[OpenStack Foundation] First diversity working group notes

Dave Neary dneary at redhat.com
Sun Jun 21 16:30:40 UTC 2015


Hi,

I have been very pleased to see Tristan and Roland bring up time zones
in the context of the diversity discussion, it is also a concern for
other communities like OPNFV, which has a much higher proportion of
active Asian participants than other projects I have been a member of.

In that community, we have had a lot of real-time meetings, focussed
between 9am EDT and 1pm EDT (I think that's 4pm UTC to 8pm UTC) - which
means PST participants regularly getting up for 6am meetings, and
Japanese participants staying up for 1am or 2am meetings. And we have
very few Australian participants.

I continue to believe that real-time meetings of a geographically
distributed community are, by their nature, exclusionary. The only way
to be inclusive in such communities is to *avoid real-time meetings as
much as possible* - weekly, monthly or quarterly meetings do not do that.

In the (rare) situations where regular real-time meetings are required
for the functioning of a group, meeting times should rotate so as to be
inconvenient for all equally. If you think it's OK to request a portion
of a group to attend a 3am meeting, then you should be prepared to
attend one once in a while too.

Thanks,
Dave.


On 06/19/2015 06:51 PM, Egle Sigler wrote:
> Hello Roland,
> 
> Sorry this time slot did not work for you, as I am sure it did not for a
> lot of other people. There is no one time that will work for everyone,
> therefore we will be having meetings at alternating times. 
> 
> Please check out the full IRC
> log: http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/diversity_working_group/2015/diversity_working_group.2015-06-19-18.00.log.html
> 
> There you will see that geography and time slots were discussed, as well
> as how best to accommodate it. 
> 
> There will be two new doodles sent out to pick days/times for different
> time zones.
> 
> Thank you,
> Egle
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2015 08:38:10 +1000
> Subject: Re: [OpenStack Foundation] First diversity working group notes
> From: roland at aptira.com
> To: ushnishtha at hotmail.com
> CC: foundation at lists.openstack.org
> 
> Sorry I couldn't make it. I woke up, turned off my alarm and promptly
> fell asleep again.
> 
> I notice the only Asian attendees were from Aptira. We're already
> heavily invested in OpenStack Foundation workings and Kavit and Tristan
> are used to these overnight meetings (and I clearly have some catching
> up to do) through their participation in the board, which has similar
> scheduling.
> 
> I wonder how many people simply didn't bother because of the unfriendly
> timeslot (4am in Australia, 2am in China).
> 
> I must re-iterate my earlier email: timeslots that are convenient for
> any single geography are exclusionary. Meetings must be scheduled so
> that all regions have a reasonable opportunity to participate and
> discussions/decisions at meetings must remain open until a full cycle of
> meetings has had a chance to process them.
> 
> I'll also re-iterate a point I made at the last board meeting: taking a
> poll of people who showed up to something is a really poor way of
> working out what the general population want or need. The results will
> only reflect the needs of those who are engaged, whereas the point of
> the diversity group is to foster engagement from those who may be
> excluded for some reason.
> 
> Don't make this group an echo chamber.
> 
> Good morning!
> 
> Roland
> 
>    
> 
> On 20/06/2015 5:11 AM, "Egle Sigler" <ushnishtha at hotmail.com
> <mailto:ushnishtha at hotmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Thank you everyone for attending today's meeting. We had lots of
>     great discussion, and some concrete action items.
> 
>     Etherpad: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/OpenStackDiversity.1
>     IRC
>     notes: http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/diversity_working_group/2015/diversity_working_group.2015-06-19-18.00.html
> 
>     Notes from etherpad:
> 
>     Info on OpenStack IRC: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/IRC
>     Web IRC link if you are not using IRC client:
>     http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=openstack-meeting
>     Meetbot quick reference guide:
>     http://meetbot.debian.net/Manual.html#user-reference
> 
>     Next meeting etherpad:
>     https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/OpenStackDiversity.2
>     Minutes:
>     http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/diversity_working_group/2015/diversity_working_group.2015-06-19-18.00.html
> 
> 
>     The initial meeting for this work group will be: Friday, June 19,
>     2015 at 18:00 UTC, on IRC: #openstack-meeting
