March 8, 2010 - 1st Annual Ubuntu Women Project "How I discovered Ubuntu." International Women’s Day Competition

The Competition which was announced back in January, asked women and girls who use Ubuntu to submit their "How I discovered Ubuntu" stories. We as a Project acknowledge that there is no one definite answer to "How do you get women to use Ubuntu?", but wanted a way to highlight some of the various ways that women become Ubuntu users, contributors, and developers and at the same time not only have those stories as examples but also as a growing gift of encouragement and inspiration to women.

In order for events/competitions to be successful it takes community participation, and a heart felt thank you to all those who participated by submitting their personal "How I discovered Ubuntu." stories, those who took the time to vote, those who helped promote, and those who supported this initiative as well as offer encouragement to those might not have submitted their stories otherwise. I am grateful for everyone involved in the Ubuntu Women Project and greater Ubuntu Community as a whole who are continually helping to provide both the platform and encouragement for women to contribute to Ubuntu.

The winners of an awesome prize pack are: Elvira Martinez and Karen Y. Perez with honorable mention going to Jen Phillips as well. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Here are there stories:

***Elvira Martinez "tatica1" ***

Today my Honduran team mate Diego Turcios shared with me this link to Amber’s blog that excited me to finally write about how I met Ubuntu. I wanted to share this a while ago but I feel motivated about doing it through Ubuntu-women and not just for the sole interest in participating in the contest. I think it will be very interesting to hear how other women became interested in Ubuntu and others may be interested in my experience, specially considering that I am not the “computer girl” precisely.

After nearly 20 years after my high school graduation in Colombia Lycée Français Paul Valery, I found again one of my classmates through Facebook (I guess) Fabian Rodriguez known as MagicFab who after asking him what he was doing today, he mentioned Ubuntu as part of his activities. And I say activities, because Ubuntu is much more than an operating system.

I’ve always liked the world of computer science and unfortunately that was not what I studied, but I learned on my own how to manage, fix, clean my home machines. I could say that the world of computers is my passion and when Fabian told me about this, I knew it was no fluke.

I remember the first thing I said was: Ubuntu what?? How do you eat that?? And then after a brief speach about it and some information he sent to me to read on the subject, dropped his usual phrase, “If you want to install it, I can help you do it now”. Well, two days later, I was harrassing Fabian to help me install Ubuntu after a bunch of questions I had.

Some of my concerns were:

1. If I would be able to use MSN and Skype with camera and audio included.
2. My biggest question was if I could run iTunes on the computer (tool my daughters and my husband use).
3. If Windows had to be removed to use Ubuntu.
4. If I’ll have Office, PowerPoint or Excel with Ubuntu also and if so, would be so easy to use as those.
5. If I was going to be able to install Ubuntu alone, long distance with Fabian’s instructions.

Well, the day I gave a YES myself to Ubuntu, began with a phone call from Fabian from Canada. After downloading into my own computer some files, we start by checking whether they were good and then install it. I remember Fabian told me, don’t install it yet first test it. Then after his explanations that I could partition the computer and leave Windows intact but also have Ubuntu too I said “Let’s do it and install it now”. And so it was, on the phone, with his help, that I installed for the first time in one of my computers Hardy 8.04 and some months later in another Ubuntu 8.10.

When he finally said, “Take a last click and you’re done, finished,” I could not believe it!! First, I had allowed to risk to install another operating system on my computer and two, that I had done through instructions by telephone. That meant that it could be do so easily! That’s how my story began with Ubuntu in June 2008 : D

Months later I bought an Acer Aspire One that came with Linpus and my next challenge was to install Ubuntu on it. It was a laptop (and not a desktop) and needed a version for netbooks so I tried first to fight with LPIA platform with which I ended up frustrated because after installing it did not work and gave me error. Then it was new to me to download an ISO file to my laptop and also install it throught a USB. I think it was two weeks without my computer, sweating and suffering, but with some help of several friends of the Honduran community I finally had Ubuntu on my Acer. I remember I installed 8.10 version which gave me enough slow problems on my laptop, but when I upgraded to 9.10, I was sooo happy;)

From Ubuntu, I further research, looking and learning how to move in the Ubuntu world. As part of that and then again by MagicFab’s suggestions I learned how to participate via IRC in different communities, to tell my experiences with applications in Ubuntu, I dared to start my own blog for the first time telling my experience with the Ubuntu Desktop Course (elearning), learned to use my blog as a tool through which I can inform others about Ubuntu, participating in lists of the communities I belong and learned how to handle wiki, blueprint and documentation pages to share information to others.

