Re: Supporters brief-up

[Pia Smith <pia@linux.org.au>]

On Tue, 2004-07-27 at 17:10, Helen Faulkner wrote:

> I really would not like to see *anyone* who is trying to help us getting 
> the impression that we don't want them about.  I think parts of the 
> discussion we've had about the supporters page idea will probably be 
> discouraging to men who were otherwise interested in helping us, and I 
> think that is a pity.  It feels to me like this discussion is becoming 
> focussed on making a nearly-exclusive space for women in an isolated 
> corner of debian rather than encouraging women to be involved in debian 
> as a whole.  They are very different things.  I didn't originally have 
> the impression that we wanted a little ghetto for ourselves.  Do we?

I kind of see Debian-Women as a stepping stone to full community
integration. As a contact point for women wanting to get involved who
are shy/not sure of their options/concerned about these sexist rumours
they've heard/etc etc. It is a place to promote women in Debian, as role
models to up and coming hackers (male and female). I see it as a place
that women can start from to get comfortable, and then be able to deal
with the community on their own feet (although always with support where
they need it). I don't think, as Helen mentioned, that Debian Women
should be a place for women to hide away, and segment themselves from
the community. We need now more than ever to be contributing postively,
to be contributing our knowledge, our code, our documentation, FAQs,
slides (from talks), and our minds. We can't allow Debian Women to
become something fragmented from everything else. 

I've also been thinking, it might be an interesting conduit for up and
coming developers to commit code to, if they are uncomfortable
committing it personally. Imagine having Debian Women as a name in a
package for contributions :)

My 2c worth.

Pia
-- 
Pia Smith <pia@linux.org.au>
Linux Australia