[CREATE] entering the LGM community (was "Reclaim your tools". A film by Jakub Szypulka)

[helen varley jamieson]

thanks for sharing your experiences ginger, they're really useful to 
hear. the brussels LGM was my first LGM, & while there were things that 
made me feel like an outsider, there were other things that made me feel 
welcome, compared to other events i've been to.

it was pretty easy to find the registration desk & at the time that i 
arrived there were not many other people about; the two people at the 
desk were very welcoming & friendly which was great. (i've been at other 
events where i've felt like walking out as soon as i arrived, as i've 
been totally ignored or it's not clear where to go & so on). the badges 
were a great way to start chatting to strangers but it would have been 
good if people's names were bigger & easier to read. i confess to being 
a fan of name tags, it makes meeting & remembering lots of people at 
conferences so much easier, & it's much easier to be a brave newcomer if 
you can identify who people are.

it was clear that most of the people at LGM were good friends from 
previous LGMs, & were more interested in catching up with each other & 
their specific projects than in meeting new people; this is totally 
understandable, given that the LGM is a brief opportunity for 
face-to-face meetings of a geographically disparate community. but it 
does mean that newcomers can feel excluded, especially if you're also 
outside of the dominant demographic. luckily for me there were a couple 
of people i knew from other events which meant i had a sort of group to 
belong to, but i imagine that for someone who didn't know anyone it 
might have been difficult to "break in" to a group.

obviously there are organisational things that can make it easier, such 
as the communal lunches which were done well in brussels. but it 
shouldn't just be down to organisers (who are busy with everything 
else), or to newcomers to be brave & persistent. as ginger says, if we 
fall at the first gate, the community may be missing out as well as the 
indivudal. the "regulars" can also regard it as part of their role as 
members of the community to be actively welcoming to newcomers.

obviously this is an issue for any kind of conference/event/distributed 
community gathering, & in my experience of such things LGM is by no 
means the worst :) but i think that the LGM community in particular has 
a lot to gain from including a diverse range of artists & users outside 
of the developer role & while it's good to hear that it is becoming more 
open, it's still good to be mindful & proactive in this area.

h : )

On 13/01/11 12:52 AM, ginger coons wrote:
>
>     That calls for even more clarification :) How do you feel about it
>     now, after two more LGMs? Have you become more like others, others
>     more like you or was it a mutual motion towards each other?
>
>
> Tough questions. I think (although I don't have much past experience 
> to compare against) that in the last few years, there's been a lot of 
> movement within the Libre Graphics community and specifically at the 
> meetings, towards both the involvement and the inclusion of people who 
> don't fit the traditional developer role. For me, that's meant that 
> I've experienced an awful lot of interest in what I do as a 
> designer/artist/user/whatever and have also found others who share my 
> own outlook. Not only that, but I've noticed (again, in my limited 
> experience) more and more involvement from people who are not the 
> stereotypical 30+ white man many people might think of in conjunction 
> with F/LOSS.
>
> At the same time, it's almost impossible for me to distinguish whether 
> I've become accustomed to the community or whether it's shifted. 
> Although I think it's a fair bet to say that there's been some of 
> both. The important thing here, as Helen pointed out, is that, in all 
> this, I'm an example of someone who, while at first alienated and put 
> off, eventually persevered and came to know the community for the 
> generally nice and inclusive place it is. The worrying possibility 
> here is that maybe there are lots of other people who feel that 
> outsiderness and never get beyond it, depriving them of the 
> opportunity to discover the depth of opportunity available in the 
> community and also depriving the community of their potential 
> contributions.
>
> -- 
> ginger "all-lower-case" coons
> adaptstudio.ca <http://adaptstudio.ca>
> 647.865.7757 (Toronto)
> 514.213.1318 (Montreal)
>
>
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-- 
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helen varley jamieson: creative catalyst
helen at creative-catalyst.com
http://www.creative-catalyst.com
http://www.avatarbodycollision.org
http://www.upstage.org.nz
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