Today I am part of the community and am in several team where I hope to be able to support as I learn from everyone’s experiences too. I am a member in the communities of Ubuntu Honduras, Colombia, Women, Guatemala and El Salvador. Almost daily I am present in IRC channels of Honduras, Colombia and Women getting feedback and contributing wherever I can. I still can not work actively participate in all these media but try to do when I feel more confident about the subject. English is my third language, so I am kind of shy in the ubuntu-women channel.

Today I know that there is Free Software and Ubuntu exists there with all its benefits over other systems. I also know that although I did not study computers, I can handle and learn thousands of things about it and help knowing others that will benefit too.

Today I belong and work hand by hand with others in the Honduras Ubuntu community, promoting Ubuntu in the country, mostly in San Pedro Sula where I currently reside. With the support Fabian gave me, I revived the group that was practically abandoned and we are trying again today to show people of Honduras that Ubuntu is the best choice when it comes to choosing an operating system. Every day I try to learn more and see how I can support other Ubuntu users here and elsewhere. I am very excited to be part of this team and I love to learn and collaborate with this good cause;)

Since I started being part of this community, I had the opportunity to share with others from other distros like Fedora or Debian. There is little that I have experienced them, but for now I’m only interested in Ubuntu.

My name is Elvira Martinez or tatica1 as I I’m known in the community and my main challenge is to convince my daughters and my husband that Ubuntu is the best choice when we talk about operating systems.

***Karen Y. Perez***

When I was a little girl i saw my dad studying computer science to eventually working on projects. Like most little girls I admire my dad more than anyone in the world and I always tried to be just like him. I read many books like him, I begged for my own laptop and fell in love with space. Since then my passion for science, math and technology developed. There were moments where I loved chemistry more than physics and times where math was better than astronomy. But, my passion for computers never faded once. Each year I pleaded my dad to teach me how to program because his code was like a puzzle i need to understand. So, every so often he would teach me bits and pieces but only enough to keep my curiosity afloat and have me do my own research. One day I stumbled across one of my dad’s Unix books in his library. I didn’t really understand much at the time so I tried my very best to read it and eventually I did some research on-line. While doing my research I read about Linux and I saw what the open source revolution was all about. I taught myself as much as I could and I decided to convert my laptop to Linux for the first time in ‘09. Ubuntu has helped me with my studies in computer science and helped me stay open to new things of course including technologies. The last thing a geek needs is to not want to explore outside of the box. I guess you can say I’m a self pro-claimed fem-geek and I couldn’t imagine life any other way. Although, I am no professional yet I do try to talk to other girls and show them how great of an experience using Linux Ubuntu is as well as many other great “geeky” technologies. I hope to one day show young girls that there is more to life than fashion. That you can be as “fashionable” as Barbie and yet be an astronaut.

***Jen Phillips***

Learning to Fly

Some years ago, I used to travel everywhere by bus. The company that ran it was called Microsoft, and I used the Number 3.1. It generally got me where I needed to be, but it took a bit of an odd route to get there, and it would often stop at seemingly random points. If I fancied a change, I could take my walkman, or a book. It wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but it did ok, and I was used to it. After a while, the company decided to upgrade all their busses and change all the routes - and put the fares up. I went onto the Number 95, and everything looked nice and shiny, although I missed my stop a couple of times because I wasn’t used to the route. After a while I realised that although the route didn’t take the same detours, it took new ones, so I didn’t really get where I was going any faster. The busses all seemed to get a bit dingy after a while, too. Still, I had my CD walkman, and it became familiar again.

