4 ms·

It's an effort to make the programming community more accessible to currently underrepresented groups. Expanding the base is one way to improve a meritocracy.

by cygx 9y ago

TeMPOraL 9y ago
What you describe is an important goal, but I agree with protomyth[0] - they're doing it backwards. If you want to make the industry more accessible to minorities, focus on making information and training more accessible to them, and not on status rewards (being a speaker on a conference is first and foremost a status reward). -- [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14481090 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14481090
- afarrell 9y ago
  The argument here is representation. See also: Uhura from Star Trek.
Cozumel 9y ago
Learning code should be the only way to make programming 'more accessible'. Black, white, yellow, red, gay, straight, whatever. None of that should matter. All that matters is that you can pull your weight.
- cygx 9y ago
  The gender gap in the open source world is notoriously bad (worse than in the idustry as a whole), and this goes beyond women not being able to pull their weight. There are fun statistics such as that women who are not immediately recognizable as such have a higher pull request acceptance rate on github than their male counterparts, whereas women who are easily identifiable have a lower one.
  - DerpyBaby123 9y ago
    Source? I heard of one study like this but it was refuted for bad procedures
    - cygx 9y ago
      https://peerj.com/articles/cs-111/ https://peerj.com/articles/cs-111/
  - legostormtroopr 9y ago
    Open-source, an all-volunteer, enthusiast community, where the only requirement is you show up and write good code has a gender gap. You can even be an open-source developer of one by starting your own project. Maybe that tells you something about the general interest in programming by women. If people aren't volunteering, maybe they just aren't interested in that thing?

It's an effort to make the programming community more accessible to currently underrepresented groups. Expanding the base is one way to improve a meritocracy.

by cygx 9y ago

It's an effort to make the programming community more accessible to currently underrepresented groups. Expanding the base is one way to improve a meritocracy.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

What you describe is an important goal, but I agree with protomyth[0] - they're doing it backwards. If you want to make the industry more accessible to minorities, focus on making information and training more accessible to them, and not on status rewards (being a speaker on a conference is first and foremost a status reward). -- [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14481090 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14481090

afarrell 9y ago
The argument here is representation. See also: Uhura from Star Trek.

Cozumel 9y ago

Learning code should be the only way to make programming 'more accessible'. Black, white, yellow, red, gay, straight, whatever. None of that should matter. All that matters is that you can pull your weight.

cygx 9y ago
The gender gap in the open source world is notoriously bad (worse than in the idustry as a whole), and this goes beyond women not being able to pull their weight. There are fun statistics such as that women who are not immediately recognizable as such have a higher pull request acceptance rate on github than their male counterparts, whereas women who are easily identifiable have a lower one.
- DerpyBaby123 9y ago
  Source? I heard of one study like this but it was refuted for bad procedures
  - cygx 9y ago
    https://peerj.com/articles/cs-111/ https://peerj.com/articles/cs-111/
- legostormtroopr 9y ago
  Open-source, an all-volunteer, enthusiast community, where the only requirement is you show up and write good code has a gender gap. You can even be an open-source developer of one by starting your own project. Maybe that tells you something about the general interest in programming by women. If people aren't volunteering, maybe they just aren't interested in that thing?