Hi everyone, I just sat down to skim-read the many threads that I appear to have neglected on here during the past week (I've been in a coding frenzy) and there are a few things that I think need mentioning.
It seems that there's a bit of a misunderstanding going on here. I think it needs to be reemphasised that Debian Women is about integration -- integrating women into the Debian development community (not the user community). Furthermore, Debian Women is not an affirmative action project; I (and many others) believe that making things easier for women, in the sense of lowering standards is entirely unconstructive and detrimental. Here's the problem -- the programs, scripts and infrastructure that comprise and facilitate the development of a distribution such as Debian are, for the most part, technically complex. Unsurprisingly, the way other things in Debian work reflect this. For example, Debian uses version control for its website -- something that many organisations would not bother with. In forming an group like Debian Women, it would be tempting to say, "Oh let's use tools that are easier to use, so that more people can get involved," but in fact this goes against the primary goal of Debian Women: integration. If we use easier tools than the rest of Debian, we are doing ourselves an injustice. We are segregating ourselves, and we are not helping Debian Women members to gain the skills that they will need to get involved in Debian proper. Given the goal of Debian Women is integration, I think it's critical that we use the same tools that are used in other areas of Debian. Of course, many Debian Women members may not be experienced in using such tools, thus making the barrier for involvement a bit higher, but the way to rectify this not to use simpler tools, but to provide tutorials etc., to develop transferrable skills that can be used in other areas of Debian. Put another way, Debian Women should be acting as a stepping stone or portal to the rest of the Debian project. Similarly, I think that creating Debian Women sub-projects, focussed on some task that already happens in the rest of Debian (packaging, translation, etc.) is unconstructive. Such sub-projects may provide a welcoming and safe place for women, but I'm not sure they do much to integrate women into the Debian project. While clearly not the intent, I fear they encourage women to segregate themselves, and work only within the Debian Women community. To summarise: Debian Women is about integration; let's not forget it. Regards, -- hanna m. wallach http://join-the-dots.org/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
