women in open source

Women in Open Source

Maria Odea “Deng” Ching-Malleteoching@apache.org / oching@exist.com

twitter: deng_c

Who am I?

Software architect & developer from Exist Software Labs

Involved in the Open Source community since late 2005

Project Management Committee (PMC) chairperson of the Archiva project at the Apache Software Foundation

Committer of Apache Maven and Apache Continuum

What is open source?

Development method that harnesses transparency and distributed peer review

Literally, source codes of software is open - An end to predatory vendor lock-in

Most cases, Free as in free speech.. and free beer!

My story...

Some statistics...

Tech community, 10-30% are female

At my work... only about 15 to 20% of the developers are female

In 2006, only 1.5% of Open Source software developers are female

In the ASF, only 3% (13 out of 432 members) are women

Why the small number???

impression that participants must have a long history with computers...

Photo from http://www.24-7gags.com/the-evolution-of-man-and-computer/

the “hacker” ethic\m/

Photo from http://www.garythomas20.50webs.com/what_is_a_hacker.htm

Photo from http://cynchanz.blogspot.com/2011/10/antisocial-in-me.html

stereotype of being

“anti-social”

Survey says...

Male:Female

72% felt outnumbered while 24% felt alienated

54% are more inclined to participate if there are more women

Awareness

41% are unaware of active user’s groups at universities

92% felt that universities don’t do enough

Discrimination and Harassment

50% witnessed gender-based discrimination

50% had experienced harassment

38% says it’s not a deterring factor

founded in January 2011 by Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner

promotes women in open technology & culture

develop anti-harassment policies for conferences

create policy framework for developing programs for women

Photo from http://adainitiative.org/

Confidence & commitment

100% believe that confidence is an important factor

72% said prior experience w/ computers is important to be successful

89% participated in OS community both at work & at home

Stereotypes

77% prefer OSS dev’t over proprietary software dev’t

53% prefer a collaborative environment over working independently

66% disagreed that OS is “anti-social”

Call for action...

Since my involvement in Open Source, I got

to...

grow my knowledge and skills

attend, give talks at conferences (and overcome my shyness :)

meet some great people!

co-author a book! (Apache Maven 2: Effective Implementation)

Photo from http://www.thecampanil.com/miss-representation-empowering-women-in-the-media/

Women’s Community Groups

Debian Women

LinuxChix

DrupalChix

KDE Women

Ubuntu Women

PHP Women

Fedora Women

Women @ ASF Community Dev

OpenSource Initiative’s women@opensource.org

The ADA Initiative

Geek Feminism

Resources and References

Journal of Information Technology Management - GENDER DIFFERENCES WITHIN THE OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Geek Feminism -http://geekfeminism.org/

The Ada Initiative - http://adainitiative.org/

Apache Software Foundation - http://apache.org/

Kirrily Robert’s “Standing Out in the Crowd” - OSCON 2009

and thank you to...

All the inspiring women in IT who kick ass! :)

Photo from networkworld.com’s “Dreadfully Few Women Are Open Source Developers”“ (http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/58218)

Thank you :-)