[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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