Women's collective action in the free software world
Women’s collective action in the
free software world
Yuwei Lin
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ESRC National Centre for eSocial Science
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University of Manchester
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Motivations of Participating
Just for fun
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Gratification
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Reputation
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Mutuality
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For work (protestant work ethics)
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Self help: To fix a problem at hand
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God told me so
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
What is visible?
men
coding
hacking
taking control
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Problems
overemphasis on coding and hacking
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visibility of women in free software
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current societal inequality and knowledge gap
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Barriers of Including Women
Cyberbulling & trolling, sexist & discriminative languages
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Unfriendly and inhumane online environment (e.g. RTFM)
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gendered role in FLOSS development inequality of different
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types of knowledge & women's reduced role
Housework (childrearing) – lack of time
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Lack of role models, mentors and support
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Education
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A maledominated competitive worldview (reputation, flaming)
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Any other reasons that differ from culture to culture, nation to
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nation, region to region?
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Contexualisation
Embodiment
Beyond numbers and the binary gender codes
and biological differences
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Methods & Data Sources
virtual ethnography (reflexive & participatory) +
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content analysis (webpages, mailing list) & informal
conversations
Text Mining + Corpus Analysis of messages on the
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mailing lists
DebianWomen (mixed sex) & GenderChanger (single
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sex)
who (memberships), said what (topics), done what
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(actions)
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limits: neither real life nor real time
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
IMCWomen
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Helping
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Participating
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Bodies and Technologies
ICTs used: mailing lists, irc, cvs, wiki, webpages
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common participants: names
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issues: events, problems, sharing information
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(forwarding messages)
(technologicaloriented) experiences embedded
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in the conversation about fixing problems or bugs
emotions
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
DebianWomen
training and providing support
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for women interested in
Debian and FLOSS sector
organising online tutorials,
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bugsquashing parties,
mentoring
6 female Debian Developers
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http://women.debian.org/
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Where the joy lies?
SELFREFLECTION
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(Emotion + Body + Technology)
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
But we have achieved *a lot*. I don't feel anymore it is a
taboo to talk about females within Debian (be it Developers,
Translators, Users or whatever form of involvement), and
are no longer stuck with XXL night-gown sized tshirts in
Debconf (LOL). To me it has made a great difference and my
involvement in the project feels more quot;normalizedquot; to me.
Also, in RL meetings, the default assumption that the
attending females were $girlfriends of some male quot;actuallyquot;
interested in the meeting has decreassed significantly.
I don't know whether it is related, but since Debian Women
exists the feeling of a quot;socialquot; community on top of the
quot;technicalquot; community has been much reinforced. This
might be my subjective perception of quot;belongingquot; to this
community, improved by the existance of other females in
it, and other members of the project being welcoming and
inclusive about us.
(DWZL220106) P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
% M W U
200506 61,88 36,78 1,34 Statistics about the IRC channel
200507 56,01 40,72 3,27
200508 60,02 37,49 2,49
200509 52,66 42,66 4,68
200510 50,3 42,37 7,33
200511 58,05 36,57 5,38
200512 65,14 30,58 4,28
200601 59,69 37,89 2,42
200602 70,8 26,96 2,24
200603 70,72 28,4 0,88
200604 73,54 25,58 0,88
As one can see, even if I can't quot;identifyquot; one third of the people, I have identified the most
contributing people.
I see an interesting tendency for men participation to increase while women participation
decreases. I already have this feeling for quite a long time but it seems that numbers are
proving me correct. Is it good or bad: I leave this up to you, people...:)
(CPDW250406)
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
GenderChangers Academy
since Nov. 1999
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ladies only (on the etcint list)
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/etc eclectic tech carnival
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DIY or DIO (handson training)
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exchanging computer related skills
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grass root and local
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The /etc is named for the /etc directory in which
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Linux stores system configuration files. 27
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
How Girls Make Knowledge
coding knowledge is still considered as more
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advanced (reproduction of hegemonic hacker
culture)
layered & networked & embodied epistemic culture
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sense & sensibility
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hybrid: femininity (complex, layered, strategic,
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adaptive) + masculinity (disconnected,
emotionally avoidant, simplistic, onedimensional)
P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Achievements
visibility & awareness raising
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identity building (exploring & experimenting)
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knowledge sharing, mutual learning and
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support (“a lowRTFM environment)
creating a more intimate collaborative space
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beyond the simplistic and superficial categories
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of different talks, it's women's play embodied in
these online narratives; a women's version of
'just for fun' P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
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Women's Play on GNU/Linux
strengthens the importance of sharing everyday
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experiences and problemsolving tips, of
socialising and social capitals in FLOSS dev.
creating a more harmonised & reflexive space
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In Janice Raymond's words: 'The empowering
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of female friendship can create the conditions
for a new feminist politics in which the personal
is most passionately political'.
resistance & change
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham
Whose Wonder Woman?
Whose Female Hacker?
Global or Local?
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P2P Workshop, 15 November 2007, Nottingham