The Blonde and the Scruffy Coder
On March 14th, I will be giving a talk titled The Blonde and the Scruffy Coder at the Chemnitzer Linux-Tagen in Chemnitz, Germany.
The abstract simply says:
No doubt the best coding is done in the FLOSS community — but where are all the women?
As a bright, open community, we can do better than being 99% male, and it pays to care. In this talk, Olivier will be tackling a few clichés, trolls, and misunderstandings to clarify the situation. Find out:
– why this is a problem;
– why you should care about it, and
– how well it pays to care.Come and meet the Blonde and the Scruffy Coder in a story of love, frustration and passion — a story in which you are the hero.
I’ve been talking and writing about the problem of gender balance in online communities for almost two years now. This talk is based on a talk I gave last summer, in French, at the Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre in Mont-de-Marsan, which attracted lots of interest and discussion from both men and women.
Surely enough, talking doesn’t do much towards changing a problem whose roots are everywhere in our society. But it is my hope that I can at least spread a little awareness, by tackling the (often poorly-handled) problem in an entertaining and un-academic way.
The Chemnitzer Linux Tage (shorthand: CLT) is, in my opinion, the best free software conference in Western Europe, I recommend any FLOSS enthusiast with some knowledge of German pop by. Despite the nearly-1000-km ride, it’ll be a pleasure returning there.