What are you doing about diversity?


The old debate about the lack of women on the speakers rosters at conferences is doing the rounds again. Jeremy Keith has a good round up if you’ve managed to miss it.

For me, I’m going to think local for now. I’m going to put my hand up, I’m going to say yes when asked, I’m going to try to do a good job, and I’m going to keep looking for other great chick talent and to do what I can to make people who make the decisions know about the talent that’s out there.

What are you going to do?

(If you’re in London, you can come along and be a friendly and supportive audience member at the NMK Event ‘Usability: Whose problem is it anyway’ on Monday night (26/2) and witness my local action for diversity in action!).

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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
tech decentral » links for 2007-02-26
Posted on:
February 27, 2007 at 12:29 am

[...] disambiguity - ยป What are you doing about diversity? I’m thinking local too… thinking what I can do and what I can get others around me to do. (tags: gender conferences diversity) [...]

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Gordon
Posted on:
February 28, 2007 at 1:56 pm

I’ve always had a weird relationship with this issue. I work in a male dominated industry (IT) but my profession is probably tipped in favour of females. It’s certainly at least 50/50 if not more.

So, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. Hiring people because they are the best person for the job.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Anne 2.0 » Blog Archive » Working with the Architecture of the Space
Posted on:
March 1, 2007 at 12:31 am

[...] There’s much more to say on this topic and it hooks into a bunch of conversations that have been happening on mailing lists and in blogs. For my own part, I want to work with the social architecture that exists in technology blogging because I don’t see much chance of changing anything if I fight it. Plus, the idea of fighting it makes it seem like an us versus them situation–and that’s definitely not what it is, because everyone benefits if more talented, smart people are able to voice their opinions on technology. I’m also going to take Leisa’s advice and think local. [...]

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Meri
Posted on:
March 1, 2007 at 9:12 pm

I started Make Me A Speaker! :-)

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
leisa.reichelt
Posted on:
March 1, 2007 at 11:00 pm

yay Meri! I was wondering who was behind that. Great idea :)

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Leith @ Birth of a Startup
Posted on:
March 2, 2007 at 5:32 am

Hear! Hear! I agree with your approach totally. Lets not winge, lets just get out there. Getting more women into this space isn’t about forcing the issue, but about being an example that other woman want to follow, intriguing them with the fact its possible to be a woman in technology and that not be a negative thing.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Rachel Dixon
Posted on:
March 3, 2007 at 10:22 am

i’m with Alex. Too much for me. If I was a stalker it might be interesting, but I was never much of a one for IRC - it simply requires too much time at the keyboard (thus, it’s most useful for programmers and students). I’m afraid the phone is a much more useful substitute in terms of really knowing what people want to tell you.

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Everything Is Design » Blog Archive » Gender and ethnic diversity in UX, Death of Information Architecture, and . . .Toronto:Chicago, user experience, interaction design, information architecture, usability, Asian American stuff. Mostly.
Posted on:
March 3, 2007 at 3:59 pm

[...] Pretty good discussion being brought up on Victor Lombardi’s Noise Between Stations, Zeldman, Anil Dash, Josh Porter’s Bokardo, Kottke, Disambiguity, about the relative dearth of diversity in our workplace but given the country’s climate towards race, ethnicity, immigration, gender, sexuality, class, faith — all the social stratification mechanisms — and most people’s tendency to dismiss out of hand, and a general failure to either explain or dig into the issues, much less do anything about them, I fear it will be shortlived. [...]