Eventually, I took the plunge, and got a car. I loved the freedom - I could go where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go. I wasn’t constrained by having to have the right money, and I didn’t have to stop for the sake of everyone else. It was a SuSE, and it was mine and I loved it. Except, any time anything went wrong I had to ask for help. When the radio stopped working, I had to get someone else to fix it. If i couldn’t find a particular stick or button, I had to get someone to show me where it was. It also wouldn’t play any of my old CDs. In short, it was frustrating. I tried a couple of other cars, but they weren’t any better. I took ages getting my Debian to even start, and somehow had a knack for stalling it before I got to the end of the street. Eventually, I gave up and went back to the bus - the XP route now had air conditioning and contoured seats, and I could cope with the delays (and occasional breakdowns) because it did tend to get me there in the end.

Then one day, something quite miraculous happened: someone gave me a pair of wings. In only a couple of lessons, I was flying! I no longer have to wait for the bus, and I don’t need a mechanic to come and rescue me any more. If I want different music, I can just pick up a media player and set it going. If I want to dye my wings a different colour, that’s easy too. I decide which route to take - I’m not even limited by roads any more. The best thing is that flying feels so natural - like walking only better. I call these wings “Ubuntu”.

These story submissions along with all the others are available on the Ubuntu Women Project wiki pages.

Without the efforts of Ubuntu Women Project team member, Melissa Draper, the competition may have never made it to the community, the time and talent she personally put into this competition by drafting the competition as well as writing the voting submission application was awesome! - Thanks Melissa!

It is also important to say thank you to the sponsors of this competition, Rikki Kite, Associate Publisher, Linux Pro and Ubuntu User Magazines, for donating Linux Pro or Ubuntu User Magazine subscriptions (choice of one per winner), to Canonical for donating the Ubuntu Backpacks, notebooks, pens, lanyards, pins and T-shirts, at last but not least to Jono Bacon for making the announcement of the winners as well as for copies of Art of Community.

Again, Congratulations to the winners of the prize packs as well as all those who submitted your person Ubuntu discovery stories. I can’t wait to read the submissions for the 2nd Annual Ubuntu Women Project “How I discovered Ubuntu.” International Women’s Day Competition, so mark your calendars and work on YOUR personal discovery of Ubuntu to help celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day.

REMINDER: If you or someone you know would like to find out more information about the Ubuntu Women Project there are several ways to do so - website, mailing list, IRC channel(s), and Ubuntu Women Forums

[Discuss the International Women’s Day Competition Winners on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list by Amber Graner on Tue Mar 9 04:46:28 GMT 2010

This blog entry represents the views of me, myself and I, and does not represent the views of my employer (Canonical) or System 76. While I have decided to write a review of this specific machine, there are many vendors out there who ship Ubuntu on their machines and this review does not favor System76 over these other vendors. Heck, I am happy to review their machines too if they want.

Recently I got one of these new System 76 ultra-thin laptops, the Lemur:

System76 are well known in the Open Source community for shipping Ubuntu on their machines, being active community members and for helping LoCo teams with machines too. I have never owned a System76 box so I thought this was a good opportunity to give it a ride and share some feedback.

So first, the specs:

• Display: 14.0″ HD WXGA Super Clear Ultra-Bright LED backlit (1366 x 768)
• Graphics: Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
• Audio Output: Intel High Definition Audio
• Networking: Gigabit LAN (10/100/1000), WiFi
• Wireless: 802.11 agn
• Expansion: Express Card 34 slot
• Ports: HDMI, VGA, 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, SD Reader
• Camera: Built-In 1.3 MP Webcam
• Security: Kensington® Lock
• Power Management: Suspend & Hibernate
• Battery: Lemur UltraThin Li-Polymer Battery Pack
• AC Adapter: includes one AC adapter
• Dimensions: 13.38″ x 9.09″ x 0.90″ (WxDxH)
• Weight: 3.5 lbs

The machine I got has an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3 GHz 800 MHz FSB 3 MB L2 (10 Watt), 4GB RAM (DDR3 1066 MHz 1 DIMM) and a 80 GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure: I don’t really do reviews, so this is going to be a quick run through the details, not a 150-picture unboxing and War And Peace epic of every minor detail of the machine. I just wanted to get my experience down as quickly as possible so I could share my feedback with others.

