[Badgirlz-list] Women's Invisible Contribution to Free and O…

15/11/2011
Freie Universität Berlin: Vortrag
"Women's
Invisible Contribution to Free and Open Source Software". Free and Open
Source Software (FOSS) development is seen by many as a technical, but
also social phenomenon of the past several decades. The FOSS community
bases itself on collaborative principles which lead to fast code
evolution, a diminishing distance between users and developers, by
allowing them to work together in order to produce a high quality code,
available to all through a free license.
Even if the FOSS community values inclusion and cooperation as basic
principles, it persists as being rather homogeneous by its social
structure. There are many challenges for women to join the FOSS
community. Research shows a one per cent participation of women in the
FOSS development projects. Even if many do not agree with this rather
reductive number, we recognize women represent a minority in FOSS.
This lecture will propose a critical point of view of the free software
development contribution model, and will focus on some of the reasons of
the absence of women into FOSS, of the way the code-centered philosophy
of development that exclude or invisibilize many users and
contributors, including women. In a follow-up discussion will be
identified some of the possible ways FOSS communities could act to
include more women and marginalized groups among the contributors.
(Lecture will be held in English)
 FU, Informatik, (Great Lecture Hall - Computer Science Department FU).
Takustr. 9 Berlin


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