Hi John, Thanks for emailing the list about this.
> I'm interested in any feedback people might have. Some starting > questions might be: > > * Why do you think there are few women participating in SPI? Good question. I've been thinking about SPI a lot lately, and have been also been wondering about why there are so few women participating in SPI. The conclusion I came to is that the situation is largely one of perception. I sat in on the end of an SPI meeting a while ago, in which the topic of volunteers for the membership committee was discussed. I realised at that point that I would very much enjoy getting more involved in SPI, but had always assumed that it just wasn't an option because I wasn't one of the people who'd got involved in free software way back when. I think this perception largely stems from the fact that when I think of SPI, I tend to think of a group of people all of whom have years of experience and a great deal of knowledge relating to free software. In constrast, the majority of women who participate in the free software community got involved much later than men, and often at an age when they didn't have as much spare time to dedicate to a new interest. Consequently, many women (myself included) tend to feel less confident in their free software knowledge and expertise. Thinking about this further, and now having read your mail, I realise that my perception of SPI is probably wrong, but I wonder how many other women involved in the free software also see it as such. Perhaps trying to address this perception would encourage more women to participate in SPI? Regards, -- hanna m. wallach blog: http://join-the-dots.org/ work: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/hmw26/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
