Hey Sruthi
On 2020/03/29 20:39, Sruthi Chandran wrote:
> Hello Jonathan and Brian,
>
> I have a couple of questions for both of you.
>
> - What are your thoughts on diversity in Debian?
>
> - Are we diverse enough?
Since there's a big amount of overlap with these two questions, I'll try
to answer them in one go.
There's many kinds of diversity, and some of them we cover in Debian
quite well. Others, not. It's clear when you go to DebConf that a very
large percentage of our contributors are white and male. Nothing wrong
with being white and male of course, but if you compare our project
membership with the world outside of Debian, then it becomes clear that
our demographics are very skewed. In particular, we have a very small
percentage of women and non-white people in the project.
There are some people (even within Debian) that feel threatened by the
kind of text above, they feel that someone who's other than them will
step in and make them less valued somehow. This is not how diversity
works, we can all grow and become more enriched when we attract people
who bring new perspectives and experiences with them.
One of the problems I think we face is that the people who tend to be
minorities in Debian tend to be people who are also already
disenfranchised in the world. For example, just in my country (South
Africa), more than half the people live on less than $5 a day and even
just a decent internet connection cost a considerable amount of a
typical income. Too many people rely on their income they generate today
so that they can have dinner tonight. It's understandable that, people
in that position, who already get up at 5am to get at work on time, and
only get back home at 9pm again because public transport is so horrible,
will be less enthusiastic to spend the little free time they have to
work for free on a project. Another quick example are single parents,
more than 80% of single parents are women. If you have to provide for
your kids and take care of them, you're going to have a tough time
learning new skills and contributing to new projects.
It's an unfortunate problem that the very ability to contribute to free
software relies on all the kind of privilege that gives you things like
stability and free time. It's a bit of a catch-22 situation since
learning about free software and contributing to it could also help
people to get better jobs and ultimately improve their living conditions.
I don't have all the answers when it comes to diversity in Debian, but I
think we should do everything we can to be part of a solution and not
part of the problem. We don't have control over all the gender and race
problems in the world, but we can do our part to make Debian a safe and
welcoming place for all contributors. With that I don't necessarily mean
that we should all be friends in a perfect little world with unicorns
that poo out rainbows and such, but I mean it in a practical sense. For
example, if someone has an idea and want to argue for it, they should've
feel that their opinion means any less because of their background or
that they're some kind imposter because they might look or feel
different than other people. And if their idea isn't all that popular,
they should feel comfortable with the idea that it was on technical
merits and not because of them.
Recently there's been some concerns raised on return on investment with
diversity spending. I'm fully aware that we'll invest some considerable
time and money on some people who will end up disappearing working at
some big company or find some other free software niche that they enjoy.
I think this is just fine. Some have pointed out that we might be able
to get more bang for buck if Debian had its own funded diversity
programs. In that case I think it's better to add more spending than to
switch out existing programs for it.
I think it's important to talk about some things that we're doing right
in Debian. Our relatively recent additions of the code of conduct and
diversity statement lays some groundwork to making Debian a more
accepting and diverse project. And even though our contributors might
look similar at a quick glance, I don't think that we're a monoculture
either.
Talk is cheap, and I don't think yelling "diversity! diversity!
diversity!" helps making a project any more diverse than yelling
"developers! developers! developers!" will attract more developers. As
DPL, I will be very eager to approve any spending that can bring new
contributors to Debian, but we would still need people to step up and
help make those kind of projects happen. I don't think that diversity
should be squarely the responsibility of the DPL, but the DPL should
certainly be there to help enable any initiatives and ideas that our
project members have.
-Jonathan
--
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ Jonathan Carter (highvoltage)
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ https://wiki.debian.org/highvoltage
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋ https://debian.org | https://jonathancarter.org
⠈⠳⣄ Be Bold. Be brave. Debian has got your bac
