drupalchix

I feel like I need to centralize a public discussion on what's been going on today, as a lot of people weren't there and are wondering what happened.

webchick had a good idea about doing another BoF at DrupalCon San Francisco like we did at Boston in 2008.

What about this idea?
Maybe we could meet up earlier in the conference, earlier in the morning before a lunch. We could break into groups of 20-30 women, and go round/introduce ourselves and have a group discussion. Then, we could eat lunch. People who have to go to sessions that conflict with the BoF could come to lunch. If we announce early on, people won't have a hard time finding the group.

Great news everybody!

Our company has offered to sponsor the printing of a Drupalchix Sticker. The sticker will be distributed at DrupalconSF, and Drupalchix will be able to take some stickers home to share with others at local Drupalcamps and meetups.

To make this the most awesome sticker ever, we are coordinating a sticker design contest.

This is how the contest works:
You: Design the graphics for a sticker.
Attach your final design to this thread by March 15, 2010.
Please see 'Sticker Design Specifications' below. (Stickers are 2 color, not 4 color.)

Hey hey drupal chix0rs :)

Just a note to make sure you are all aware that moves are afoot to organise a DrupalCon in Asia-Pacific. This is very early days, so if you are interested in helping to make it happen, please check out the official announcement and join the DCAPO group!

DrupalCon Asia-Pacific organizers invite you to participate

Asia Pacific encompasses two continents! Asia and Oceania.
Or, putting it another way, not Europe, North America, South America or Africa.

A few nights ago, I listened to the mp3 from this Drupalchix panel at the DrupalCamp LA. (And many congrats to the organizers Rain Breaw and Nicole Bluto for their smart leadership!) http://2009.drupalcampla.com/drupalchix (see also, http://groups.drupal.org/node/23188)

One of the speaker/facilitators (Rain, I believe) talks about the film industry and how grants are available to support and encourage aspiring women directors. I definitely know a number of women who were able to develop their own visions and voices with the support of various arts grants.

Last weekend at DrupalCampLA we had a great turnout of women using Drupal, including a number of technical presentations led by women! Out of 66 sessions, 13 were presented by women (this includes Brenda Boggs' "The Doctor Is In" shift at the Drupalchix table and events such as that). 7 of those sessions were technical in nature, and while many of them were aimed at those new to Drupal, they were valuable topics such as Views, Upgrading from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6, and Site Migration.

Hi Chix-

I'm working on my next post for the Girls in Tech (http://girlsintech.net) blog, and, inspired by last week's DrupalCon, conversations there (and the intro paragraph for this group!), I wanted to write something on the experiences of women in Drupal and/or open source in general.

Of course, this is the best place to look for material!

My questions for you...

1. Does anyone know what % we were for this DrupalCon?
2. Anyone come across any good research or commentary on this topic?

Something that I wanted to bring up at Drupalcon but didn't really get the chance to because of the 14,000 other things going on at Drupalcon ;) was a bit of discussion on what (if anything) we ultimately want this group to be.

Some boring back-story:

At the very first Drupalchix meetup in Barcelona in 2007, someone (Laura?) initially suggested creating this group. At the time, I was dead-set against it. I didn't want women in Drupal to be closed into a "sub" community within the larger Drupal community; I wanted us to be "out and proud" doing awesome things within the larger Drupal community, of which we are an important part. I still very strongly feel that way.

At Drupalcon Boston 2008 when this idea came up a second time, I finally caved and started this group. The idea was that women might find it easier to get involved in Drupal if they have an initial "jump-off" point where they can find other women like them, and also for us to have a "safe space" for discussing sensitive issues such as sexism or homophobia.

It's been interesting to watch how things have evolved over the past year.

Hey gals -

Just wanted to put the word out that I've got a drupalchix IRC chat running on irc.freenode.net in case anyone thinks it'd be useful for staying in touch especially next week at DrupalCon, join up!

Can't wait to see you there!

A.