I'm all for people creating new social structures to move themselves
forward doing it however they see fit. The internet is a big place, and
there's room for more. In this case, though, I hope it will be an "and"
operation, not an exclusive "or". I would be happy to hear that a new
group formed and that it's going well. I would be disappointed if people
in that group ended up moving away from this one big group. It happens,
and I'd get over it, sure, but it'd still be disappointing. We gain
something by gathering together like we have here. It's not exclusive,
nor should it be. But code4lib has added so much to me and my work that
I know how much I stand to lose if we do not also keep working to stick
together, however difficult that can be sometimes. Respectfully yours, -Dan
The way to make that happen is to make the larger group welcoming, fair,
non-hostile. I've seen some real hostility around this idea of creating
a place for women -- not just people thinking it might not be as good as
being a single group, but real hostility. I suspect there was less
hostility about setting up a Python group, or about setting up local
groups. Removing the "difficulty" is the best way to keep everyone
together. I definitely do not feel, today, like I'm welcomed, mainly
because of the strength of the arguments against an idea that came from
women. And remember, there wasn't a felt need to create an
anti-harassment policy against Pythoners. These are not analogous
situations.
kc
--
Karen Coyle
kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
