Embodying Hacker Culture in Women-friendly Free Software Groups

Codes and Conduct Workshop, 1920 November 2007, Lancaster

Embodying Hacker Culture in Womenfriendly Free Software Groups

Yuwei LinESRC National Centre for eSocial Science

University of Manchester


Free/Libre Open Source Software● Software whose source code are available for

users to run, copy, study, modify, improve, and redistribute.

● Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.


Free Software and Safe Living● Security holes or software glitches: users can not

only report a bug, but also define what is a bug. ● Transparency and openness: “Given enough

eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” (Eric Raymond)● Peer production● Freedom of re/configuring and re/designing

technology● Taking control


Hacking

codinghandson activities

tinkeringhandling tools

working with machinesbuilding prototypes

(all these activities originate from engineering culture and are prominently male defined)


Motivations of Getting Involved

Just for funReputationMutuality

GratificationJob required

Selfhelp: to fix a bug at handGod told me so



What is visible?

mencodinghacking

taking control'hacker' as a homogeneous social category

8Codes and Conduct Workshop, 1920 November 2007, Lancaster

Problems● overemphasis on coding and hacking● visibility of women in free software● current societal inequality and knowledge gap


Barriers of Including Women● Cyberbulling & trolling, sexist & discriminative languages● Unfriendly and inhumane online environment (e.g. RTFM)● gendered role in FLOSS development inequality of different types of knowledge & women's reduced role● Housework (childrearing) – lack of time● Lack of role models, mentors and support● Education (official curriculum, experiences)● A maledefined competitive mindset (reputation, flaming)● Any other reasons that differ from culture to culture, nation to nation, region to region?


Women's Voices and Networks


Beyond numbers and the binary gender codes and biological differences

Contexualisation & Embodiment


Methods & Data Sources● virtual ethnography: DebianWomen (mixed sex) &

GenderChanger Academy (single sex)● informal conversations● content analysis (webpages, mailing list) with the

help of Text Mining + Corpus Analysis techniques● who (memberships), said what (topics), done what

(actions)● limits: neither real life nor real time


IMCWomen


GenderChanger Academy


Belonging to a group

keyword-in-context (KWIC) concordance


Helping


Participating


DebianWomen● training and providing support for

women interested in Debian and FLOSS

● organising online tutorials, bugsquashing parties, mentoring

● 9 female Debian Developers (total 1049 DD to date 20Nov07, 0.8% women)



Female Memberships● computer security analysts● programmers● system administrators● translators● anthropologists


Bodies and Technologies● ICTs used: mailing lists, irc, cvs, wiki, webpages● common participants: names● issues: events, problems, sharing information

(forwarding messages)● (technologicaloriented) experiences embedded

in the conversation about fixing problems or bugs● emotions


I’m one of these males on #debianwoman and mailling list. I found your “debianfriendly” project idea extremely interesting. I’d like a more collaborative and less competitive Debian world and I think that’s exactly why DW has been so successful.—Carlos (comment) March 31, 2005 @ 8:51 am

I’m not a developer and have never been on debianwomen or any other developer site/group/list but I use debianuser a lot and do think there’s something gettting very struck about the culture: a focus on programming and fixing compatibility problems but in a rather macho way. The result is that we don’t have a good hardware compatibility list for Debian, we don’t have good documentation, we don’t have good ways the expertise on, say, the user list, creates FAQs etc. I’m not sure what the answer is but I think it is linked with a stereotypically Western male gendered component to the problem. If there’s a way I can help I’ll try but time is very limited sadly.Chris (male, end user of Debian for years now)—Chris Evans (comment)April 10, 2005 @ 3:30 pm


The DW project got my attention because it promoted a “positive, welcoming and friendly atmosphere” still I did not try to participate because I’m, well… male.

I would very much like to see a “positive, welcoming and friendly atmosphere” Debian project for all people.

—Tim Blokdijk (comment)April 06, 2005 @ 4:07 pm

Sometimes I get worry about the idea of the “invasion” by men in womengroups… but is interesting to see this places like “friendly places” where everybody can have access to (without gender specific).—gaba (comment)April 09, 2005 @ 2:19 am


Where the joy lies?

●SELFREFLECTION● (Emotion + Body + Technology)


But we have achieved *a lot*. I don't feel anymore it is a taboo to talk about females within Debian (be it Developers, Translators, Users or whatever form of involvement), and are no longer stuck with XXL night-gown sized tshirts in Debconf (LOL). To me it has made a great difference and my involvement in the project feels more "normalized" to me.

Also, in RL meetings, the default assumption that the attending females were $girlfriends of some male "actually" interested in the meeting has decreassed significantly.