>     The Agenda is:
> 
>       * Introductions
> 
>     <nikiacosta> Niki Acosta, Cloud Evangelist, Cisco
>     jfleet> jfleet Cloud304EST
>      <imadsousou> Imad Sousou - Intel
>      * kavit Kavit Munshi - AptiraIST
>      <rainya> Rainya Mosher, Product Manager, Rackspace
>      <ninag> Nina Goradia, IBM, CST
>      <ShillaSaebi>OpenStack Operations Engineer, ComcastEDT
>      <AlanClark> Alan Clark SUSE
>      <eglute> Egle Sigler, Principal Architect at RackspaceCST
>      * jbryce works at OpenStack Foundation
>      <arcee2> Val Wanjura, Technical Ops Mgr, Rackspace
>      <gpruessmann> Gerd Pruessmann, Deutsche Telekom AG
>      <lsell> Lauren Sell, OpenStack Foundation
>      <electrocucaracha> Victor Morales - Intel
>      <cmassey> Claire Massey, OpenStack FoundationCST
>      <wznoinsk> Waldemar Znoinski - Intel
>      <TamaraJohnston> Tamara Johnston, EMC Global Services - CloudPST
>      <barrett> Carol Barrett, Intel
>      <Rockyg> Rocky Grober, Huawei, PDT
>     <Mauri> Mauri Whalen - Intel
>     <MeganR>         Megan Rossetti - Comcast, EDT
>     <vince_> Vince Brunssen - IBM
>     <amandap> Amanda Plimpton - SwiftStackPT
>     [13:50:49]  <ozstacker> AEST
> 
>       * Mission Discussion and definition of Diversity-
>         https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Diversity
> 
>       * Charter discussion: feedback from Vancouver was that the
>         operational scope was too broad
> 
>       * Possible Definitions 
> 
>       * [13:13:47]  <nikiacosta>         diversity - eliminate bias on
>         the basis of age, race, creed, color, sex, national origin,
>         religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability,
>         marital status, and socioeconomic status.
> 
>       * [13:13:54]  <rainya>         M-W.com: diversity, noun, : the
>         quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas,
>         etc. : the state of having people who are different races or who
>         have different cultures in a group or organization
> 
>       * [13:14:54]  <rainya>         for me diversity is really about
>         getting a variety of *thought* more than anything; so that any
>         problem has lots of diferent viewpoints and experiences coloring
>         the outcome; [13:16:04]  <rainya>         and that variety comes
>         from different disciplines (engineers, devs, qa, ux, ops,
>         product managers) as well as cultural and gender backgrounds
> 
>       * Top areas of focus for diversity: GENDER (male to female ratio);
>         GEOGRAPHIC (downloads, contribution, and attendance by country;
>         what countries / regions have low or NO representation?); CULTURE
> 
>       * Other areas of future exploration: religion, age, disability
> 
> 
>       * Discuss proposal to engage a Consultant/Coach to assist this
>         work group
> 
>       * Review proposed work plan, gather feedback, and owners
> 
>       * Next Steps
> 
>       * Meeting Frequency
> 
>       * [13:45:09]  <ozstacker>         And next step is have a meeting
>         that is 12 hours different to this one, and include others
>         before deciding on _anything_
> 
>       * [13:48:30]  <barrett>         I wonder if we want to have weekly
>         meetings, given the interest, and alternate them between
>         US/EMEA-friendly and APAC/Japan-friendly?
> 
>       * [13:52:21]  <nikiacosta>         @eglute - hard to meet
>         everyone's needs, but if we had 3 or 4 people in a core group
>         for geographies who could serve as delegates, it might make it
>         easier to get stuff done
> 
>       * [13:52:59]  <eglute>         #action barrett to start 1-2
>         doodles to find the best times for us to meet?
> 
>       *
> 
> 
>       * Interest/Need for alternating times to make the meetings
>         globally accessible. Moving forward we’ll use the
>         foundation at lists.openstack.org
>         <mailto:foundation at lists.openstack.org> mail list for work group
>         discussions and meeting communications.
> 
> 
>     *Action Items:*
>         1)Define diversitypolicy
> 
>       *     volunteers:
> 
>       * Target date for bringing draft to group for review: 2 weeks?
> 
>       * Kavit Munshi(will lead + coordinate definition)
> 
>       * ShillaSaebi
> 
>       * Rainya
> 
>       * Amandap
> 
>       * Tristan
> 
>       * Niki Acosta
> 
>       * 2) Carol: Setup Doodles to find 2 good times for meeting every
>         other week, alternating timing
> 
>       * 3) NIki: Lead the process of getting nominations for Geo
>         Ambassadors once the meeting times are set
> 
>       * 4)Get charter ratified by BoD (review language objected to at
>         Vancouver summit)
> 
>       * 5)DiveristyStatement: prepare proposal to be presented to BoD to
