Re: resource availability and (naive) ideas
On 25 August 2010 18:15, Stefano Zacchiroli <leader@debian.org> wrote:
> [ please Cc:-me if you reply only to -women, as I'm not subscribed ]
>
> Hi everybody,
> a couple of months ago I've mailed Marga on the topic of restarting /
> giving more visibility to Debian women, as I consider it to be a very
> important area of Debian. Then me and Marga were supposed to talk about
> that at DebConf10, but one reason or another it didn't happen, then
> .... well, to cut a long and uninteresting story short, I'm *very* happy
> to see that in the last week Marga re-kick-ed-off activity here, finding
> a lot of support. Well done everybody!
>
> Now a disclaimer: I have never really participated into -women, so
> please be kind with me, as an outsider I'm say dull things :-) In the
> reminder of this mail I'll just drop down some not very structured
> ideas, in case they might help the cause.
>
> - My main reason for mailing Marga was the lack of visibility of Debian
> Women, with no idea on whether that meant no activity or not. In any
> case, I believe that being visible is an important part of d-w
> activity. Furthermore, I've been observing ubuntu-women [1] activity
> and I found them to be very much visible in their community and I
> found a pity not to be able to say the same of your work, also
> considering that you've been doing it for quite a while now being,
> AFAIK, quite unique when the initiative started.
>
> [1] http://ubuntu-women.org/
>
> - As a first tiny teeny step, I suggest adding an entry about the Women
> team under http://wiki.debian.org/Teams, which is becoming quite a
> relevant portal to answer questions like "how can I help Debian?"
The DebianWomen page is currently at w.d.o/DebianWomen and the
issue of moving it to w.d.o/Teams/DebianWomen has recently been
raised in another thread.
>
> - I then wondered whether you've been looking around for what other
> distros have been doing. I confess I haven't, besides having seen some
> blog posts of u-w. For instance I've noticed that they do activities
> such as contests [2] to gather "evidence" of successful participation
> of women in FOSS. I've no idea whether something like that makes sense
> for d-w or not (see disclaimer above), but I thought you might want to
> have a look at what they do, possibly also looking for collaboration
> possibilities.
>
> [2] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-women/2010-January/002406.html
>
> This is of course not specific to Ubuntu, it just happens to be the
> only other community I know which is doing something similar.
>
> *If* you want to do something similar for Debian, I'm ready to use
> Debian resources to that end, e.g. for prizes or any other nice/fun
> motivational item you can think of.
>
Well the only thing I heard of recently in u-w was having your picture taken to
win prizes. I am not against people having their picture taken but was
in the group that felt that it wasn't something d-w would do.
> - I had a look at the "mentoring program" as currently drafted on
> women.d.o, and I found it great! Still, I've a couple of
> suggestions. Can't we use a proper "@debian.org" e-mail address for
> requesting mentoring? If yes, I'd say that it would also make sense to
> advertise it a bit into NM documentation, of course as a fully
> *optional* step, and just for those who request it explicitly. If you
> like the idea, I'm all for requesting such an email address and, if
> you think it's needed, even delegating who will be behind that role
> address.
I believe there is a mentoring address at d.o for Debian Women.
More info on that at http://women.debian.org/mentoring/
> - "bits from d-w" I've the impression that several people in the project
> think that "d-w is dead", I was mistaken myself in that direction. To
> dispel that feeling, the "bits from debian women" that Marga sent via
> news.d.n [3] are just great. Still, I believe we (i.e. you :)) should
> also send a proper mail to d-d-a informing every DD that d-w is alive
> and kicking. Probably, you can just take the blog post text and mail
> it to d-d-a.
>
I don't think the need for a group like d-w is ever going to go away. I also
think it's perfectly reasonable for a project to flag as the people
either settle
down within it or find an increasing workload.
> [3] http://news.debian.net/2010/08/24/bits-from-the-debian-women-project/
>
> - d-w meeting? I think that there is nothing as an in person meeting to
> restart activities and poor enthusiasm into past and future
> participants. I'm about to announce a general "debian sprint program"
> starting this fall, but I wanted you to know that I'll be very happy
> to poor some money into a d-w meeting, no matter that program. If you
> like the idea, just start drafting some organization and let me know
> how much you think it will cost. I'll do my best to have the resources
> to let you meet :)
Other people seem to have dropped in on this one so I'll leave that to them :)
>
> More generally, please keep in mind that for me the kind of activities
> pushed by d-w are activities it is worth give resources to, so just be
> creative and let me know how I can help you with Debian resources!
>
>
You don't state what way you would be prepared to help nor your
involvement with the Debian project as a whole?
Are you involved in any other way?
Perhaps it would be useful for us to know.
Please reply on list :)
Kind Regards
Lesley Binks
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