The Machine

OK, let’s zip through the summary:

The machine is a really sleek looking bit of kit. The first thing that struck me is how well designed it feels: it doesn’t feel like a randomly thrown together collection of components. It is thin and incredibly light, and has a very Apple-ish feel to it. It passed what I am calling the Lost Test: that is, when laid in bed at night watching Lost on Hulu with said laptop rested on your chest (for that IMAX effect), how many episodes can you get though before you feel like your heart is about to overheat and stop working. It’s lightness and lack of heat helped it pass with flying colors.

The screen looks great, doesn’t seem to smudge easily and is nice and bright. I like the fact it is a widescreen, something I miss with my current Thinkpad.

The keyboard is pretty much ok: it ain’t no Thinkpad keyboard, but of all the laptops I have owned and that are buried in my laptop graveyard, the Lemur’s keyboard feels better than most. The keys are wide enough and I love the fact that there is no Windows key, but instead an Ubuntu key. I want to see more of that, yes I do.

The trackpad is long and feels pretty good, and the buttons don’t look like buttons but instead areas on the trackpad near the bottom where you can push down: this makes it look really sleek. Unfortunately at first the buttons are a little hard to press, but I have noticed that they are getting easier, so I think they just need breaking in a little.

With the current configuration of processor and RAM, this thing is shit off a shovel fast. It zips along like no-ones business, and Ubuntu is up and running in a matter of seconds. While I didn’t test any hardcore 3D games on there, it runs Compiz great with the extra effects switched on.

Sounds works great, the speakers sound surprisingly good and the built-in webcam works well too. Finally, the battery life seems fine in terms of life, but not outstanding. Then again, I am used to my extra-long-life Thinkpad batteries.

My only real gripe believe it or not is the packaging the machine comes in: it visually looks cheap with a large generic “notebook” logo and doesn’t reflect the swishness of the machine encased inside it. I spoke to Carl Richell, founder of System76 about this and he has acknowledged it is an issue and they are keen to fix it: he said they really want every essence of the System76 experience to feel sleek. Good man.

The Default Install: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

It is just incredible driving back from picking up a computer from the UPS warehouse and knowing that it already has Ubuntu pre-installed. I have never bought a pre-installed Ubuntu computer before, so I was curious to see how it looked. I got it home, switched it on and it threw up the installer’s configuration settings: I entered my details and the system was ready to roll. I was left with pretty much a default installation of Ubuntu: there is not the horrible bundled collection of software you don’t want and ugly vendor wallpaper that you find if you buy a typical Windows pre-loaded machine. Good work System76 on shipping what I consider a great representation of Ubuntu.

Other than that, nothing much to say: everything just works as you would expect.

Running Lucid

Being part of the Ubuntu development team, I was keen to get Lucid on there. I used Update Manager to update to Lucid and installation was smooth. Once again everything works: any bugs that I have found have not been specific to this machine, but replicated on my other Lucid machine. What is really noticeable is boot speed on the SSD: it is bonkers fast.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think the Lemur is a beautiful machine, and combined with what I consider a beautiful Operating System, particularly with the new fit and finish of Lucid. When running the Lemur it really feels like great design in hardware and software meeting well. I would happily recommend this machine to others.

A friend was trying to get some of her laptop's function keys working
under Ubuntu, and that reminded me that I'd been meaning to do the
same on my Vaio TX 650P.

My brightness keys worked automagically -- I suspected via the scripts
in /etc/acpi -- and that was helpful in tracking down the rest of the
information I needed. But it still took a bit of fiddling since
(surprise!) how this stuff works isn't documented.

Here's the procedure I found.

First, use acpi_listen to find out what events are generated
by the key you care about. Not all keys generate ACPI events.
I haven't get figured out what controls this -- possibly the kernel.
When you type the key, you're looking for something like this:

sony/hotkey SPIC 00000001 00000012

You may get separate events for key down and key up. It's your choice
as to which one matters.

Once you know the code for your key, it's time to make it do something.
Create a new file in /etc/acpi/events -- I called mine sony-lcd-btn.
It doesn't matter what you call it -- acpid will read all of them.
(Yes, that means every time you start up it's reading all those
toshiba and asus files even if you have a Lenovo or Sony.
Looks like a nice place to shave off a little boot time.)

