3 ms·

If you'd like to get your local Scouts group to work on code within the safe measures of private repos, I'm sure you'd also find sponsors. It's not a breach of

by marquis 14y ago

If you'd like to get your local Scouts group to work on code within the safe measures of private repos, I'm sure you'd also find sponsors. It's not a breach of Equality when you aren't stopping other people from doing something. I'm sure Github would love sponsorship from all over the place. A benefit of this is clever on Ada and Github's part: a lot of women don't participate in code sharing because of reasons that are discussed here enough. So women will get to find each other and work on code together and hey, the world gets software, and Github makes some happy new customers. I, for one, am signing up even though I barely have the time - I'm eager to meet other women coders in a working environment and I'd like to find a small way to pay back the massive debt I have to the open source community.

pnathan 14y ago
There is often a disjoint set of expectations between F/LOSS culture and women (besides occasional outright misogyny). Providing a system where women can be eased into the coding experience is, IMO, a very kind thing to do. I visited a church recently and some college students spoke about why they chose that church. Uniformly, the kindness of the church community was a common thread through their comments. It's a human thing: we lean towards people who show kindness to us, especially in forms we can relate to. These bridging activities such as what Github and the Ada Initiative are doing provide a great deal of value in my opinion.
- theorique 14y ago
  What you say makes a lot of sense. In another comment on this, I mentioned that the leaders of the open source world seem to be famously aggressive, prickly, and concerned only with the truth, not with feelings or being polite [1]. Changing the culture to something "kind", if that is what the community truly wants, will take more than a few donated repos. It will be interesting to see the impact it happens. [1] One of many examples http://www.muktware.com/3703/linus-torvalds-nvidia-fuck-you http://www.muktware.com/3703/linus-torvalds-nvidia-fuck-you
bencollier49 13y ago
The commentary I've seen on the Equality Act states that, for example, situations where nightclubs offer free entry to women might fall foul of the Act. This seems comparable.

by marquis 14y ago

pnathan 14y ago

There is often a disjoint set of expectations between F/LOSS culture and women (besides occasional outright misogyny). Providing a system where women can be eased into the coding experience is, IMO, a very kind thing to do. I visited a church recently and some college students spoke about why they chose that church. Uniformly, the kindness of the church community was a common thread through their comments. It's a human thing: we lean towards people who show kindness to us, especially in forms we can relate to. These bridging activities such as what Github and the Ada Initiative are doing provide a great deal of value in my opinion.

theorique 14y ago
What you say makes a lot of sense. In another comment on this, I mentioned that the leaders of the open source world seem to be famously aggressive, prickly, and concerned only with the truth, not with feelings or being polite [1]. Changing the culture to something "kind", if that is what the community truly wants, will take more than a few donated repos. It will be interesting to see the impact it happens. [1] One of many examples http://www.muktware.com/3703/linus-torvalds-nvidia-fuck-you http://www.muktware.com/3703/linus-torvalds-nvidia-fuck-you

bencollier49 13y ago

The commentary I've seen on the Equality Act states that, for example, situations where nightclubs offer free entry to women might fall foul of the Act. This seems comparable.