[CREATE] spy report

[Jan Claeys]

Op woensdag 02-06-2010 om 17:03 uur [tijdzone +0200], schreef Aileen
Derieg:
> Although I have no wish to interrupt current discussions, I just 
> wanted to let you all know that I have now posted my "spy report":
> http://blog.furtherfield.org/?q=node/334
> 
> Comments are most welcome, but if you want to comment directly on the 
> blog, rather than starting yet another thread on this list, you will 
> need to register on the blog first. If confirmation seems to be taking 
> too long, please let me know, and I will approve your account 
> immediately.
> 
> Brief explanation: I wasn't really there last week as a "spy", but I 
> was specifically invited as an interested outsider to observe and 
> reflect on the Libre Graphics Meeting this year.

First of all: I'm male and I still feel young at 36, but:

        With a more mixed audience, would it have felt slightly less
        jarring, for example, to hear a young man talking about "old
        women", as though "old women" were an alien, barely intelligible
        species? He meant well, of course, his talk was delightfully
        enthusiastic, and I imagine he didn't mean me (I don't know
        anything about knitting or quilting, after all), but I know from
        experience what it feels like to be identified and treated as a
        member of this alien species in other contexts, and I wonder how
        it might feel if there were more of us, a visible, palpable
        presence, listening to a talk like this.

I remember that and a couple of other similar references (one from a
young woman, actually...) and even though none of them intended any
harm, I guess the fact that I remember them says enough.  ;-)


Furthermore, I think the female/male ratio was fortunately higher than
at the average open source conference (partially because of the
involvement of a feminist organisation in helping to organize LGM
2010 ?).

And you're right more women should have proposed a talk.  But also more
people who aren't necessarily developers or well-known power users, but
have something interesting to tell (for example, I loved the talk from
the small Portuguese publishing house; explaining what worked for them
and what didn't).


There are lots more interesting things in your blog post that I have to
think about and read again.  I advise everybody on this list reads it
too!


-- 
Jan Claeys