It is all very well to talk about the Code of Conduct and negative situations, but what about approaching things from the other direction, creating positive situations? Does FOSDEM have any policies, resources or budget to actively encourage participation from people who are not white males, for example, to pay travel grants for female speakers? Does anybody keep track of any third-party sources of funding that could be helpful for bringing speakers and participants from groups that are under-represented? I've heard that Google offers some funding for example[1] and it would be good to encourage women to apply for this. Some other ideas that come to mind: - Offering some sort of public speaking seminar, aimed mainly at people from such groups who haven't had a lot of experience, on the Friday before FOSDEM. - Pairing first time speakers with an experienced mentor some time ahead of the event. - Offering some kind of reward to the dev-room that does the most to encourage diversity (e.g. giving the dev-room a guaranteed place or bigger room for 2017 or giving the dev-room managers input on a main-track selection in the following year) Regards, Daniel 1. https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/edu/scholarships/google-travel-and-confere...
In which upper-middle class white males discuss how to create "diversity"... On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 4:55 PM, Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro> wrote:
It is all very well to talk about the Code of Conduct and negative situations, but what about approaching things from the other direction, creating positive situations?
Does FOSDEM have any policies, resources or budget to actively encourage participation from people who are not white males, for example, to pay travel grants for female speakers?
Does anybody keep track of any third-party sources of funding that could be helpful for bringing speakers and participants from groups that are under-represented? I've heard that Google offers some funding for example[1] and it would be good to encourage women to apply for this.
Some other ideas that come to mind: - Offering some sort of public speaking seminar, aimed mainly at people from such groups who haven't had a lot of experience, on the Friday before FOSDEM. - Pairing first time speakers with an experienced mentor some time ahead of the event. - Offering some kind of reward to the dev-room that does the most to encourage diversity (e.g. giving the dev-room a guaranteed place or bigger room for 2017 or giving the dev-room managers input on a main-track selection in the following year)
Regards,
Daniel
1. https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/edu/scholarships/google-travel-and-confere...
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On 01/11/15 16:37, Pieter Hintjens wrote:
In which upper-middle class white males discuss how to create "diversity"...
It is not just discussing, I've met several women at conferences who received travel grants from the Google program that I mentioned, so it is actually happening. I'm not suggesting we should aim for 50% representation of women at FOSDEM. However, 20% of computer science graduates are apparently female and we are not even close to having that percentage represented at FOSDEM. That shortfall is not as much a loss for women as it is a loss for open source. Nobody is suggesting we create female developers, they are already out there, we may just need to look at some of these funding opportunities and see how we can use them in maximizing participation in FOSDEM. One other point to remember: every extra female developer does not mean one less male developer. Increased participation from female developers suggests a net gain in the number of man-hours (if you'll excuse the terminology) spent designing, developing and testing free software, for the benefit of everybody who uses it, both male and female.
Hi everyone, I am going to attend to Fosdem. Google have not publish travel scholarship for Fosdem, yet and I think, it won't give for Fosdem this year .. I also did a lightning talk application. Do you know any other company supplies scholarship for the event? I searched on the internet a bit, but could not find. Maybe you know another travel scholarship oppourtunity. Best wishes, Ebru -- Ebru Akagunduz http://www.ebruakagunduz.com/
Hi Ebru, I'd be interested in helping. We're a small band of devs / sysadmins from the UK but I think we'll manage to sponsor travel for 1 person. What city/country are you travelling from? Also anybody else who's interested in splitting the travel bill is most welcome to write of course. Greetings, Emanuil On 15 December 2015 at 09:38, Ebru Akagündüz <ebru.akagunduz@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone,
I am going to attend to Fosdem. Google have not publish travel scholarship for Fosdem, yet and I think, it won't give for Fosdem this year ..
I also did a lightning talk application. Do you know any other company supplies scholarship for the event? I searched on the internet a bit, but could not find. Maybe you know another travel scholarship oppourtunity.
Best wishes, Ebru
-- Ebru Akagunduz http://www.ebruakagunduz.com/ _______________________________________________ FOSDEM mailing list FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem
Hi all, Emanuil supplied to get a travel grant. Many thanks to Episkey Ltd who is sponsored me. Best wishes, Ebru 2015-12-15 13:01 GMT+02:00 Emanuil Tolev <emanuil.tolev@gmail.com>:
Hi Ebru,
I'd be interested in helping. We're a small band of devs / sysadmins from the UK but I think we'll manage to sponsor travel for 1 person. What city/country are you travelling from?
Also anybody else who's interested in splitting the travel bill is most welcome to write of course.
Greetings, Emanuil
On 15 December 2015 at 09:38, Ebru Akagündüz <ebru.akagunduz@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone,
I am going to attend to Fosdem. Google have not publish travel scholarship for Fosdem, yet and I think, it won't give for Fosdem this year ..
I also did a lightning talk application. Do you know any other company supplies scholarship for the event? I searched on the internet a bit, but could not find. Maybe you know another travel scholarship oppourtunity.
Best wishes, Ebru
-- Ebru Akagunduz http://www.ebruakagunduz.com/ _______________________________________________ FOSDEM mailing list FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem
-- Ebru Akagunduz http://www.ebruakagunduz.com/
Hi Daniel,
It is all very well to talk about the Code of Conduct and negative situations, but what about approaching things from the other direction, creating positive situations?
I like your idea of pushing from the positive side at the same time.
Does FOSDEM have any policies, resources or budget to actively encourage participation from people who are not white males, for example, to pay travel grants for female speakers?
If funding is available or can be found, I believe it makes sense to publicize those opportunities here.
Does anybody keep track of any third-party sources of funding that could be helpful for bringing speakers and participants from groups that are under-represented? I've heard that Google offers some funding for example[1] and it would be good to encourage women to apply for this.
Some other ideas that come to mind: - Offering some sort of public speaking seminar, aimed mainly at people from such groups who haven't had a lot of experience, on the Friday before FOSDEM. - Pairing first time speakers with an experienced mentor some time ahead of the event. - Offering some kind of reward to the dev-room that does the most to encourage diversity (e.g. giving the dev-room a guaranteed place or bigger room for 2017 or giving the dev-room managers input on a main-track selection in the following year)
A low-cost way that each dev room could consider to make sure that first time speakers 1) know they are welcome and 2) receive a bit of support is to run IRC office hours to help people with their submissions. We did this at SeaGL (http://seagl.org/news/2015/07/15/IRC.html) and it helped us attract new speakers and get more submissions that were better suited for our event. All you need is an IRC channel, a shared email address and a few volunteers who can help potential speakers with their submissions. Thanks, Deb
Regards,
Daniel
1.
https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/edu/scholarships/google-travel-and-confere...
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participants (5)
-
Daniel Pocock -
Deb Nicholson -
Ebru Akagündüz -
Emanuil Tolev -
Pieter Hintjens