[Pdx-pm] Ask For It
Michael R. Wolf
MichaelRWolf at att.net
Fri Jan 16 17:35:56 PST 2009
On Jan 15, 2009, at 4:23 PM, Peter Scott wrote:
> At 03:03 PM 1/15/2009, chromatic wrote:
>> With that said, are there specific ideas or practices that PDX.pm
>> (or other
>> communities of which we are part) can do to encourage everyone who
>> may be
>> interested but isn't a middle-class white male age 21 - 45 to
>> participate more
>> fully in the community?
>
> Hmm, I guess I qualify for encouragement under the senior citizen
> category by 2 years...
I guess Peter and I were born within a year or so of each other.
Oops, did I "out" myself as an old white guy?
Demographics has shown that being a "white guy" is a status that will
no longer have majority status by the time I leave the active work
force. I've known this for a long time, and have engaged "diversity"
issues for a long time. (BTW, the open source community is much
better at diversity than many cultures.)
Given the decline of the CS profession, this discussion can be flipped
from "what's wrong with CS culture" into "how can CS attract a wider
pool". This kind of reframing from "what's wrong with oppression"
into "what's possible by inclusion" is a reframing that I've seen work
in a lot of other cross-cultural (for many definitions of 'culture')
discussions.
--
Michael R. Wolf
All mammals learn by playing!
MichaelRWolf at att.net
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