The file is very simple and should look something like this:

# /etc/acpi/events/sony-lcd-btn

event=sony/hotkey SPIC 00000001 00000012
action=/etc/acpi/sonylcd.sh

Now create a script for the action you specified in the event file.
I created a script /etc/acpi/sonylcd.sh that looks like this:

#! /bin/bash
# temporary, for testing:
echo "LCD button!" >/dev/console

Now restart acpid: service acpid restart if you're
on karmic, or /etc/init.d/acpid restart on earlier releases.
Press the button. If you're running from the console (or using a
tool like xconsole), and you got all
the codes right, you should be able to see the echo from your script.

Now you can do anything you want. For instance, when I press the LCD
button I generally want to run this:

xrandr --output VGA --mode 1024x768

Or to make it toggle, I could write a slightly smarter script using
xrandr --query to find out the current mode and behave accordingly.
I'll probably do that at some point when I have a projector handy.

The news is that Ubuntu Lucid Lynx incorporates social media into its desktop application. Ubuntu Lucid Lynx integrates Gwibber, an open source microblogging, into its desktop.  Gwibber promises seamless stream of information from popular social media such as twitter, facebook, friend feed, etc. Let us see how Gwibber compare to existing social media desktop applications.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a popular social media desktop application that allow us to connect to Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, and linked. Tweetdeck is able to shorten URL using bit.ly.  My favourite feature in TweetDeck is that I can create my twitter list, and view trending topic in twitter. I am also able to watch you tube or view image gallery directly from Tweet Deck.

Seesmic

Seesmic is build on top of Adobe Air. Seesmic user will be able to use Seesmic to manage their twitter and facebook conversation. It also allow us to drag and drop images from our webcam to share it with our peers. Seesmic is very similiar to TweetDeck.

Gwibber

Gwibber is quite new compare to Seesmic and Tweet Deck. It is an open source software based on python and webkit. Gwibber allow us to connect to Identi.ca, Digg, Jaiku, Facebook, Pownce, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter. Gwibber is maintained by Ryan Paul of Ars Technica. Gwibber promises a lot of neat functionalities in the future. It is still Alpha release but as of now, it has been quite stable for me.

Comparison

…that this part of my desktop could feel so sleek:

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, we are ready for you.

Thunderbird 2.0 reached EOL Aug 2009 but Thunderbird 3.0 still does not have all the stuff and attractions for an upgrade, so here I am still using Thunderbird 2.0. What is Thunderbird?

Its an Email client, Calendering, Task and Contact Management. Allows access to Email accounts via POP or IMAP. It also supports GMail accounts, Unix mailbox and Newsgroup account access. A really great application to work with.

Some of the must have add-ons for my Thunderbird 2:

1. Contacts Sidebar 0.7 - Allows me to forward VCards and access via F4 the addresses, copy and paste info of the VCard into email.
2. Lightning 0.9 - The calendar and task Manager
3. FG Printers 0.4.4 - Format printing if the calendars
4. VCS Support 0.6.3.1 - Allows me to import/export VCS calendars
5. Automatic Export 0.3.0 - Allows automatic backup of the calendars

Other optional add-on:

1. Provider for Google Calendar
2. Bidi Mail UI
3. PGP
4. Thunderbrowse

There is a great forum at MozillaZine for updates and help.

Whilst I was quite happily sleeping yesterday morning, the International Women’s Day competition winners were announced. The popular vote prize went to Elvira Martinez “tatica1″. The second prize went to Karen Y. Perez, and Jen Phillips got an honourable mention for her awesome analogy-style story.

You can read all the stories and see the record of votes on the Ubuntu Women wiki.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered and voted (and Jono for announcing). The competition was heaps of fun to organise and now we have lots of stories to show that we forge our own paths to Ubuntu just like the guys do!

Nothing really can be said…

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

At the recently concluded pycon2010 at Atlanta, there were some
discussions about diversity, women etc... I suppose, much of my energy would
have been saved if I had published this mail earlier or even blogged about some
individual sexist behaviors. Nah, its not fear, rather I try to avoid talking
about evil creepy stuff on my blog but during various discussions realised that
many folks dont know what you experience on an individual level in the floss
community, unless you talk about it. That is the first step.

