Comments on: Women in Open Source

By: phpWomen | php|nightly

phpWomen | php|nightly — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:21:46 +0000

[...] Women in Open Source: some high profile projects/companies and the women behind them [...]

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:51:31 +0000

The Geek Feminism wiki is now collecting a list of women involved in Open Source projects (among other things). Please check out (and edit!) http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_women_in_Open_Source

By: Ecclesial Dreamer… » Falling farther behind the wagon…

Ecclesial Dreamer… » Falling farther behind the wagon… — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:41:12 +0000

[...] that have been going on for a long time in Open Source circles so I was mildly amused to find this Open Source conversation that seems to be a reflection of some ecclesiastical conversations that seem to crop up in the [...]

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:38:21 +0000

> For some reason men just seem to stick their nose out more and put themselves in positions where they are seen

It is a reproductive thing.

Most women have no shortage of suitors.

Men have to make a show (unless they have utterly fantastic bodies, and even then….). As for pea fowl, as for hackers; evolution does discriminate; reproduce or your genes die.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:59:50 +0000

Mena is smart, but I didn’t think MT was open source.

By: Dave Doyle

Dave Doyle — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:06:29 +0000

There is a factual error in this. Allison Randal is President emeritus of the Perl Foundation. It’s been a couple years. However, she is very much involved and is on the Board of Directors of the Foundation. She’s also the architect of Parrot, a VM designed from the ground up to run dymanic languages (primary of which is Perl 6).

By: Mulheres na tecnologia - Tecnologias

Mulheres na tecnologia - Tecnologias — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:14:55 +0000

[...] http://royal.pingdom.com/?p=308 [...]

By: Máirín Duffy

Máirín Duffy — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:32:07 +0000

Hi Michael,

I’m on this list and I majored in computer science; I am an interaction designer. There is a dire lack of designers in free & open source software. You seem to feel that design for user experience is not a ‘real’ part of software development. It is in fact a very important part of development that is sadly overlooked, not prioritized, and/or just not done in FOSS because designers in FOSS communities are so rare.

I was attracted to study computer science because of the incredible things it makes possible, not for the love of doing it. Designing usable experiences makes those things much more accessible to a larger body of people and is more exciting, in my opinion. Perhaps the folks whose primary involvement is coding love the journey, while I prefer to focus on the destination.

I know you did not say this explicitly but I get the sense from the overall tone of your post that you feel somehow programmers are more important than other contributors. Please don’t downplay the contributions of people in free & open source software just because they are not all programmers. It will take a whole lot more than code to make the free & open source community exceed its current grasp. While the focus on coders is certainly understandable, it should not take away from the contributions of people who do not write code whether they are male or female.

By: Sudharshan S

Sudharshan S — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:01:25 +0000

There is Leslie Hawthorne who co-ordinates Goog Summer of Code this year, and its a tough job

By: Michael Conlon

Michael Conlon — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:44:36 +0000

I find it interesting that many of the women mentioned here are executives. Those that seem to have an involvement in development are often user-interface specialists or have been assigned to open source development by the companies that they work for.

I have been working for some time to increase the number of women who major in computing in college. It is an uphill battle. I have found the literature on the topic less than helpful: everyone bemoans the lack of women, but no one seems to have found a proven way of attracting women to software development.

I have noticed that there are very, very few women doing significant development of open source software who are self-selected, i.e., who are volunteers (hobbyists). This is despite the fact that the community of volunteer open-source developers is highly diverse in every other respect. Could it be that the reason for the general lack of women in software development is that women naturally find other things more interesting?