SCALE 8x - 2010 Southern California Linux Expo - WIOS

Moving the Needle: How the San Francisco Ruby Community got to 18%

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

The San Francisco Ruby community went from 3% women to 18% women in less than a year, using no witchcraft! Any OSS community with the right dedication can do it. Come find out how.

In January 2009, the monthly San Francisco Ruby meetings averaged 2% women. In January 2010, they averaged 18%. What happened in a year to make such a big difference? Over the last year, Sarah Allen and I have been spending all our nights and weekends working on a series of workshops for women who want to learn Ruby. When we got started, to be honest, I wasn't very optimistic. I've lived through quite a few gender diversity efforts in quite a few technical communities, and most of them failed to make any noticeable dent. But to my amazement, we were incredibly successful. In this talk, I'll take you through the factors that were critical to our success, and I'll explore the great things our community has gotten from the effort - some expected, some wonderfully unexpected. I believe that any local OSS community can adapt these techniques and end up with an outreach effort that makes an immediate, visible, and lasting difference.

In January 2009, the monthly San Francisco Ruby meetings averaged 2% women. In January 2010, they averaged 18%. What happened in a year to make such a big difference?

Over the last year, Sarah Allen and I have been spending all our nights and weekends working on a series of workshops for women who want to learn Ruby. When we got started, to be honest, I wasn't very optimistic. I've lived through quite a few gender diversity efforts in quite a few technical communities, and most of them failed to make any noticeable dent.

But to my amazement, we were incredibly successful. In this talk, I'll take you through the factors that were critical to our success, and I'll explore the great things our community has gotten from the effort - some expected, some wonderfully unexpected. I believe that any local OSS community can adapt these techniques and end up with an outreach effort that makes an immediate, visible, and lasting difference.

Speaker: Sarah Mei

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Audio

Writing Effective Self Help Guides for World Domination

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

If we really want world domination of free and open source software, we need to have the self-help guides worthy of our code--this talk shows you how.

Developers write documentation. Technical authors write manuals. But in a perfect world, your users read software self-help guides. Consumers expect documentation to reflect the sophistication of the software they are using, and will abandon an application if they cannot easily find the answer to their problems. If we really want world domination of free and open source software, we need to have the self-help guides worthy of our code. In "Writing Self Help Guides for World Domination" we'll take a look at the strategies and tools needed for really awesome documentation. Imagine a world where documentation actually helped you to find an answer, or solved one of your problems. If that sounds like a pipe dream, it's because you've had to struggle with too much crap documentation. Technical writing can be fun and accessible, but more importantly, it can be truly useful. By analysing how people use software, and where they stumble, we can drastically improve the experience our users have with our software documentation. Creating relevant documentation needs a little more than just a scraping of code comments though--and this talk will show you how it should be done. Open source tools for writing documentation are very sophisticated, but generally our mastery of them quite simply sucks. Whether they are using DocBook, Mallard or DITA, many projects have opted for very powerful markup languages for their documentation, but often use only a fraction of what the tools can do. Other projects have opted to go with Web-based content management systems and have failed to create a cohesive self-help experience for users. You will learn how to effectively use these common tools for creating and maintaining collaborative documentation. Real examples will be pulled from open source projects. If you've been wanting to help make the user experience better for your project, this talk is a must-see.

Imagine a world where documentation actually helped you to find an answer, or solved one of your problems. If that sounds like a pipe dream, it's because you've had to struggle with too much crap documentation. Technical writing can be fun and accessible, but more importantly, it can be truly useful. By analysing how people use software, and where they stumble, we can drastically improve the experience our users have with our software documentation. Creating relevant documentation needs a little more than just a scraping of code comments though--and this talk will show you how it should be done.

Open source tools for writing documentation are very sophisticated, but generally our mastery of them quite simply sucks. Whether they are using DocBook, Mallard or DITA, many projects have opted for very powerful markup languages for their documentation, but often use only a fraction of what the tools can do. Other projects have opted to go with Web-based content management systems and have failed to create a cohesive self-help experience for users. You will learn how to effectively use these common tools for creating and maintaining collaborative documentation. Real examples will be pulled from open source projects.

If you've been wanting to help make the user experience better for your project, this talk is a must-see.

Speaker: Emma Jane Hogbin

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Audio

Pretty In Print

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

10 Tips for Getting Published

Would you like to see more female authors online or in the printed pages of your favorite tech magazine? Whether you want to write for fun, to impress your parents, or to rev up your resume, you'll learn some practical tips for intriguing editors, ironing out your writing wrinkles, and polishing your prose for print.