Hi $PersonsName,

As i write this mail the words "Out the creeps publicly" uttered by a devel
(who shall go nameless) comes to my mind and hence i'd prefer to not be anon
and back my words under the pseudonym 'svaksha'. $PersonsName, do feel free to
suitably trim my long train of thoughts and I wont be offended if it does'nt
make it to your article as /self is too late in all
probability -- my mental resources are wound up around a lexical parser
atm.

Initially when i used to hear all the women speak about their experiences i
took comfort in the fact that i am not alone
in hoping for change. But i had not factored
in the possibility that change is tougher when
"clueless new idiots" follow in the steps of "sexist
old timers". Over the years the attitudes towards diversity still remains
sexist, especially within the Indian community where cronyism is normal.

My observations are largely India-centric salted with some experiences on
international lists and sans a timeline ...

The usual personal mails asking for personal details under the guise of "i want
to volunteer" or guised as a personal interview (since when did marital status
become relevant to floss contribution?). Another
peculiar one was a guy writing emails in different
scripts despite my requests that i didnt understand them. It was when i
requested a friend to translate them that i realised why -- personal questions
in a non-english script meant fewer people would know
he was asking personal questions.

Then there was this instance of a jerk trying to crack into my server when he
became aware of my gender.  I was happy with the anonymity --- Very very
few folks (i trusted) knew my location and real name but that changed when I
founded the Ubuntu-Women project, was termed a "militant feminist" (a
pejorative term for Feminazi).  This pejorative was echoed in the Indichix (LC-India) mailing lists in
2008 to avoid answering the question of 'controlling a woman's group by proxy'
- cronyism and elitism is gender-neutral The personal attacks descended
into personal life queries (hint:: the coffee, splenda thread) by one Indian
male who subscribed to grrls-only mailing list by pretending to be a woman.
Gah, so much for the "cultural_Indian" !!

Other experiences include an smtp header spoof of my mail id to send a
sex-related email ; an indian devel in his interview
wanted to be stuck in a lift with me even while he
admits to never having met me. Another was the death threats from "mikeeeeusa"
on DW which went off-list ~~ IIRC around 5 women were the initial targets but
Clytie (an AU contributor) had threats sent to her teenage daughter too.

http://eaves.ca/2009/07/06/structurelessness-feminism-and-open/
has a point I could relate to viz.elites and cronyism -- both of which are true
as far as the local Indian floss community is
concerned. I've heard past incidents of getting cronies to use social
engineering (a bully's crony will pretend to be your friend and find out where
you work, etc..) and use pressure tactics (complaining to your
superiors/boss@work --the easiest way to bully an individual who fears losing
his/her livelihood) to silence disagreeing voices -- This may probably not be
sexist as it happened to an indian male (who shall remain anonymous)
floss volunteer, but i'm writing this to highlight a
deeper and more serious problem within the fragmented Indian floss community.

Pretending to support women racks up the positive Publicity Karma (hence
commercially lucrative) while one can continue to be being elitist and deny
decision making power via "cronyism" (the elites will use red herrings and
out-shout the newbies who disagree under the cries of "show me the code") on
the side. A very subtle game that is hard to decipher on a superficial
level.

However, when subtle aggressiveness is reserved for the local community members
only very few folks outside that circle are aware of it. This small subset of
highly aggressive Indian men will never exhibit this negative attitude on the
international project lists and irc channels where they do participate, because
it will permanently damage their reputation which is never good for business or
landing a job in future. Also, international
lists/irc/etc... have lesser bystanders[0] taking care of SEP[1].

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Else%27s_Problem]

If readers are thinking its a malaise with the whole Indian community or a
cultural baggage --its not. There is a lot of positive stuff happening thanks
to many individuals who are polite and respectful and dont feel threatened by
(wo)men. There are many men and women who continue their good work on an
individual basis but unfortunately they are relegated to the  back-burner
by pompous self-promoting jerks. I'm personally hoping to see a truly open
community initiative like LCA or debconf (and others like it) happen
in India.

