New DivaBlog

Dear Readers, can I ask a favor (well, two favors really)?

Favor Number One:

...and this is the really more important one, but also takes a little effort.  I just did it (and timed myself)...it took 7 minutes.  Can you beat that time?  I O U a beverage if you can (let me know on comments below).  Deadline is end of day TOMORROW, August 31st, 2012.

Can you please cast a vote for Literacy Bridge to present at TED 2013?  Your vote could mean the difference in whether dozens of the poorest villages get access to our Talking Book program.

My friend Cliff Schmidt was invited to audition for one of the world’s most prestigious and influential conferences: TED. In four minutes, he summarized Literacy Bridge’s work, and now TED is looking to online voters to determine whether he will be invited to speak at TED 2013.  This opportunity would give Literacy Bridge far more exposure than they've ever had, which will enable them to expand their impact dramatically.

If you are willing to help, here is what I’m asking you to do:

Brief Version (see detailed instructions below if you have trouble):

1. Sign up for a TED.com account here: https://auth.ted.com/users/new?referer=http://www.ted.com/profiles/edit(you can skip the profile page after submitting name/email/password)

2. Watch the 4-minute audition here: http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Cliff-Schmidt-On-demand-access

3. Vote ("Rate This Talk" on the same page)

4. Comment (on the same page) --- this is as important as the vote; please leave a quick note.

5. Recommend on Facebook (on the same page).

6. Please tell all your friends to do the same!

That's it!  Thank you so much!

=====

Here are the detailed instructions if the ones above don't work for you:

1. Sign Up for an account on TED.com: https://auth.ted.com/users/new?referer=http://www.ted.com/profiles/edit

You will need to:
a)    Fill in first name, last name
b)    Email address
c)    Provide a password
d)    Agree to the terms of service
e)    Fill in and pass the "Capcha" test

After you fill in the info and click on "Submit" button, you may be presented with a screen to enter Profile info.  You can skip this page if you like and go right to the video link below.

2. Watch, Comment and Rate the Video:
a)  Watch the video at http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Cliff-Schmidt-On-demand-access
b) Add a comment –what you write will help TED decide who to invite
c) Rate the video:
 - On the right side of the screen, there is section titled "Rate the Talk".
 - Click on the stars under "Rate on Content" and "Rate on Presentation Style"
 - Make sure that the stars that you click on become bigger, that is the sign that your rating has registered.

3. Click the Facebook "Recommend" Button Under the Video (Optional)

This is not the official rating. It just helps a bit to spread the word via Facebook.

4. Ask Your Friends to Watch/Vote Also!

Thank you for helping Literacy Bridge get in front of a global audience.

and now for the more self-interested Favor Number Two:

 Yup, its that time again....vote for one or more of the SXSWi proposals my name is on.  You'll find them here and here.  I'm undecided which I'd rather do, they would both be really fun.  Last day to vote is, of course, tomorrow, August 31st, 2012... and if either gets accepted and you're there, I'll also be happy to comp you a beverage :).  Not bribing, just saying thank you.

 

Carding Harrassment

The Code of Conduct debate around Open Source conferences has been much on my mind again lately. Just today somebody called my attention to this blog post about yet another attempt to fix what some see as a real problem.  I have to admit that my take is a little different, and some will find it disloyal to my gender (as I was accused back when I gave a keynote at OSCON a few years ago).  I actually like the cards the blog is talking about.  Its a clever hack and one that promises to at least create more timely communication when people feel uncomfortable, which IMHO is preferable to some of the passive-aggressive behaviors we have witnessed recently.

I've not written until now about my take on all this appropriateness chatter over the past couple of years. When it all started I happened to be the only female CTO in the top 10 most popular websites in the world and I felt my opinion on it would be artificially amplified by my position. I was troubled by what I saw as strong-arm tactics employed to force conference organizers to police attendees, and I did have a number of conversations privately with women who agreed with me and were also troubled, and also with women who completely and vehemently disagreed with me.

A little background: I have worked in the Tech industry for more than 20 years and in some pretty visible positions. It is not unusual for me to be the only woman a room full of men in meetings or at conferences, and I've seen my share of inappropriate behavior.I've also worked for several of the larger Tech companies, which means I've seen a variety of approaches to training people about these issues (most Tech companies present between 15 to 45 minutes of training on this issue during new employee orientation, and many require additional training for managers).

The watershed moment for me was when I experienced Intel's orientation. People tend to work at Intel forever, and dating amongst co-workers is really common there. They also have a melting pot of cultural expectations because they hire from all over the world. Their policy says (my paraphrase) that its every person's responsibility to set clear boundaries. Their orientation on the subject (which was the longest I've attended) included skits showing how to ask a co-worker out on a date, how to decline an unwanted advance and how to act after you've been told "No, thank you". The orientation went on to explain that if you set a clear boundary and the other person continues to harass you, then Intel's management would support you in a grievance against that person.

My eureka was to hear them explicitly say "It is up to you to clearly say "No" initially". I know at least one woman prominent in the Code of Conduct movement who felt that this was too much of a burden, that it created a hostile work environment, but I thought it was clear and brilliant.

