I alluded to this elsewhere, but I would welcome feedback on whether this perspective is relevant. It hinges on whether the ASF's mission is to provide software *that is a public good* in the technical economics sense (non-excludable non-rivalrous) or software *for the public good* (aka the benefit of the public). The ASL seems oriented towards the former, while the foundation has a lot more of the latter than I realized 5 years ago. If the latter carries weight, there's this...
A: The mission of the ASF is to provide software for the public good. The best way to ensure something is for the public good is to include a diverse sample of the public in its development and direction. Those who are not represented in development of Apache projects are probably less well-served by those projects. At best, we just don't know. To assume otherwise is paternalistic [1]. So increased diversity and inclusion automatically advances the foundation's mission, whether or not you know or care about the race, ethnicity, gender, age, weight, or any other personal characteristics of other contributors. Kenn [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternalism *From: *Patricia Shanahan <p...@acm.org> *Date: *Mon, May 13, 2019 at 1:14 PM *To: * <diversity@apache.org> The first and most important question is something along the lines of: > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > Q: Apache does everything by e-mail. I do not know or care about the > race, ethnicity, gender, age, weight, or any other personal > characteristics of other contributors. Why are diversity and inclusion > relevant issues for Apache? > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > Here are some elements that I think should be covered in the answer. At > this point, I am going for the big picture. Please suggest improvements > and fix errors. > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > 1. Subconscious bias: You know the name the contributor uses. In > addition, you may know their time zone and, from how quotes are > introduced, the language in which they do most of their e-mail interaction. > > Research indicates that merely changing the name on a resume can affect > the probability of a call back. Although the results could in theory be > explained by deliberate racism and sexism, they seem more likely to be > due to subconscious bias. > > 2. It is not all e-mail: Apache contributors meet at open source > conferences, specialty technical conferences, and local gatherings. Not > being able to participate without fearing discrimination would itself be > discouraging. > > 3. Unintentional insult through stereotypes: This is a bigger risk in > e-mail than in face-to-face interactions. > > I had someone on a mailing list use "try to explain X to someone's > aunt", where X was a difficult technical point, as an example of > futility. It invoked a stereotype of older women as lacking computer > science comprehension. As it happens, I already had two adult nephews > when I got my PhD in computer science. The writer would probably not > have said what they did in a live conversation including a grey-haired > woman. > > 4. Misuse of pronouns: If you know someone's preferred pronouns you know > something about their gender, and subconscious gender discrimination > becomes possible. If you don't, you may be making them cringe every time > you refer to them in an e-mail. > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: diversity-unsubscr...@apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: diversity-h...@apache.org > >
