- DEFCON: Why Conference Harassment Matters: The Ada Initiative tackles the problem of harassment at conferences, using DEFCON to frame the issue.
- In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real: The New York Times reviews recent incidents of harassment in gaming and the increasing attention it is getting from parties with the power to create positive change (including from video game makers themselves).
- When Will I Use Math?: “I asked a variety of people in different careers about the use of math in their lives.” Insights from women and men in a variety of professions.
- New councillor, two fellows created at InternetNZ AGM: “Brenda Wallace has been elected as the latest new member of InternetNZ’s ruling council. She will serve a three-year term.”
- Women and the Software Industry: The Truth About Stereotypes, Retention and the Gender Gap: “ Unconsciously monitoring your every action and interaction takes valuable energy away from solving the problems at hand and growing in your career. It’s totally destructive to a person’s self-confidence and causes her to question whether or not she really belongs at her job.”
- Men of Silicon Valley: We’re Sexist, We Just Don’t Know It: “We like to pride ourselves on being at the cutting edge – technologically, economically, and socially. I know sexism has been a big debate around here lately, so I want to relate some of what I’ve seen as a man who’s relatively new to the scene. In short, there’s definitely a problem.”
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Egads, could the comments on that last one proved the point a little more? If I hadn’t seen the same crap like that over and over and over again, I’d almost think they were staged to display precisely the sort of behaviour being decried in the first place. But sadly, those sorts of comments are becoming normal to me in these spheres. I am officially bummed out.
Last week seemed to be a pretty bad one for bumming-out comments! After some of the other stuff I saw, the Silicon Valley post was actually a bit of a relief in terms of the balance between clueless comments and pushback. But I definitely have a new appreciation for moderated spaces after all of that.
Readercon came out with a really good apology for their board’s wrist-slap of a harasser (the board has resigned), a reversal (now enforcing of the permanent ban policy), explanation of why this is important, plans for improvement and training of staff, invitation for participation: http://readercon.org/publicstatement.htm It’s all kinds of good.
Relatedly, I thought this in-depth entry (“An Old-School She-Geek”, thoughts about fandom, feminism, insecurity, and Readercon) and discussion in comments was interesting: http://chomiji.livejournal.com/390398.html.