I joined Ubuntu-Women when the mailing list began earlier this year. It was another in the growing tradition of -women groups in F/OSS. After a few false starts, the group began to gather a variety of women from all over the world in it’s pursuit to bring women together and get them more involved. I know plenty of women who are involved with F/OSS, but this Ubuntu group went to the furthest reaches of the planet and many very active women in F/OSS I’d never encountered before surfaced. This is cool.
But now I’m seeing that this group will have to face the same problem all -women groups face at some point or another: Staying friendly, on topic and not turning into another source of technical support.
On topic means sticking to the goals of the group, which generally are providing role models and working to dispel the myth that there are no women in F/OSS (yay I’m not alone!) and working to help women who may be less inclined to jump into technical discussions or use the tools (mailing lists, IRC, etc) to get involved. Ubuntu-Women is a fantastic starting point for getting women involved in general F/OSS, as the users of Ubuntu are so often new to the whole F/OSS world. I really enjoy teaching women the proper ways of navigating a mailing list or IRC channel.
The goal of a -women group is NOT to provide a private club for girls to hang out and keep themselves isolated from the rest of the project. So we come to the heart of the problem, whether technical discussions such as “how do I install $program?” be allowed on -women group lists.
I must respond with a resounding “NO!”
I am an avid supporter of LinuxChix (after all, I coordinate a chapter) and its network of support and friendship, sometimes I even find myself forgetting that there are so few women in F/OSS because I’m constantly exposed to a number of brilliant women through LinuxChix.
But -women groups are a different beast. By getting into technical help on the list we become counter-productive and open ourselves up to be flamed, perhaps rightfully so. Why?
1. We are further isolating ourselves rather than getting involved
2. We are duplicating a service already offered by official -user lists
3. We are providing a comfortable environment ourselves rather than joining the community and improving the atmosphere of acceptance as a whole
All these work AGAINST gaining equality for women in F/OSS, and this is where the groups can be dangerous.
Now the trick to this is remaining friendly while redirecting the technical questions that come to the list.
</soapbox>