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org>>
Subject: Re: [FOSS4G-Oceania] Forum on Diversity

HI Alex

I’ve already invited all the people I know :D - and yes, a panel should reflect the community we *want*.

Let’s move CFP discussion to the other thread about an extended CFP - but continue working toward a decision!

Thanks

.a

On Thu, 6 Sep 2018 at 08:59, Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com<mailto:alexgleith at gmail.com>> wrote:
I think if we run a panel we ensure that diverse voices are on it, even stacking against the “male, male and stale” pigeon hole.

I don’t think we need to start specifically organising aspects yet, but agreeing on the big picture is something we can do now.

Regarding what you’re saying Adam, I’m not against opening up CFP for diverse folks... but who’s to say that we’ll get any more than we already have? Maybe we need to specifically invite people we know? I should push Deanna from SIBA a bit harder to attend, as her GeoRabble talk on 'Vitamin D for the Spatial Industry' was excellent.

Regards,

On Thu, 6 Sep 2018 at 8:51 am, adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com<mailto:adam.d.steer at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi all,

Cameron - low attendee at conference sessions happen all the time. Even when the community votes for things.

Everyone - please read this thread, but not because it is a shining example in OSgeo’s history of managing diversity:

There was an email thread "Diversity in FOSS4G" discussing some of these points: https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2018-August/thread.html<https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2018-August/thread.html>
(direct: https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2018-August/037710.html<https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2018-August/037710.html>)

The first few e-mails were great - then it went to both men explaining to women what women want to do; and non-scientists explaining to scientists how science works - all in one delicious e-mail thread. I responded to it - in a very, very, very muted fashion. I was actually really fuming -  I sometimes think about diving in again but just get too angry every time I think about it - so the conversation is effectively shut down and I’m hesitant to communicate with certain people involved because of their communication style (I’m sure you all get that from me also from time to time).

Reference to this research:  http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797617741719<http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797617741719>
https://researchtheheadlines.org/2018/04/20/the-stem-gender-equality-paradox-from-fallacies-to-facts/<https://researchtheheadlines.org/2018/04/20/the-stem-gender-equality-paradox-from-fallacies-to-facts/>

I’d be happy to do a journal club on this paper -  maybe it’d be a good georabble? I’d love to see Sarah, or Martin, or Trisha weigh in  (or any other academics in the community ). Actually, would someone who isn’t a white bloke like to propose a co-presentation at georabble on it?

I certainly would not hold it up as an authoritative reference on why women leave STEM careers.

Cheers

Adam

_______________________________________________
FOSS4G-Oceania mailing list
FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org>
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania<https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania>
--

Alex Leith
0419 189 050

--
Adam Steer
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam_Steer<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam_Steer>
http://au.linkedin.com/in/adamsteer<http://au.linkedin.com/in/adamsteer>
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0046-7236<http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0046-7236>
+61 427 091 712
skype: adam.d.steer
tweet: @adamdsteer
_______________________________________________
FOSS4G-Oceania mailing list
FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org>
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania<https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g-oceania/attachments/20180906/27ff72eb/attachment-0001.html>