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Our Blogs Open Sauce Do women matter in FOSS projects?
Our Blogs Open Sauce Do women matter in FOSS projects? | Do women matter in FOSS projects? |
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| by Sam Varghese | |
| Friday, 26 December 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 2 Maybe people are scared to offend those who matter in the Debian project - after all many of these advocates make their living off FOSS. You wouldn't like to offend those who might, one day, be in a position to make decisions that have an impact on your finances. Featured Whitepaper
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One of the Debian women developers, Miriam Ruiz , spoke out about the issue and this is heartening. Unless things are like this are highlighted, they aren't going to go away. The reaction from the Debian project was, for the most part, encouraging. There were some, however, who seemed to be bereft of a clue when it came to the fallout - which was that Mouette lost his posting privileges for this mailing list, a penalty levied on him by Debian project leader Steve McIntyre. For example, Rafael Laboissiere accused me of "horrendously" breaking the rules of good journalism - and then went on to demonstrate his ignorance of the craft I've practised for the last 30 years. Laboissiere was unable to understand why McIntyre's reaction to the issue was not some kind of punishment by the project. McIntyre removed a privilege afforded to developers - is that not some form of penalty? And as McIntyre was acting in his capacity as leader of the project, it was clearly a penalty imposed by the project. It certainly was not imposed by the Queen of England. Then Laboissiere went on to question how I could class the post as offensive - despite the fact that a blog consists, for the most part, of a writer's opinion. And, finally, he questioned why Mouette had not been contacted for comment. This really made me laugh - Mouette enunciated his views clearly, then repeated and rammed it home on his blog which appeared on Planet Debian. And after that he should be given a third chance to comment? No journalist would give a person that privilege - it only results in spin, "clarifications", and dissembling. Mouette had his say. He can now live with the consequences. Amid all the moralising about good journalism, Laboissiere forgot that some people who belong to the project were clearly offended and upset. Who was important in this scenario - the man who carelessly spews offensive material and appears to have no intention of stopping? Or the women in the project? |
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