Thanks for sharing this, Risker. If I were a casual contributor, I'm not
sure that I would attend either--not because I'd expect that Wikimedia
conferences/hackathons would necessarily be worse than other tech
conferences, but because I'd have no reason to expect them to be better.
Same with our online spaces: I was hesitant to apply to the internship that
started me contributing technically because I'd observed profoundly
unfriendly open source projects and had also been bitten on enwiki, and I
expected the technical spaces to be similar. I'm glad I did apply. Since
then, I've been able to work with some wonderful people here and I've made
contributions I'm proud of for a cause I support. I would like to be able
to point the next person with similar worries to a community-supported code
of conduct as a reassurance that the community as a whole will have their
back even if one or a few individuals treat them poorly.
-Frances
On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 6:04 PM, Risker <risker.wp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
David, thanks for this find.
THIS is why the Code of Conduct is needed. I recognized myself in this
blog. I remembered avoiding any aspect of socialization at conferences I
had to attend for work, and simply didn't even consider attending
conferences for any other purpose. I remembered how readily "the guys"
assumed that any woman there was there for more than just networking and
learning. I remembered having my butt pinched, my breasts "accidentally
touched", my questions ignored or laughed at. I remember how the buzz of
background conversation is always much louder when the speaker is a woman
than when the speaker is a man.
It's changed for me. Not because there's any less of all of this going on.
No, it's because my hair is grey and I'm now old enough to be the mom of
half the people in the room at any male-dominated conferences I attend; and
outside of Wikimedia events, the conferences I go to are usually full of
conservative businesswomen, and alcohol is rarely involved.
So yeah...you need a code of conduct. Because if I was even 15 years
younger, I'd never go to a Wikimedia conference.
Risker/Anne
On 22 August 2015 at 20:03, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I saw this today, I wonder if it's relevant
to the thread:
http://www.perpendicularangel.com/2015/08/no-i-dont-trust-your-conference-w…
Of course we're talking about stuff beyond conferences, but it still
applies I'd think.
- d.
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