Hi, On 4/1/19 9:35 AM, Martin Michlmayr wrote: > > There are a number of reasons why many FOSS contributors are from > "developed"/"Western" nations, e.g. time, access to computers, > Internet, language, etc. There are also cultural reasons, e.g. in > particular in some Asian countries it's very bad to be criticized in > public. After spending some time with Jonathan Carter in South Africa > last year, I've also come to appreciate how lucky I am with a passport > from an EU country -- Jonathan has to get a visa for a lot of > countries where I can just show up and stay 1-3 months. While Debian > can't solve that issue, we can e.g. ensure bursary decisions are made > early so people have enough time to apply for visas. Yes, we (brazilians) have the same issue with visas, especially to travel to USA and Canada (as we saw in 2017). > Frankly, English is another thing that puts some people at a great > advantage and others at a great disadvantage. But I don't see how we > can solve that one. (It's good that most communication in Debian is > written, so at least you can take your time and get it right.) Yes ;-) > The DPL can encourage mini DebConfs and other local meetups, such as > BSPs. Once we have 1-2 people, it's much easier to get more people > involved since they will tell their friends about Debian, help them > get involved, etc. Encourage existing Debian developers to meet up > with people when they travel. I agree we can have MiniDebConfs but the problem is the local DDs are usually involved on the organization too. So it's important Debian developers from Europe (and other countries) been encouraged to join these MiniDebConfs. I can add we should have sprints outside Europe too. In 2016 the Ruby Team come to Curitiba for their sprint (because Terceiro was organizing it). And we have our first MiniDebConf on the same week. And in 2018 we had Stefano and Holger joining MiniDebConf here, and it was great. > The DPL can encourage an inclusive community and cultural > understanding. Just creating more awareness about stumbling blocks > that people face helps because it many cases people simply have no > idea (e.g. the visa issue mentioned above). I've definitely learned a > lot through my involvement in Debian. (And after spending a few months > in the southern hemisphere last year, I'm less likely to write > "summer" and "winter" to refer to certain months ;) :-) > The DPL can encourage and support existing outreach mechanisms, such > as bursaries for DebConf and Outreachy, etc. > > These are just some ideas. I don't actually have great insights on > how to improve the situation, but this is definitely an area I'm > interested in and I'm open for ideas. I can add the high prices for tickets airplane to travel from Brazil to Europe. It's hard to us to ask help from Debian If I would like join a Debian event in Europe. It's really embarrassing for us request reimbursement that we know it could be used for 4 or 5 other developers inside Europe to travel around there. I believe others contributors even try to ask for help because they believe it's a lot of money and Debian never will spend it with them. And it's not only the tickets airplane. Costs with food and accomodation are very expensive for us. Please, for the future DPL: think about that, how to have DDs living outside Erope joing the Debian events there. Best regards, -- Paulo Henrique de Lima Santana (phls) Curitiba - Brasil Debian Developer Diretor do Instituto para Conservação de Tecnologias Livres Membro da Comunidade Curitiba Livre Site: http://www.phls.com.br GNU/Linux user: 228719 GPG ID: 0443C450 Organizador da DebConf19 - Conferência Mundial de Desenvolvedores(as) Debian Curitiba - 21 a 28 de julho de 2019 http://debconf19.debconf.org
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