On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 7:18 PM, Daniel Vimont <dan...@commonvox.org> wrote:
> The first step in working through a problem is acknowledging that there IS > a problem, so in that respect, this conversation is going well so far!! > Here are some thoughts (some of which are barely half-baked, so pardon the > "raw dough"). > > SHORT-TERM BRAINSTORMING > I know that HBaseCon2016 is very close, and all the speaking slots and > topic sessions are locked into place, but I do have a few suggestions: > > (1) At *several* points (not just once!) throughout the plenary sessions, > make a statement that this conversation has come up on hbase-dev, and it's > an issue that you think is worthy of our attention and discussion. (I think > we're just at the beginnings of a very long conversation, but just > announcing that the conversation is underway and inviting people into it > seems a good way to start.) > We can do that. > (2) I see that Intel is sending four representatives to make presentations > (two women and two men!). Intel seems to be at the forefront of > diversification efforts in the broader IT community, having set its goal > for "full representation" in its workforce by 2020. If these Intel > presenters feel comfortable, it would be great to devote a few minutes in > one of the plenary sessions to allow them to informally talk about how the > Intel z is going from their > perspective, and whether that offers any lessons that might be applied in > the Hadoop/HBase ecosystems. > Let me ask the Intel'ers who are coming to the conference. > (3) For HBaseCon2017, devote complete sessions to the issue of > diversification. (Perhaps invite Intel's Chief Diversity Officer, Danielle > Brown, to lead up some proactive discussions.) > > Yes. I like this suggestion. > LONGER-TERM STRATEGIZING > Stepping back to the generic questions of how and why to "recruit" new > contributors, perhaps this is where my "newbie" eyes can assist in taking a > fresh look at things, beginning with a big lead-in question: > > The current "staff" of the HBase project: how were we "recruited", and why > are we here? > > When I look at the contributors list, I see what I expect to see: Almost > all of the contributors are employees of companies that are the biggest > stakeholders in the HBase ecosystem, with the biggest number coming from > those companies that are existentially bound to the HBase/Hadoop > ecosystems, and a smaller number of contributors coming from companies that > make strategically vital use of HBase in their operations. My assumption is > that these companies are not magnanimous philanthropists, they're just > (quite appropriately) looking after their own vital interests. Bottom line: > this majority of contributors are *paid* to be here; their employers > "allow" them to spend a percentage (or maybe in some cases, all) of their > working hours tending to the care and feeding of the open-source golden > goose that keeps their proprietary enterprises going. > > And then there are people like me (likely in much smaller numbers) who are > here to beef up their expertise in current technologies in a way that also > gives them a publicly-displayed "portfolio" of work with which to > subsequently seek out paid engagements (of either the contract or > employment variety). I'm sure I don't fully buy into the prevailing wisdom > that "code is the new resume" and "just put your stuff out there on GitHub > -- WE'LL find YOU!!"; nonetheless, for the last several months I've been > setting aside my doubts and building just such a "portfolio". > > The above is a fair assessment I'd say. > So, if my take on the current "staffing" situation is approximately > correct, it suggests to me that the quickest path to "full representation" > in the HBase project is initially through conversations with the Human > Resources chiefs and the CEOs of the corporations that provide the majority > of this project's "staff". What initiatives are underway in these firms (1) > to recruit a diverse workforce and (2) to assure that once members of > underrepresented minorities are brought in, that they find themselves in a > safe, supportive environment in which they want to stay? Finally, if good > initiatives are already underway, what might be done to hasten the "trickle > down" from these initiatives into a more diversely-staffed HBase project? > > There was a call-to-arms a while back that echoed around the valley (Here is one origin story [1] that references this interesting looking project [2]). Where I work there is a special project afoot to work on problem #1, at least, from your list above. Ultimately it should translate into better numbers out here in projects like ours but I'm not sure improving presence in open source is a captured metric. Let me ask. St.Ack 1. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/silicon-valley-gender-sexism-women-engineers-tracy-chou 2. https://github.com/triketora/women-in-software-eng > On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 12:39 AM, Sean Busbey <bus...@apache.org> wrote: > > > On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 10:10 PM, Stack <st...@duboce.net> wrote: > > > On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 8:37 PM, Daniel Vimont <dan...@commonvox.org> > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > >> With regard to recruiting new contributors, I'll just toss out a > > question > > >> which I hope does not give offense: What can be done to encourage more > > >> gender-diversity in this project (and projects like it)? > > >> > > >> > > > Thank you for raising this 'awkward' question up here on the dev list. > > > > > > Our ratio is awful. I'm ashamed to cite numbers. > > > > > > I don't know what we can do to encourage participation. I'd be > interested > > > in any ideas others might have and would be up for acting them to try > and > > > make redress. > > > > > > > > > Yes, thank you Daniel. This is an issue that weighs on me. The ASF in > > general has a demographic problem, and our particular corner of it > > seems particularly homogenous. > > > > I'm a firm believer in "can't fix what you don't measure." Stack do > > you have numbers from somewhere? I was looking at ways we could run an > > opt-in poll to get an idea of how our community looks outside of what > > I can already see in the committer and PMC ranks from meetups. > > > > I don't think there are any fast answers to this issue, but I think > > there are some things we could try doing that would help the project > > generally: > > > > 1) We could use better student outreach. Presuming we come up with > > some materials for trying to get students involved overall, we should > > get a few folks go out of our way to present those materials to > > student groups that try to provide space for folks who aren't in our > > dominant demographic. > > > > 2) Similar to #1, there are meetups (at least in my area) that try to > > make things accessible and comfortable for e.g. women. We could make a > > habit of presenting to these meetups in addition to our normal "big > > data" themed groups. > > > > 3) I've noticed that none of the meetups or conferences where I see > > HBase stuff have child care options. This doesn't only impact women, > > but it disproportionately impacts them due to societal expectations. > > We the community could start pushing folks to have something and we > > the PMC could perhaps push this a little harder, like we do the need > > for a Code of Conduct. > > >