Regarding including links and threads, i am undecided -- the marketing gimmick
"bad publicity is still free publicity" is another reason why I prefer to avoid
blogging too much about negative behavior as it can acquire a cult-like halo
and an easy way to fame for other men or newbies, especially when they see
peers getting away with it. While technical (like a ddos attack,...)
misdemeanors are punished quickly i've not yet heard an a$$hat being ostracized
or boycotted from the community and this despite there being discussion and
more discussion and protests about the said negative behavior.

Besides, the online world is so small that there is the danger of forming a
mental picture of an individual and getting over-familiar via blogs, twitter,
irc, lists, etc... Its possible that judging folks during real life meetings
based on these preconceived assumptions is another cause of social behaviour
problems.

I dont have any magic answers and have always believed that community action
is the best way to solve the problem. Yet, getting women to speak-up openly
against the negative attitude is a lot harder, especially when they feel they
will not get any support as the lone voice, statistically speaking.  Few
folks will want to waste their time tackling a regular barrage of red-herrings
and logical fallacies. Ex. using the term "we" is (sometimes purposefully)
misunderstood as taking over control and using "I" is interpreted as "the
problem is singular in nature" and _one_ person is
statistically too small to figure in change -- hence
the status quo remains. This tactic works very well in
situations when no change is desired.

Y'all probably are aware of all this so i'll stop as i've got to leave
now.

ciao,
-vid

As you've probably guessed, the above was my mail sent to an unarchived women's
list. I'm also reproducing (with permission) an exchange with another floss
contributors who wrote after he read the above e-mail:

Devel: And you cant have a community of human beings and donkeys
right? That's why I refuse to believe most of the Indian FLOSS communities are
communities at all. I dont care and I dont bother.

Me: That is the scary bit...everybody stops caring. When I stop
caring its just downhill then. Somewhere we have to make an effort to build the
community, sustain it and grow.

Devel: You have to make sure the community is worth it.

One should not expect women to say *Stop harassing/stalking*. Given the low
female participation, women are an even smaller number in the existing scheme
of things and the lack of space to speak up within projects is another crucial
point that gets overlooked.  Instead of telling women how to adjust to
sexist bullying, men within a project must learn to speak up if they wish to
see change. Most times that action is taken against those who manage to offend
those in power, else in floss communities sometimes one can get away with any
negative behaviour with zero repercussions.

In my years within most Libre software projects, the common thread that
surfaces is the expectation that "change is slow" because positive results with
respect to reducing sexist behaviour takes time. I disagree.  Is it that
women have to be offended with negative attitudes or sexism for action to be
taken? Why cant a lone individual (irrespective of gender, nationality or any
other criteria) say "stop being a jerk" and get tons of community support. If
there is a lack of community support, its due to apathy and a lack of firmness
and strong action with low tolerance to negative behaviour by every person
involved in the floss community. 

This is not easy as easy as typing this blog entry was, since it needs
impartial and strong leadership qualities.  We need an attitudinal change
on an individual level if we dont want a gesellschaft
instead of a community where people care for others. FLOSS Communities are
still made up of individual people who use the same technology they create.
Women (add foo-group of choice) should not be the diversity tokenism for spin
doctors trying to prevent a PR disaster.

For those unfamiliar with the title of this blog post, let me introduce you to one of the most important tags in Launchpad: regression-potential.

What bugs tagged as regression-potential mean? Basically, they mean that a regression has been found in the development release of Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx, at the moment of writing).

Why are they so important? Because it means that a regression has been found but, good news, we still can do something about it.

These bugs are specially important in the kernel. Nobody likes to see hardware, working in previous versions of Ubuntu, failing once upgraded to the new one.
Jeremy Foshee, a QA member of the Kernel team, is trying to avoid as many regressions in the kernel as possible. As announced in several mailing lists, he is going to be organizing a weekly bug day of kernel bugs marked as regression-potential from today and until the release of Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). If you want to help avoiding regressions in Lucid, every Tuesday, you can check the Kernel Bug Day page, which includes a list of bugs that need some love. If you have doubts on how to help, please, join the kernel team on #ubuntu-kernel at freenode IRC, and feel free to ask any question.

The more people helping triaging regression-potential bugs, the fewer regression-release bugs Lucid will have.