So here's my general take: some of the women who want to see strict Codes of Conduct are really seeking to be absolved of their fundamental obligation as human beings to set clear individual boundaries. They want the organization (or the conference) to do this for them so they'll never be made to feel uncomfortable. The problem with this is that living in the world involves dealing with all kinds of people and just as fairness isn't an inalienable right, neither is interpersonal comfort. Its a messy business figuring out what other people's intentions are in the best of cases, and we owe it to our fellow humans to be as clear as we can on our end in just our normal interactions.

That said, there are certainly creeps out there, of all genders and both intentional and unintentional ones. I think its positive for people to be given tools that help them give effective feedback (such as the clever cards used at DefCon). I just hope they come with instructions for the card-bearer to hand them out AFTER exhausting more normal feedback with an offender. Otherwise I fear handing out these cards will become a proxy for normal human boundary setting and will further contribute to the death of authentic interactions between people wherever they are used.

My next vocation

So it has been announced.  Starting next week I'll have a new job.  One friend pointed out that I could put "Wiki Witch of the West" on my business cards ;-).

But seriously...I meant it when I said in the press release that the challenges ahead are both exciting and daunting.  I'm such a big fan of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Commons, but until it got tweeted, I hadn't realized this hire would make me the only female CTO in the Top-10 websites ...must admit that spun me around for a minute...

I've been working for so long on awareness of the gender imbalance in Open Source, but I've always thought of my own career as a collaborative effort (as in, "It takes a village").  In fact, when I was interviewing at Wikimedia Foundation and described my approach to solving technical challenges, I said something like "I rely on taking in as many well-informed opinions as I can find, digesting them collectively, and reaching an essentially collaborative conclusion."  This may be my Apache roots showing.

Anyway, the announcement hit the web while I was in São Paulo, Brasil for CampusParty, so of course the local Wikimedia Brasil folks came by for a chat, and I quickly learned that there are a variety of opinions about what to do "next" from a Technology standpoint to keep the Wikimedia Community vibrant.  Very interesting discussion.  I can see that gathering the well-informed opinions is going to be an intense but educational process.

Another fascinating outcome of the announcement was the attention my personal wikipedia page received.  My page was initiated by some students in Pune, India during a talk I gave (about risk-taking in one's career) at the GNUnify conference.  I wasn't even aware they were doing it at the time, and they wrote it with next to no citations.  There ensued a lively Wikipedia discussion about whether my page was "worthy", and it was decided that the page could stay largely on the merit of my long-time involvement with the Open Source Initiative...over the years the page has been modified to reflect my employment changes, but this past week it got a through going-over by the Editorial Community and one effect was that I found myself defending certain factoids about myself (by for instance searching out online references to the Chairman's Awards I won at Sun).  I completely understand why citation verification is important, and I want Wikipedia to be as authoritative as possible...but...

One factoid erasure that really surprised me was the fact that I have long been a follower of Indian guru Meher Baba.  It was surprising because it is such a personal detail and because it was deleted not only from my page, but my name automatically also disappeared from another Wikipedia page listing followers.  For the record, I've been following Meher Baba for more than half my life (since 1979), and the pursuit has brought a lot richness and self-understanding to my life.  Hopefully this citation will re-establish the fact officially (can one self-verify?  I'm sure the Community will let me know).

I was delighted to read coverage of the announcement from Sean Michael Kerner that recalled the Great Knitting Incident of 2007.  That I knit in public is another factoid that I'd like to see included on my Wikipedia page at some point (and I've already written about it at length here).  If you're interested in learning to knit to test out whether it helps you concentrate...there are tons of wonderful online resources to help you now.  It's a great thinking tool in my experience.

Anyway...Rest assured I'm in rapid learning mode about all things Wikimedia now.  I've cruised through lots of recent management communications (kindly sent along by Erik Möller) so I can be reasonably productive as soon as I get back to San Francisco.  I really appreciate the ton of well-wishing messages and new followers the announcement engendered, and I'm so looking forward to serving the Wikimedia Community.  Thanks everybody.

Ada was a Lady

Augusta Ada Lovelace was arguably the first tech writer, and almost certainly the first computer geek groupie. Some folks arranged an international Ada Lovelace Day Blogfest today to call attention to Women in Technology, and I agreed (some time ago) to participate.  Probably I would have spaced it, but a handy nag just came up in Facebook (...see? FB is good for something besides re-finding your 7th grade boyfriend afterall...).

Okay, here's a blurb about a woman in technology who I very much admire:

This is a picture of Allison Randal (taken by the wonderful James Duncan Davidson...the original is hosted here on Flickr). 

I think Allison is the bomb...seriously.  She's served as the President of the Perl Foundation.  She's long been one of the program chairs for OSCON.  She's a code contributor to CPAN, the Parrot project and I suspect some other projects as well...*and* she still manages to be quite beautiful and poised through all her geekiness.  She's fun to hang out with (although now that she lives in South Africa I'm not seeing her so much around the playground).  Have to say I admire that whole "I'm moving to South Africa" thing too...I remember being that brave at some point in my life.

So, there you have it.  My Ada-Day heroine is Allison.  Who is yours?

