(I apologize in advance if this isn't the appropriate list for this; let me know which one is if this isn't it.) Below is a letter from Sarah Riggs @ UNC Chapel Hill; she's conducting a study as a follow-up to the FLOSSPOLS study that sadly showed a large gender gap in participation from women in open source communities. She's looking to talk to men as well as women. Please contact her directly if you're interested (and thanks!) ~m --- From: Sarah Riggs <diceratops@xxxxxxxxx> My name is Sarah Riggs and I am a Master's Degree seeking candidate at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill. I am conducting research which addresses the large gender gap in the open source community. In 2006, a team of researchers sought to capture an image of women contributors to open source software, as it was clear that women made up a very small minority of participants (Nafus, Leach, & Kriegar, 2006). Several proactive members of your community then implemented programs aimed at increasing the number of women in open source; however, little research has been done since this study. By conducting qualitative interviews, my intention is to collect narratives about the experiences of open source participants. I will ask questions about your experiences joining and participating in the open source community. Your answers will be used to to identify ways in which more women can feel comfortable joining the community and contributing to open source software development. I would like to hear thoughts from women as well as men who are open source contributors. Please consider participating whether you are just starting out, or have been contributing to open source for many years. it is important for this research to obtain a diverse group of respondents with varied backgrounds so this research constructs a representative narrative of experience. I will be conducting interviews through July 30th, 2011, and I will be happy to meet you at a time and date at your convenience. Those volunteers who are selected will be allowed to decide the method of participation, and phone calls, face-to-face interaction, or Internet Relay Chat are valid means of communication. Exhaustive efforts will be made to ensure that any information you give me is confidential, and you are always free to stop the interview at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. I can be best reached by e-mail, smriggs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Thank you for your time, Sarah Riggs Principal Investigator University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science Reference: Nafus, D., Leach, J. & Kriegar, B. (2006). Gender: Integrated Report of Findings(Deliverable – 16).Retrieved from Free/Libre/Open Source Software: Policy Support,http://www.flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf _______________________________________________ advisory-board mailing list advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board