>         approve the formation of a diversity policy. Include wording in
>         Code of Conduct (both of them).+1
> 
>       *
> 
> 
>       *
> 
> 
> 
>       *
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     Resources and Information:
>         
>         Places doing "Diversity" well: Telstra, MIT
>         
>     Proposed charter, as presented to the BoD in Vancouver:
>         
>     May 15, 2015OpenStack Board Diversity Committee Charter
>     In an effort to assert and facilitate the incorporation of diversity
>     policies into its overall strategy, theBoard of Directors of the
>     OpenStack Foundation is committed to fostering a more inclusive
>     andwelcoming place for all people to collaborate and drive
>     innovation and design cutting-edge data centercapabilities, while
>     finding the best answers to our *most pressing challenges*<what are
>     those?>.
> 
>     This committee will sponsor and create programs that encourage
>     diversity by identifying and removingthe barriers that keep us from
>     having a diverse, thriving community. The programs defined by
>     thiscommittee will apply to the Board of Directors, OpenStack
>     Foundation, Technical Committee, PTLs,Developers and the entire
>     OpenStack Community. Each program will have specific success
>     metricsand the committee will provide regular updates on all
>     programsto the Board as well as the Community.
> 
>     Programs sponsored and/or created by the Diversity Committee will
>     require Board of Directorsapproval. The committee will review
>     existing Foundation programs and policies on regular basis
>     toevaluate their performance and effectiveness. The committee will
>     collaborate with the TC, Usercommittee and the BoD to ensure that
>     all programs are meeting their diversity goals.
> 
>     Diversity is defined as all the ways people differ from one another
>     including race, color, religion, sex,national origin, language,
>     ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information,
>     military andveteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender,
>     gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientationand other
>     aspects. This includes elements such as personal background,
>     experiences, education,thinkingprocesses, approaches to problem
>     solving and life experiences. Diversity takes into account
>     similaritiesand differences in all individuals around the world and
>     can involve multiple aspects, includinggeographic location, country
>     of origin, economic class or position, cultural norms and
>     traditionalsocietal norms. The differences range from subtle nuances
>     to very clear points of difference – this is thenature of diversity.
> 
>     Charter Proposal by:Egle Sigler, Kavit Munshi, Imad Sousou
> 
> 
>     From Lauren Sell:
> 
>     *Summit Demographics & Community Building*
>     Of course, the largest investment we make in global community
>     building is moving the Summit location every six months. Changing
>     locations and variables is an investment for the Foundation, but
>     this practice dramatically impacts the makeup of our attendees and
>     allows greater access to participate in the OpenStack community. For
>     example, you can see the different geographical distribution across
>     the four most recent Summits:
> 
>     Hong Kong (Nov 2013) Summit Attendee Demographics (3,000 total
>     attendees):
>     • 45%  -  APAC
>     • 41%  -  North America
>     • 12%  -  Europe
>     • 1%    -  Middle East
>     • 1%    -  Latin America
> 
>     Hong Kong (Nov 2013) top countries w/ the most attendees, descending
>     order:
>     • United States
>     • China
>     • Hong Kong
>     • Japan
>     • India
>     • United Kingdom
>     • Taiwan
>     • France
>     • Australia
>     • Korea
> 
>     Atlanta Summit (May 2014) Attendee Demographics (4,500 total attendees):
>     • 81% North America
>     • 9% Europe
>     • 8% APAC
>     • 1% Middle East
>     • 1% Latin America
> 
>     Atlanta (May 2014) top countries w/ the most attendees, descending
>     order:
>     • United States
>     • Canada
>     • Japan
>     • France
>     • United Kingdom
>     • China
>     • India
>     • Israel
>     • Russia
>     • Germany
> 
>     Paris Summit (Nov 2014) Attendee Demographics (4,700 total attendees):
>     • 47% Europe
>     • 35% North America
>     • 15% APAC
>     • 2% Middle East
>     • 1% Latin America
> 
>     Paris (Nov 2014) top countries w/ the most attendees, descending order:
>     •   United States
>     •   France
>     •   United Kingdom
>     •   Germany
>     •   China
>     •   Japan
>     •   India
>     •   Canada 
>     •   Italy 
>     •   Switzerland
> 
>     Vancouver Summit (May 2015) Attendee Demographics (5,600+ - updated
