Diversity and Outreach

Hello!

Many of you may already be there, but I wanted to extend a formal invitation for anyone to join us in the Drupal Slack channel's #diversity-inclusion room. The Drupal Diversity working group holds its meetings there each week (Thursday at 17:00UTC) and coordinates direct action for our initiatives there.

Current initiatives include:
- Diversity and Inclusion guide for event organizers
- Session submission help for potential DC Baltimore speakers

Happy to chat about what we're doing here, or you can reach out to me directly.

Does open source exclude people from different cultures?

http://stormyscorner.com/2011/09/does-open-source-exclude-high-context-c...

"As I think about developer engagement at Mozilla, I realize we need to have different plans for different cultures. "

Lots of good comments...

A quote:

I know what it feels like to have your hard work critiqued, piles of issues to solve and to deal with some of the hardest discussions and posts we can have. I know the many hours spent, sacrificing time with our loved ones, time without sleep or the so many other things we give up to do our part.

Hey all,

I was at the BoF in Chicago and I've been following the discussions in the group since then. It's been hard for me to think about the ideas and criticisms brought up because I've felt like we were jumping ahead to end goals without having a clear direction of how to get there and what we're here for. If I may, I'd like so share some thoughts I've been simmering on.

To me, this group is more about connections with others than it is about Drupal. As people of constituencies that have been systematically oppressed historically and in present time, we often find ourselves feeling isolated and powerless. Seeking connection with others is a reasonable way to fight this, but damn, why do we still feel so isolated and lonely when we're surrounded be other developers and designers at DrupalCons and Camps? I feel like we can talk about initiatives and projects, and even execute them really well and thoughtfully. But it's connections and closeness with others in the community that's at the crux of what we're each looking for.

I wanted to come back to what’s already becoming an old theme for this group: what is this group all about? A few thoughts, followed by a proposal to try to create a community funded scholarship to DrupalCon London with the goal of encouraging diversity and inclusive leadership.

Like Jack Aponte said in a brilliant Drupal Voices podcast, talking about the power structure in a community is really important. For me, this group’s conversational function should be to discuss, analyze, and criticize Drupal’s power structure. Should we have a benevolent dictator for life? What are good examples of healthy community practice? What are examples of bad practice? How should this whole core initiative leader thing work, anyway? What are the problems in a “do-ocracy”? How should we pick our leaders? How do we enforce the code of conduct, and what does it mean to violate it? Who does our community privilege, and how are they rewarded?

The proposed group here http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-books-libraries seems like a sensible and concrete way to do outreach.

I suggested the author join this group, so in case it's deleted after that here's the proposed mission:

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blockquote>
Drupal Books in Libraries works to get more Drupal books in local libraries, through fundraising and purchasing books, getting publishers to donate books or from individuals looking to make a contribution for the benefit of their local community.

Hiya Greggles (or other g.d.o adminfolk) - was wanting to get some group admins added to http://groups.drupal.org/diversity-outreach-recruitment-project as the one who started the group (Heather) hasn't been able to keep up admin duties (but please keep her as an admin as well as she'll be back at some point). Got her ok here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/143524