Hi Helen, > > - try reaching out to the wider Debian community. Email > > debian-devel and debian-user and anywhere else that seems a good > > idea and ask people to tell their female friends, partners, family > > and colleagues about the Debian Women project. Encourage people > > to encourage others to join our mailing list and IRC channel.
I think this is a good idea. However, I'm aware that this will probably generate an awful lot of negative responses in addition to positive ones. Perhaps we might want to concentrate our energy on something that is less likely to result in a flamewar...? ;-) > > - try reaching out more to those in the Debian Women channel who > > are on the mailing list but who are not very active in the > > project. Maybe set up a temporary IRC channel - > > #debian-women-beginners or something, for the day. Get a small > > number of our regulars to commit to being in the channel to help > > out at specified times, so we cover all the timezones adequately. > > Write really simple instructions for using IRC for the first time > > and encourage all those shy people out there to give it a go and > > come and say hello, knowing that others on the channel at that > > time are also newcomers. This is great. I really like this idea. In addition to having a temporary IRC channel available all day, maybe we could have an IRC "welcome" meeting for newcomers. That way we could give those people who can attend the meeting a brief overview of the project and let people introduce themselves. Plus it'd mean we're likely to get several newcomers in there at the same time, which may be less intimidating. In addition to this, we could even hold a DW bug squashing party, which might be a good way to get people actually starting to do stuff. > > - in areas where there is a concentration of Debian Women people, > > organise physical meetings. Maybe over lunch or something. Make > > sure that meetings are organised in places that are accessible for > > people with children, and for people who are still at school and > > maybe can't go out at night, since maybe that stuff is preventing > > some women from getting involved more in their local LUG meetings. I also think this is a good idea and very much in the spirit of Software Freedom Day. Given the premise SFD, organising meetings for women who are potentially interested in Debian and Debian Women but are not yet DW members would be worthwhile. That way people can meet each other face-to-face, and we can do some advocacy that way. Who else would be interested in helping organise/run such events? Regards, -- hanna m. wallach http://join-the-dots.org/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
