[LRUG] Ru3y Manor diversity

[Sam Livingston-Gray]

Thanks, James, for digging up the links -- more of a chore than I was
willing to do on my iPhone between caring for my daughter.  (=

(Oh, and I was wrong about the timeline; Tim's post came the day before OSCON.)

Here's an excellent post that may help provide some context for why
things like anti-harassment policies are necessary.  It's not just to
create a framework for addressing incidents after they occur (though
obviously that's important too); rather, taking the time to publish
one and draw attention to it sends an important message, both to those
with fewer privileges who may be hesitant about coming, and to those
with more privileges who may be accustomed to exercising them in
abusive ways.  It lets the former know that they're more likely to
find the support they need if they are harassed, and tells the latter
that they're more likely to be held accountable.

Anyway, the link.  It's a great explanation of what people mean by
"privilege," and illustrates exactly what was wrong with DHH's
response to the "SmutOnRails" debacle.  Moderately long, but well
worth the read:  https://sindeloke.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/37/

Thanks, by the way, for paying attention to this in the first place.
Even as a white male, I'm always happy to see these issues being
addressed, since it means I'm more likely to interact with a broader
range of people and perspectives.

-Sam



On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 1:56 PM, James Adam <james at lazyatom.com> wrote:
> In case anyone's curious -
> Here's the Tim O'Reilly
> statement: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/sexual-harassment-at-technical.html
> ... and here's the geekfeminism sample anti-harassment
> policy: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy
> I think our *local* community has been pretty good about avoid incidents
> like the one that prompted Martin Fowler's "SmutOnRails" post
> (http://martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html), but hopefully it goes
> without saying that we all want Ru3y Manor, LRUG and our whole community to
> be a welcoming, inclusive and friendly group. I'd also be interested to hear
> from anyone who feels they have a perspective about this.
> I'm also confident that the 'Manor presenters will all prepare content that
> is as tasteful as it is interesting.
> - James
>
> On 18 Sep 2011, at 19:41, Sam Livingston-Gray wrote:
>
> Have you already adopted and published an anti-harassment policy? Tim
> O'Reilly finally got on board right /after/ OSCON (better late than never),
> but there should be plenty of search results for stuff to grab; IIRC,
> there's a good one on the geekfeminism wiki.
>
> Sorry if this is already known and covered; I'm in GMT-7:00 and haven't paid
> much attention to your events. :)
>
> --
> (Sent from a mobile device with a tiny onscreen keyboard.  As such, my email
> may be more terse than you've come to expect from me.)
>
> On Sep 18, 2011, at 10:53 AM, Jon Leighton <j at jonathanleighton.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings LRUG,
>
> One of the things that I would love it if we could achieve with Ru3y
>
> Manor would be a conference that fosters diversity in our community.
>
> IMO it's not enough if at the end of the day we turn around to each
>
> other and say "it's a shame only 1 woman turned up" or "sadly all the
>
> speakers were white guys".
>
> So, I hope this doesn't sound overly lame or patronising, but if you are
>
> someone who doesn't identify yourself as a straight white able-bodied
>
> male, I would personally love it if you would submit a talk and/or come
>
> along to the conference (the first batch of tickets go on sale
>
> tomorrow).
>
> [And that's not to say that I don't want the rest of you to participate
>
> as well!]
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jon
>
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