Question to candidates: what are your quantitative diversity goals and metrics?
Greetings candidates,
QUESTION TO THE CANDIDATES: what are your quantitative diversity goals
and metrics, and what are the rationales behind those goals and metrics?
Some context:
Both platforms cite imbalances in the areas of gender and geography as
concerns contributing to each candidate's desire to serve as DPL.
Andreas: "Currently, there is a notable over representation of male
contributors originating from countries typically considered
industrialized."
Sruthi: "... more gender diverse people will feel comfortable joining
our community. Geographic/ethnic diversity are also important areas
which need attention."
(I should note that Sruthi's platform dedicated considerably more space
to the issue of diversity, but the particular statement I chose to quote
seemed representative.)
Some examples of the sort of thing I have in mind:
- Debian should represent the geographic diversity of the whole world.
The populations of China and India each represent approximately 17.5% of
the world population, while the population of the next most populous
nation, the United States, represents 4.2% of the world population [0].
In the last GR there were 1004 voting DDs. Based on those figures, a
geographically representative population of DDs would include 175 DDs
from China, 175 DDs from India, and 42 DDs from the United States (and
so on down the line). Based on this composition, it seems likely that
the Debian project has adequate representation of United States DDs, so
the project should hold more events in and around India and China and
focus outreach efforts in those particular geographic areas with a goal
of gaining 5 new Indian and 5 new Chinese DDs each year.
- Debian should represent the gender diversity of the whole world.
The world population is split approximately 50/50 male and female (with
a very slight bias towards more males) [1], with "transgender people and
other gender minorities, who comprise an estimated 0.3–0.5% (25 million)
of the global population" [2]. Using the above figure of 1004 DDs, a
balanced Debian population could be 500 male DDs, 499 female DDs, and 5
DDs who identify as transgender or another gender minority. Based on
this composition, it seems likely that Debian has adequate
representation of transgender and gender minority DDs, so focusing
efforts specifically on outreach to women would provide the greatest
benefit towards achieving a balanced representation.
Again, these are merely examples. I am interested in how you define
diversity and what metrics and goals you derive from that definition.
Regards,
-Roberto
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_(United_Nations)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20220131080803/https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-determinants/gender/gender-definitions/whoeurope-brief-transgender-health-in-the-context-of-icd-11
--
Roberto C. Sánchez
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