Speaker: Rikki Kite

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A Year NTEU (in-to) the Ubuntu Community and the FLOSS World

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

What Non Technical End Users can do in a year!

How to get started in the Ubuntu Community or other communities and go over the things I've done in 1 year in the Ubuntu Community and FLOSS and how to encourage other NTEU (pro-nounced IN-TO) - non technical end user in the Open Source world.

Speaker: Amber Graner

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The One Woman Web Team

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

Tackle a web project by yourself with open source software, and without losing your mind.

Taking on a large-scale web project without the support of a full-time team is not for the faint of heart, but (especially in this economy) there are many scenarios where a woman might find herself doing just that. This talk will cover tackling such a project with open source software, and without losing your mind. Here's a hint: behind every woman there should be several other women offering mentorship, guidance and support. We'll discuss the importance of knowing when and how to ask for help, and why sometimes it really is best to ask another woman. We'll look at opportunities for both technical and moral support from the community, and also opportunities to potentially contribute back to the communities of which you are a part. Additionally, we'll cover the ways in which we can draw on our diverse backgrounds and experiences to accomplish great things on the web, and why the most valuable contributors to the web of tomorrow may be women who are currently studying Economics or Art. Finally, we'll touch on some useful strategies for maximizing your time, honing your skills, achieving balance, and avoiding pitfalls.

We'll discuss the importance of knowing when and how to ask for help, and why sometimes it really is best to ask another woman. We'll look at opportunities for both technical and moral support from the community, and also opportunities to potentially contribute back to the communities of which you are a part. Additionally, we'll cover the ways in which we can draw on our diverse backgrounds and experiences to accomplish great things on the web, and why the most valuable contributors to the web of tomorrow may be women who are currently studying Economics or Art. Finally, we'll touch on some useful strategies for maximizing your time, honing your skills, achieving balance, and avoiding pitfalls.

Topics covered:
*open source web platforms for your project (Drupal, etc)
*Developing your plan of attack
*Identifying your strengths and weaknesses
*Community Resources and mentorship
*Organizing your project (a.k.a. "help others help you!")
*Drawing inspiration from non-technical disciplines
*Avoiding common time-wasters and learning from your own and others' mistakes

Speaker: Katherine Druckman

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Ultimate Randomness - Girl voices in open source

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

In this session, several girls who are involved as users of and contributors to open source projects present some of their work. This is followed by a Q&A session for the audience to explore how to get girls involved in open source.

Malakai, Mirano, and Saskia are self-identified girls and self-described Fedora Mascots, who have participated in several open source projects as users and contributors. From using free and open tools for writing, art, and music, to contributing to XO/Sugar, these girls were first introduced to using Linux by their dads. For the first 1/3rd of the presentation, the girls present some of their art, open collaborations, and favorite programs. They introduce "chat play", an interactive role playing game they invented while travelling last year as Fedora Mascots to multiple Linux and open source festivals. The girls are active in an unorganized young people's QA team for Sugar/OLPC activities. In the last 2/3rds of the time, the girls would like an open discussion with the audience to explore what can get more girls involved in open source. "Disclaimer: we are not responsible for anyone's head going a'splode."

Although it's fun to talk about what they are doing, the girls and their dads recognize this as an uncommon opportunity for women in the computer field to talk with outspoken and knowledgeable girls of the next generation.

Speaker: Malakai Wade, Mirano Cafiero, and Saskia Wade

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Women's Invisible Contribution to Free and Open Source Software

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:04:50 +0000

We will question the 1% female representation to FOSS development projects by proposing a critical analysis and overview of women's contributions to FOSS, which turns them from absent to invisible for the community.

Whenever there is a debate about women's representation in FOSS, the answer is 1%. This discouraging statistics has not been much questioned, but only repeated. However, smaller research announces 15% of female participation, while Angela "webchick" Byron, announced 7-10% of women in Drupal (2009). We will present the results of a MA research, based on a qualitative analysis women contributions to FOSS. We will classify women's contributions, by proposing a typology of contributors: technicians, mediators and diffusers. Then, we will propose some reasons for women's “invisibility” based either on the effectuation of “invisible” tasks inside FOSS or on contributing FOSS knowledge to other communities such as libraries, community centres, public administration, education. In conclusion, we will identify risks from the option women's work in FOSS remains invisible and provide recommendations on how to value the work not only of women but also of non-programmers and non-experts in the field.

Speaker: Christina Haralanova