I fear that we have lost the original point made my Naomi. In other circles, I have found people openly mocking the ASF as a "mirror-tocracy" where we recognize merit only in people that look like us. Whether we agree with that or not, we have to accept that that is a perception held by a non-trivial percent of the population.
If we truly were blind to sexuality, race, gender, age, etc., then one would expect our ratios on these measurements to match the general population, or at least industry norms. Sadly, this is not the case. I am concerned that stressing the "negatives" would be seen as incredibly tone deaf. - Sam Ruby On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 10:09 AM Henk P. Penning <penn...@uu.nl> wrote: > > On Mon, 25 Mar 2019, Shane Curcuru wrote: > > > Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2019 12:00:20 +0000 > > From: Shane Curcuru <a...@shanecurcuru.org> > > To: dev@community.apache.org > > Subject: Re: on "meritocracy" > > > > Henk P. Penning wrote on 3/24/19 1:29 PM: > > ...snip... > >> When using the word 'Meritocracy', is is important to > >> explain on which merits the meritocracy is based : > >> -- community building > >> -- software construction > >> -- whatever > > Most definitions of 'Meritocracy' also mention the 'merits' > that are /NOT/ important ; like sexuality, race, gender, age, > or wealth ; also 'education', 'social status', 'achievements > outside ASF' [pardon my English] etc. > > These 'negatives' are as important as the 'positives', > when we define what our 'meritocracy' is. > > -- Perhaps these negatives could added (more) upfront in > http://theapacheway.com/merit/ > > Groeten, > > Henk Penning > > ------------------------------------------------------------ _ > Henk P. Penning, ICT-beta R Uithof MG-403 _/ \_ > Faculty of Science, Utrecht University T +31 30 253 4106 / \_/ \ > Leuvenlaan 4, 3584CE Utrecht, NL F +31 30 253 4553 \_/ \_/ > http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~penni101/ M penn...@uu.nl \_/ > > > This is the main issue, and one where the traditional ASF usage of > > "merit" is subtly different than the dictionary definition: > > > > https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/merit > > > > The ASF meaning of "merit*" is about work done, not characteristics: > > > > "Within the Apache Way, 'your merit' is always about the work you do, > > and never about you as an individual. Many newcomers see this at odds > > with common conceptions of someone’s merit meaning their character, > > their behaviors, their abilities, and past actions." > > > > http://theapacheway.com/merit/ > > > > I agree we need to improve our public presence to better explain "how we > > value contributions" (i.e. our meritocracy meaning), since the commonly > > understood definition out in the world is different from this. But my > > brain is really tired this month about real life, and the best word I > > can come up with is "work-ocracy". which is pretty clumsy. 8-) > > > > -- > > > > - Shane > > Director & Member > > The Apache Software Foundation > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@community.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@community.apache.org > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@community.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@community.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@community.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@community.apache.org
