Diversity in Open Source Workshop

OVERVIEW

The first Diversity in Open Source Workshop at the Ohio LinuxFest was held on September 27 2009. It grew out of the Women in Open Source Workshops at other Open Source conferences such as SCaLE.

The idea is that Open Source should be open to everybody, and that while there is a definite problem with gender issues in Open Source communities it's not the only problem.

Other issues are many but some examples are: disabled accessibility needs; how the lack of ethnic diversity in computing as a whole affects Open Source communities; how over-enthusiasm for OSS can actually make it less open to new folks.

The Workshop is open to any attendee of the Ohio LinuxFest. There is a small fee to cover the cost of brunch (which can be waived in case of hardship).

DIOS 2009

The workshop was attended by about 30 people.  Topics were diverse but eventually a goal was decided to try to make the Ohio LinuxFest the most diverse-welcoming conference possible both for its own worth and to set an example for other Free & Open Source conferences and communities.

DIOS 2010

The second Diversity in Open Source Workshop was held at the Ohio LinuxFest 2010. The main topics included how having a larger percentage of women speakers may have helped women attendees to feel less isolated; how we can encourage other conferences to also try to have a greater diversity of speakers; how to recruit other diverse groups to submit more talk proposals (such as ethnic minorities and the disabled).

Mel Chua, Mackenzie Morgan, and others started a plan to offer ASL translation services at OLF 2011. A mailing list was proposed to help develop means to encourage FOSS conferences to have greater diversity, starting with attendees at this workshop and opening up to other conferences as well.

DiOS 2013

A major theme that emerged from DiOS 2013 was inclusive communication — structuring discussions in a way that enables many and diverse people to contribute (rather than being dominated by a privileged few) and that results in more productive discussions. The workshop was attended by 13 people. It was organized by Jaymie Strecker, Moose Finklestein, and Beth Lynn Eicher. 

Participants agreed on rules for discussion, which included periodically giving each person a chance to speak and having the group share responsibility for moderation. Participants then split into smaller groups to discuss topics. (Reading and writing activities were also provided as an alternative to discussion.) Discussion topics included "your dream open source community", "getting more diversity at next year's OLF", "recruiting for diversity", "doing activism", and "what you will do in the next year to make open source more diverse and inclusive". 

Neil Clopton wrote about the discussion of inclusive communication that grew out of "doing activism". 

DiOS 2014

This year the workshop continued pushing toward inclusiveness, with the name changed accordingly to Diverse Inclusive Open Source. Much of the workshop focused on changing the cultures of open source communities toward ending oppression and marginalization. The workshop was organized by Jaymie Strecker, Beth Lynn Eicher, nikhil trevedi, and Libby Horacek. It included presentations by Neil Clopton and nikhil trevedi. About 15 people participated. 

The workshop began with some opening remarks by Jaymie and an establishment of rules for discussion. nikhil led the group through some anti-oppression exercises based on some resources for organizers. After that, there were presentations of “Who Are ‘Anybody’ and ‘Everybody’?” by Neil and “Privilege and microaggressions” by nikhil, followed by more group discussion. 

Libby organized the online portion of the workshop, diverseinclusiveos.tumblr.com . Jaymie wrote up a summary of / reaction to the workshop. 

External links

http://www.ohiolinux.org/dios.html