Diversity in OSS | 4th | week 3 |.
In this lesson, we’re going to focus on the importance of respecting and encouraging diversity in Open Source Software. While the word open appears in Open Source Software, it doesn’t mean there’s always a friendly and welcoming environment. Badly managed projects can violate this rule and sometimes close-minded people can be involved in an open source project. There are many kinds of diversity that we can talk about, such as race and national origin, sex and gender identity, geographical and language issues, as well as just acceptance of different opinions, religious beliefs, political views, and methods and opinions about how projects should be worked on. While it’s just generally the right thing to do, to accept contributions from many places and encourage diversity, it also leads to a better and stronger product. Software engineering, and the computer industry in general, has been dominated by men, in particular white men, for a very long time. So, one has to be careful to not perpetuate this. While there have been many cases of unwelcome behavior at high tech conferences over time, The Linux Foundation has a very stringent policy against this and dealing with it. Conference speakers should avoid various kinds of behavior which, even if accidental or offensive to people. Any misogynistic, homophobic, racist statements, et cetera, and mailing lists, discussion groups, should be properly beaten down and reported to moderators and senior members of a community.
by Online Course Lectures
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