>     count will be tallied on Monday night)
>     • 75%  -  North America
>     • 12%  -  Europe
>     • 10%  -  APAC 
>     • 2%    -  Middle East
>     • 1%    -  Latin America
> 
>     Vancouver (May 2015) top countries w/ the most attendees, descending
>     order:
>     1)   United States
>     2)   Canada
>     3)   Japan
>     4)   UK
>     5)   China
>     6)   India
>     7)   Germany
>     8)   France
>     9)   Israel
>     10)  Russia
> 
>     Each Summit, we’ve grown our Travel Support Program, where we cover
>     flights and accommodations for contributors who may not be sponsored
>     to make the trip:
>     • In Atlanta, the Foundation sponsored 21 people from 8 different
>     countries for a total investment of 40,000 USD
>     • In Paris, the Foundation sponsored 20 people from 10 different
>     countries for a total investment of 54,000 USD
>     • In Vancouver, the Foundation sponsored 28 people (7 female, 21
>     male) from 14 countries for a total investment of 60,000 USD
> 
>     The Foundation also offers discounted and complementary Summit
>     registration to University students, government and non-profit
>     employees to make the event accessible. 
> 
>     In addition to the Summits happening every six months, we have more
>     than 75 user groups around the world hosting regular user group
>     meetings. Many of these groups host an "OpenStack Day" event in
>     their region once per year, and the Foundation not only helps
>     sponsor and organize these events, but also invests in trying to get
>     a Staff member to attend or speak at each event. We invest an
>     approximately 100,000 USD in the regional user group events,
>     including these OpenStack Days and the annual birthday meetups each
>     year.
> 
>     You can find many of these metrics in the 2014 Annual Report:
>     https://www.openstack.org/assets/reports/osf-annual-report-2014.pdf
> 
>     wznoinsk: is it doable to get gender and other info from openstack
>     Communit Member profile (i.e: when you register on openstack.org
>     <http://openstack.org> you select your gender) to extend let's say
>     StackAlytics?
> 
>     *Women of OpenStack*
>     Women continue to be an underrepresented group in terms of community
>     member demographics, Summit attendees and especially speakers.
>     Percentage of Women attendees at OpenStack Summits:
>     • 7% - Hong Kong, Nov 2013
>     • 9% - Atlanta, may 2014
>     • 10% - Paris, Nov 2014
>     • 10% - Vancouver, May 2015
> 
>     The last few Summits, several community members have worked to grow
>     the Women of OpenStack (WOO) Program, which is planning several big
>     acivities for Vancouver. This week, there will be a Women of
>     OpenStack networking event sponsored by IBM and Intel on Sunday,
>     we're sponsoring an "Allies Workshop" hosted by the Ada Initaitive
>     Monday afternoon,  and there will be a workshop happening Tuesday
>     morning to identify actionable goals and plans over the next year.
>     Also all of the #vBrownBag lightning talk speaking slots on Tuesday
>     have been reserved for the Women of OpenStack. There is an
>     opportunity for a similar group of community members to build and
>     support diversity initiatives for OpenStack.
> 
>     Additionally, the Foundation and OpenStack ecosystem companies have
>     been strong sponsors of the GNOME Outreach for Women Program (now
>     known as Outreachy). In 2014, the Foundation itself sponsored 4
>     interns, and the greater community sponsored 12 interns. The most
>     difficult investment is coordination and time on behalf of mentors
>     in the community, which we greatly appreciate.
> 
>     Additional areas I think the committee should consider focusing on
>     and investing in to improve diversity in our community are the
>     global Ambassadors program, publishing / providing visibility into
>     more diversity metrics, recruiting speakers for Summits and other
>     events, and increased investment and support for the
>     internationalization (translations) team.
> 
> 
>     Thank you,
> 
>     Egle
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     _______________________________________________
>     Foundation mailing list
>     Foundation at lists.openstack.org <mailto:Foundation at lists.openstack.org>
>     http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foundation
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Foundation mailing list
> Foundation at lists.openstack.org
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foundation
> 

-- 
Dave Neary - NFV/SDN Community Strategy
Open Source and Standards, Red Hat - http://community.redhat.com
Ph: +1-978-399-2182 / Cell: +1-978-799-3338



More information about the Foundation mailing list