Re: Debian, debutsav, CoC and Debconf 2016 and different meanings to gender-diversity.
Correction :-
On 07/01/2019, shirish शिरीष <shirishag75@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I would request people to read it in full, maybe take some time and
> then respond.
>
> Also please CC me if somebody responds as I'm not subscribed to the
> list but did read the archives of this month and the last :)
>
> Recently, Debutsav was organized in Kerala. You can read about the
> event at debutsav.in and whatever I could recollect and share at [1]
>
> Obviously I had to keep it short as it was supposed to be mostly about
> the technical aspects of the 2-day mini-conf/meetup rather than also
> the social side.
>
> Having been 'singed' on couple of previous occasions by A-H, as part
> of the team I advised the organisers to have both a CoC and have a
> team with women to fully staff it and have some sort of button, badge
> or something which people could call upon to sort out in either
> situations of hostilities or any sort of abusive behavior happens.
> While the latter could not be prepared due to shortness of time ( it
> was hardly 2 weeks where everything was organized) but I do feel we
> could have done better.
>
> I along with others also opined that we should have two women on the
> panel instead of just one just to keep the panel sort of
> gender-neutral but only Shruti was on the panel. I simply do not know
> the reasons to presume or assume why it happened but do care enough to
> point it out and to ask what we could and should have been better. It
> wasn't as if talent wasn't around. As far as people from LGBTQIA+ or
> non-binary people are concerned, I am afraid though, the road is long
> ahead as it wasn't even part of the discussions anywhere. Although I
> do hope after de-criminalization of Sec 377 we would see these
> conversations happen [2] [3]
>
> One of the intersting conversations I had with quite a few
> participants is how much they had looked at the website and the CoC.
> Sadly, it seems many didn't, at least not in any detail.
> Interestingly, it was both the genders who didn't take or have the
> time.
>
> I do remember some blog posts in the pasts, maybe in Pycon 2018 or in
> some other international conference, they had a banner which had the
> CoC written on it. Maybe that could be something that both Debconf and
> the various miniconferences could emulate aside from agreeing to the
> CoC ?
>
> Coming to the debian side of things, there doesn't seem to much
> documentation about gender diversity as far as documentation is
> concerned. In fact, the wiki doesn't seem to have an article on gender
> diversity and even the diversity statement is all to brief for
> somebody new to the term 'gender diversity' . It doesn't tell the
> person anything. Please put yourself in the shoes of 22 year old
> person who may come across this page for the first time and see the
> term for the first-time. It is a touch point so it would be nice if we
> could either elaborate it either there or link it to some page which
> better defines the terminology and the context. [4] [5]
>
> Even in debconf the term diversity is only a single page which doesn't
> explain what diversity is apart from sharing few examples . Could it
> be defined more better, more coherently, I hope so From what little I
> understand of the meaning and the terminology, it is a broad inclusive
> term rather than an exclusive term but then I'm no expert. I hope we
> can come up with some better wording or at least a somewhat better
> structure than the current wiki page we have. [6]
>
> Coming to Debconf 2016, few of the blog posts I wanted to write and
> had partially written about were about Rhonda and my interaction with
> them (using Sarah Sharp's pronouns [7] .) I wanted to share both
> their celebrations, the interactions and questions raised and answered
> about gender, my own uneasiness in how should I address them when
> writing as a third-person in a blog post as both the terms he/she felt
> wrong. I shared one of my blog posts with few DD's whom I respect and
> hold in high-esteem so they may help me in this delicate situation but
> none of them answered.
Oops, seems the correct name is now Sage Sharp. Apology -
>
> Eventually I junked the blog posts because I felt even excluding them
> from few presentations where they made an interesting point or an
> insight, wouldn't that be an erasure of identity?
>
> I could have used 'somebody asked x or y question' which many a times
> I do use simply because I don't remember a person's name but in this
> situation it was different and I couldn't publish the blog posts with
> that knowledge in good conscience. With no way out, I simply junked
> the posts. In light of recent happenings it does seem that that the
> DD's did me a favor. It is very much possible that they were pretty
> much confused or indeterminate as I was. What would be a good way to
> address this ?
>
> Could there be a possibility of having of having a debian-diversity
> mailing list on lists.debian.org where some of these touchy topics
> could be untied or unknotted in a civil manner ?
>
> Sorry for being too long and there is a strong possibility that I
> shared or coupled too many things together but I do feel strongly that
> they are all related to one another.
>
> I would point out that I scanned the mail multiple times to see if I
> intentionally or unintentionally hurt somebody. I do say sorry to
> Rhonda whose name I have taken now and couldn't do right with them
> then and have no excuses.
>
> Apart from that if somebody feels hurt, I do apologize but only to the
> extent that whatever I shared is so that we should and could do
> better.
>
> 1. https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/debutsav-kochi-2018/
>
> 2.
> https://barandbench.com/arundhati-katju-interview-section-377-supreme-court/
> (sorry, paywall)
>
> 3.
> https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/after-377/article25908623.ece
>
> 4. https://wiki.debian.org/Gender
>
> 5. https://www.debian.org/intro/diversity
>
> 6. https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/Diversity
>
> 7. https://sage.thesharps.us/2017/10/24/binaries-are-for-computers/
>
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल
My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
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