On 13/05/2019 18.03, Matt Sicker wrote:
This might be slightly inflammatory, but how about this: do you want
non-shitty documentation? How about graphics and logos? Maybe a nice
website? Or some helpful users for support? Hard to do without community!
I'd add non-shitty code to that as well ;-). Your comment touches on one
aspect: that there is more to a project than code, and a diverse set of
skilled people is needed.
I'd go further and say there's more to a project than *your* code, and
you might find yourself and your code improving by allowing a larger,
more diverse set of users and developers in...even if you end up still
writing the bulk of the code yourself.
There are numerous examples of how people think their program works as
intended, only to find out that *what they intended isn't what they
truly intended*. I have seen mindbogglingly stupid realizations from
people making blow-dryers that wouldn't work when operated by people of
color, I've seen many color-blind people struggle with user interfaces,
as well as a ton of unintended racism, sexism, terms of phrase that just
do not mean that you think they mean, I've seen WAY too many examples of
myself thinking "this is so simple, even a pigeon could operate it! I am
so clever!", only to find that it really wasn't, and my myopic vision
was clouding my judgment and it was horrible and I was a horrible
developer (well, a silly one at least). If you want your project to do
well and work beyond your own personal needs, you need to embrace
diversity and see it for the strength it is.
I am unsure of how specific we want to be in our reasoning, but thought
I'd share some insights into my own mistakes (and those of other people)
anyway :)
With regards,
Daniel.
On Mon, May 13, 2019 at 15:14, Patricia Shanahan <p...@acm.org> wrote:
The first and most important question is something along the lines of:
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Q: Apache does everything by e-mail. I do not know or care about the
race, ethnicity, gender, age, weight, or any other personal
characteristics of other contributors. Why are diversity and inclusion
relevant issues for Apache?
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Here are some elements that I think should be covered in the answer. At
this point, I am going for the big picture. Please suggest improvements
and fix errors.
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1. Subconscious bias: You know the name the contributor uses. In
addition, you may know their time zone and, from how quotes are
introduced, the language in which they do most of their e-mail interaction.
Research indicates that merely changing the name on a resume can affect
the probability of a call back. Although the results could in theory be
explained by deliberate racism and sexism, they seem more likely to be
due to subconscious bias.
2. It is not all e-mail: Apache contributors meet at open source
conferences, specialty technical conferences, and local gatherings. Not
being able to participate without fearing discrimination would itself be
discouraging.
3. Unintentional insult through stereotypes: This is a bigger risk in
e-mail than in face-to-face interactions.
I had someone on a mailing list use "try to explain X to someone's
aunt", where X was a difficult technical point, as an example of
futility. It invoked a stereotype of older women as lacking computer
science comprehension. As it happens, I already had two adult nephews
when I got my PhD in computer science. The writer would probably not
have said what they did in a live conversation including a grey-haired
woman.
4. Misuse of pronouns: If you know someone's preferred pronouns you know
something about their gender, and subconscious gender discrimination
becomes possible. If you don't, you may be making them cringe every time
you refer to them in an e-mail.
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Matt Sicker <boa...@gmail.com>
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