Moar info == better choices

nikki — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 23:34:09 +0000

This isn't going to make any sense unless you've read this first

All of the participation here and here has been AWESOME. I appreciate and respect everyone's input and perspective on this.

If you're not a member of drupal.org and/or if you're concerned about posting publicly, please email your thoughts to: nycdiversity@drnikki.org. You can also contact me through any of the usual channels.

Step two of the plan I outlined said that the best way to find out what's happening is to ask. So, I'm asking. I think that my use of the word survey might have been incorrect there. Surveys are often associated with boring, biased and skewed quantitative data. That's not what this is about.* Could the questions on the survey be a bikeshed? Yup. Could we agonize over the best wording and format to eliminate leading and cognitive bias? Yup. Do any of us have time for that? Probably not.

So, here's a link to some questions that YOU should fill out. Everything you say is anonymous and any identifying information will be withheld.**
Total number of survey responses as of June 16:3

I want to re-iterate that while this began with me being the only woman in the room and with my desire to change that, I don't want to re-exclude any other groups who feel excluded, and I don't want to limit the definition of "woman" in this discussion.

Please spread this to women not just in NYC (or even in drupal). I think one of the biggest challenges we're going to face is how to reach out to the people who are so far removed.

*For what it's worth, I have a background in qualitative research. I wrote a qualitative master's thesis on the experience of women within an organization. If you've got a lot of time, or are particularly interested in feminist epistemologies, transformative experiences and/or grassroots activism enjoy.

**And, in that thesis above, all of the participants had their anonymity protected because they couldn't speak freely otherwise. I think it's a safe default.

Stop with the same

nikki — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:00:36 +0000

Update: Just so it doesn't get lost, there is also this post on g.d.o: http://groups.drupal.org/node/237188

During introductions at last night's New York City Drupal User Group (NYCDUG) meetup, each person said a variation of "Hi my name is ________. My drupal.org name is __________. I'm a _________ at ___________." Some included how long they'd been working with drupal, usually because it had only been a few months. It's a nice thing to share because it reminds the rest of us to make sure we're not leaving anyone out when we casually mention advanced concepts. I think the community is pretty good at embracing the tentative and uncertain beginners and making them feel included.

When it was my turn, I followed the pattern with one small deviation: "Hi, I'm Nikki Stevens. My drupal.org name is drnikki. I'm a senior developer at LBi, an ad agency in Flatiron. And I'm the only girl in the room."

"I'm @drnikki, senior developer, and the only girl in the room…"

— Sam Kottler (@samkottler) June 6, 2012

"I'm @drnikki, senior developer, and the only girl in the room…" #Drupal #NYC
— Forest Mars (@forestmars) June 6, 2012

There was silence as people scanned the room to see if it was true. Then the men began to clap. My first reaction (because I'm a sarcastic asshole) was that they were applauding as if to say "Oh, congratulations! Look who's got a vagina! Ooh, fancy fancy vagina girl!" Luckily, that's not the case, though it still makes me laugh to think about it. Just the opposite - a few people came up to me wishing there were more women and asking how they could help.

I believe most of the men in that room would like to see more women at NYCDUG meetups. If I'm wrong about that, please don't correct me.

@forestmars @drnikkiDrupal NYC is now down to only one woman in the room? Wow, we'd gotten it up to 4 or 5. #stillsofuckedup
— Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) June 6, 2012

While this is obviously part of larger societal issues regarding the underrepresentation of women in tech, treatment of girls in STEM classes, and the myriad of workplace injustices, I just want to talk about adults in the New York City Drupal User Group.

When there are 2144 members of the New York Drupal community, why was I the only woman in the room?* If we assume that the community mirrors the national average**, 25% of technology jobs are held by women. That would mean that there are 536 women in the group.

There were 45 people there last night
44/1608 or 2.73% of men attended the meetup
1/536 or 0.18% of women attended the meetup

Now, this issue isn't just about women* although that was the catalyst. The issue is about what seems to be a trend of homogeneity at NYCDUG meetings. This is bad. Diversity is good.

This is what we need to do

Improve the integrity of source data
While I stand by my fuzzy math above, it's still pretty fuzzy. We need solid data so that we're not just guessing about attendance and membership ratios. This includes:
- Generating a report of member demographics. Let's start with the demographics available and add if necessary.
- Developing a method to track who attends vs who signs up.
Ask people why they don't come
Existing members are self-selected, so we know they're already interested in Drupal. How do we get them to participate? Let's ask. Again, we can start by distributing a survey to the community asking them to self-identify and rank their participation. Topics might include:
- Why aren't they attending?
- Would a non-male DUG make them feel more included?
- Do they feel under-represented in DUG leadership?
- Is it simply a timing issue? (Which I don't buy)
- Do women just not like meeting and talking about cool stuff? (Not this either)
Brainstorm ways to get the under-represented people to attend
After the data is collected, we should meet and discuss ways to increase participation. I'm happy to pick a time and place to gather and encourage people to come up with actionable ideas to make the group more diverse.

I fully support all efforts aimed at increasing the NYCDUG membership both in numbers and diversity. But for now, let's focus on cultivating and encouraging the community we already have. As far as I know, this is the only local initiative to promote diverse participation. If you want to get involved, hit me up on twitter (@drnikki), IRC (drnikki) or email me nikki@drnikki.org

*As of June 7, there are 2074 members of the NYC drupal group. Additionally, there are 263 members on Meetup.com. I'd estimate that there is a significant overlap between the two groups, but probably not 100%. Let's be conservative and say that there's a 70% overlap - that's an additional 77 users from Meetup.com. So combining the two groups, there's 2144 people who could potentially attend an event.

**I use the National Center for Women and Information Technology's numbers. I'm not sure if they're including project managers, and any number of other titles that would be included in the Drupal ecosphere.

***This is absolutely not related to any conversations about gender identity/identification and the way it's represented on drupal.org. Not at all. In. No. Way. I realize that there are more options than just male and female. The ultimate goal is to increase the attendance of everyone who is underrepresented, including all gender variants.

**** mad credit to jhodgon and ashedryden for brainstorming this with me in the drupalchix IRC room.

Testing with Selenium

nikki — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:25:57 +0000

In case you missed my presentation this afternoon, you can get slides, see tests, read notes and etc. etc at https://github.com/drnikki/Drupal-Camp-NYC-10

If you were in my presentation and had a question we didn't cover, check out the README.txt.

Tags:

drupalcampnyc