[Osmf-talk] Reaching out and diversity (Was: Re: AGM and board elections)

[Kate Chapman]

Hi All,

Yes, I agree what more gender, geographic, cultural and other diversities
within the OSMF is important I think we should also think about why things
are currently the way they are. Is it simply a matter of outreach?
Personally I don't think so, the OSM community can be a difficult place to
engage. If you look on our mailing lists there is plenty of sexist
language, cultural insensitive statements and often the aggressive debate
is off putting to a variety of people.

I can only speak really as a woman in the OSM community, versus much of the
other types of diversity. Most women I know within OSM have had issues with
community members acting in ways that have made them consider their
contributions to OSM. When we moderate mailing lists, we don't look for
sexism it often just completely passes unnoticed. Some contributors are
difficult to deal with in person as well. Finally it has been difficult to
get better diversity policies with our conferences.

So not only do we need to recruit, but we also need to think about if after
recruiting people are going to be driven off.

For those that wish to further educate themselves about these issues I
recommend reading the Geek Feminism Wiki(1), Ashe Dryden's blog(2) and the
Python Foundation's diversity page(3).  I think it is worth noting that the
Python Foundation Board adopted a formal diversity statement in 2009.

Best,

-Kate

(1) http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki
(2) http://www.ashedryden.com/
(3) https://www.python.org/community/diversity/

On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 6:23 PM, Derick Rethans <osm at derickrethans.nl>
wrote:

> On Thu, 18 Sep 2014, Clifford Snow wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 3:34 PM, Oleksiy Muzalyev <
> > oleksiy.muzalyev at bluewin.ch> wrote:
> >
> > > Perhaps it's time to begin to think about a rule that the board
> > > shall include at least two women? And in future 4/3?
> >
> > +1 - Even if the Board doesn't think that rule is appropriate, we
> > should reach out to encourage more gender diversity on the Board. I
> > don't know the make up of men vs women in OSM, but I suspect we could
> > do much more to promote more to encourage more women to be involved.
>
> Diversity does not stop with just gender. Certainly important, and
> perhaps a first thing to focus on, but certainly not enough. I think in
> general most tech projects tend to be "white men", and that does a great
> unjustice to the amount of views we *could* have.
>
> I think we could benefit from:
>
> - Promoting OSM membership with all of our mappers. I would be totally
>   for sending out a quarterly email, to mappers that have made say 10-25
>   edits. This way you are not spamming everybody, but still at least
>   know they have more than a tiny bit of interest.
> - I think in general we suck at engaging new mappers, and I think it's
>   really important to reach out to people that newly started. Best done
>   by other local mappers in the area
> - Invite people from other diversities specifically to stand for the
>   board. I am sure we can find people from "non white male" groups that
>   we know have done a lot for OpenStreetMap (think HOT and their
>   participation in Africa). We *must* be proactive here if we want to
>   change that. And if that means doing "positive discrimination", then I
>   am certainly for.
>
> cheers,
> Derick
>
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