Lunch meeting with Alolita Sharma

Having lunch with my pal Alolita, di
Discussing opensource.org content overhaul. Nice to have her energy on our side.

Pre-OSCON Frivolity

Monty and Simon planning World Domination

Google Android first real "customer" for Apache Harmony

I was gonna blog about this topic from scratch, but this post by my Apache colleague, Stefano Mazzocchi, does a good job of explaining how Android makes use of the Apache Harmony class libraries with a new, Open Source VM called Dalvik.

Given Sun's continuing refusal to actually address Geir Magnussen's Open Letter concerning TCK licensing with anything other than marketeering, this is both a brave and perhaps a brash thing for Google to have done...and I for one can't wait to see how or if Sun responds.

You might think their response will be swift, but sometimes Sun has a "Bambi in the Headlights" reaction to game changing moves in the marketplace (witness the many months that lapsed between IBM's first announcement of Eclipse in November 2001 and Sun's eventual response).

Open Data @ FOO

There are no less than four sessions about the concept of "Open Data" at this year's FOO (last year there was one). 

Open Data is something I've been interested in for a couple of years now as a natural extension of Open Source (not unlike Open Standards).  The idea is that your online data should be available for your use freely.  There are still many large datastores that treat data you submit (or that is gathered about you) as a "proprietary resource".  So for instance, how easy is it to manage your photos online?  If you get tired of one photo aggregation system, how easy is it to transfer your assets to another system?  Do you "own" those photos?  You certainly own the copyright, but do you own them from a practical point of view if you can't manage them? 

I'll make more comments after I've attended the sessions.  I'm especially interested in the session led by Mark Hedlund.  Also, Julian Cash is here and will no doubt be talking about Move My Data.org.

Stalking Tantek Çelik

I must here take a pause to admit a private vice.  I am stalking Tantek Çelik.

Every day my cellphone beeps new SMS's that tell me Tantek's whereabouts.  Its gotten to the point that my husband is suspicious of my interest in Tantek.  I mean afterall, he's one of the Top Ten Male Hotties Of The Web.  But that's not how I came to be his stalker.  I run into Tantek at conferences, but he's nearly always surrounded by people.  I wanted a more singular conversation.

So, last year when Dodgeball started to get popular in San Francisco (before the Google acquisition that seems to have gone awry)...I signed up and asked Tantek to be my contact because I was hoping to figure out a less congested place to meet up with him.  I'm big on tea dates at Samovar.

What I wasn't counting on was the sheer enthusiasm with with Tantek broadcasts his daily movements.  It's not uncommon for me to get 10 messages about Tantek in a 24 hour period.  I don't know that much about the whereabouts of my kid.

And I've gotten to where I worry a bit about Tantek (as a Mom...heck, I'm nearly old enough to be his Mom).  So for instance, I'm happy when I see that he's at Mission Cliffs or munching brown rice sushi at Whole Foods.  But I think he drinks too much coffee.  And I worry when he's on the occasional pub crawl...will he make it home in one piece?  On the other hand, I've learned about a few places from him, and I've found that we go to some of the same places.

The really funny thing is, I've still never met with him.  Tantek, if you're reading this...can we just make an appointment?

Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit (day one- afternoon)

After the usual yummy Google Cafeteria lunch...on to the afternoon panels.

Can I first offer a couple of hopefully helpful (if unsolicited) public comments to the organizers of this event?  Chris DiBona recently blogged his frustration with participating on panels, and I have to say I agree with him.  People like us are asked a hundred times a year to be on panels, and there are definitely better and worse ones.  Moderator-driven panels are not nearly as interesting as audience driven panels, but conference organizers keep forgetting this.  The energy-level in this room goes up when the audience is allowed to ask the questions and down when the panelists act like "talking heads".  Also, cutting general mingle time down in favor of more panel time is a mistake.  The interesting thing is the mingling, not the lecture.  One reason I love O'Reilly conferences is that they have comprehended these facts.  So, in future please allow more mingle time in the schedule (night-time "fun" events are not mingle time...nobody wants to talk about work at them).

The first afternoon panel was about getting more applications onto Linux.  Lots of Industry folks (see schedule).  There were comments about the usefulness of the Linux Standard Base (they all liked it...but afterall they are on an invited panel ;-) ).  There were snipes about still having to "pick a target" when app vendors choose which versions of Linux to validate and support.  Lots of questions about how to make money.  Quote of the panel was Mike Milinkovich Executive Director of Eclipse.org saying..."If you're a small ISV and your only platform is Linux, it SUCKS being you"...(he did have the good grace to say that he was hoping to get out of the room alive after the comment).

Next panel was the obligatory legal one...this one about GPLv3 and its effect on the Linux ecosystem.  Interests (in to GPLv3) included patents, standardization, fragmentation and aggregation such as Linux Foundation.  IMHO, there was more than a little pandering to secular interests (adverts for initiatives championed by their employers).  I personally asked a question about Open Standards and the need for a definition there, which Andy Updegrove agreed with (no surprise, but it was nice).

At 3:00pm, I had to take a call (it's a miracle my cellphone didn't call me away before now)....