I don't know whether it is related, but since Debian Women exists the feeling of a "social" community on top of the "technical" community has been much reinforced. This might be my subjective perception of "belonging" to this community, improved by the existance of other females in it, and other members of the project being welcoming and inclusive about us. (DWZL220106)


% M W U200506 61,88 36,78 1,34200507 56,01 40,72 3,27200508 60,02 37,49 2,49200509 52,66 42,66 4,68200510 50,3 42,37 7,33200511 58,05 36,57 5,38200512 65,14 30,58 4,28200601 59,69 37,89 2,42200602 70,8 26,96 2,24200603 70,72 28,4 0,88200604 73,54 25,58 0,88

As one can see, even if I can't "identify" one third of the people, I have identified the most contributing people.

I see an interesting tendency for men participation to increase while women participation decreases. I already have this feeling for quite a long time but it seems that numbers are proving me correct. Is it good or bad: I leave this up to you, people...:)

(CPDW250406)

Statistics about the IRC channel


I'm not sure if it's inherent aggression in male communication style as much as it's simply how communication on a "realtime" textbased medium goes. A situation where are several people in one "area" holding several different conversations is much different than say Jabber or AIM where you are speaking directly to one person, and you wait for their response before you type again. Sometimes comments get lost in the shuffle because people are trying to follow multiple conversations, other times that conversation thread simply dies out. I don't attribute this to inherent aggression of males, but rather the way conversations flow on IRC.

I tried to introduce family members to IRClike gathering areas, thinking it would be worthwhile to actually be able to hold conversations with more than one person at a time. It very much didn't work. They felt the same way that people were "talking over" them, ignoring them that they couldn't keep up with everything going on because one group of people was talking about one thing, another about a completely different topic and yet another group of people poking fun at each other. They gave up because they just couldn't catch up and keep up with the conversation flows.

(PLDW260406)Practice + Experience + Body + Technology


GenderChangers Academy● since Nov. 1999

● ladies only● /etc eclectic tech carnival

● The /etc is named after the directory in which *nix systems store system configuration files.

● DIY or DIO (handson training)● exchanging computer related skills

● grass root and local


The Eclectic Tech Carnival


Memberships● system and network administrators● anthropologists● artists● musicians● accountants● social workers




events in 2007● September 3: A bit of everything. Get together,

exchange experiences, lounge, cook, eat and watch a geek movie.

● October 1: Computer Hardware Crash Course● November 5: Introducing Free Software.

Installation, configuration and use of a few of the best FLOSS applications

● December 3: Building and managing a Website: HTML and CSS


Ladyfest.net● Ladyfest is a volunteer run

DIY festival of music, art, performance and workshops. It helps to showcase the skills and talents of a diverse group of people.

● Lecture Evening Virtual Identities and female Internet Networks. Sara and Nancy from the Genderchanger Academy speaking about female networks (IRC)


How Girls Make Knowledge● coding knowledge is still considered as more

advanced (reproduction of hegemonic mainstream hacker culture)

● layered & networked & embodied epistemic cultures● rationality + sensitivity = hybrid: femininities

(complex, layered, strategic, adaptive, emotional) + masculinities (disconnected, emotionally avoidant, instrumental, simplistic)


Achievements

● visibility & awareness raising● identity building (exploring & experimenting)● knowledge sharing, mutual learning and support

(“a lowRTFM environment)● creating a more intimate collaborative space● beyond the simplistic categories of gender talks,

it's women's play embodied in these online narratives; a women's version of 'just for fun'


Women's Play on GNU/Linux● strengthens the importance of networking, sharing

experiences and problemsolving tips, of socialising and social capitals in FLOSS dev.

● creating a more harmonised & reflexive space● In Janice Raymond's words: 'The empowering of

female friendship can create the conditions for a new feminist politics in which the personal is most passionately political'.

● resistance & change; sameness and differences


Mihmointeraction designer at Red Hat's engineering department

cofounder of GnomeWomen

LinuxChix appears to be succeeding on these fronts. However, as large as the group seems to be, I'm somewhat skeptical that it's produced many open source *developers*. Think of it this way,

only men write books and women and men read books. It's good that there are literate women, but if the books are created only by

men, then a male perspective will dominate. I use this analogy because I have thought for a long time that programming is a new

literarcy, and that as computers become more and more pervasive in everyday life, those who fail to gain some ability in

programming will be left behind.http://mihmo.livejournal.com/6071.html


Anne NicolasDirector of Engineering at Parisbased Mandriva

As a woman, I feel like a human being working with other human beings (I hope so :) ). So one may encounter

relationship problems in this team as in any other field. It's hard to avoid bias, and of course the Linux world is also

suffering because it. But I must say I haven't had any major problems until now (I cross my fingers twice :) ). I think the most important words are open mind and dialogue, sane

discussions and respect. Yes, there are very few women in the Linux world, but it's up to them to contribute and to

become part of it. It's just a question of interest.http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20071022#interview


Whose Wonder Woman?Whose Female Hacker? Global or Local versions?

Economy & Finance

Embodying Hacker Culture in Women-friendly Free Software Groups