OSCON London 2016

1. EXPLORING PRIVILEGE IN
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITIES
@taylor_atx

2. Community at Keen IO
taylor@keen.io
@taylor_atx
TAYLOR BARNETT

3. N O V E M B E R 1 5 - 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 · S T U D E N T A C T I V I T Y C E N T E R
REGISTER AT HACKTX.COM
T H E B I G G E S T H A C K A T H O N I N T E X A S
@taylor_atx

4. @taylor_atx

5. P.S. This makes me extremely anxious to share
@taylor_atx

6. Humans have distinct
identities and experiences
@taylor_atx

7. SOME VOCABULARY
@taylor_atx

8. AXES OF IDENTITY
Gender
Sexuality Race
First Language
Ability
Age Class
National Origin
@taylor_atx

9. INTERSECTIONALITY
Study of how overlapping or intersecting
social identities, particularly minority
identities, relate to systems and structures of
oppression, domination, or discrimination
@taylor_atx

10. PRIVILEGE
A special right, advantage, or immunity
granted or available only to a particular
person or group of people
@taylor_atx

11. “…Until you try to unpack and understand the
privileges you have it's difficult to empathize
and understand the struggles of those who do
not have the same privilege and empathy is
really just the first step to enacting real
change.”
@taylor_atx
- LINDSEY BIEDA IN “ON ACCEPTING PRIVILEGE”

12. Privilege is vague and abstract
@taylor_atx

13. WHY SHOULD WE CARE
@taylor_atx

14. - TIM CHEVALIER IN “GENDERED LANGUAGE: FEATURE OR BUG IN
SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION”
“Community issues are not off-topic; they
are central to any project that is bound
together by voluntary ties rather than (as
in projects that are part of traditional
companies) economic coercion.”
@taylor_atx

15. CFO: “What if we invest in our people and they leave?”
CEO: “What if we don’t and they stay?”
@taylor_atx

16. Missed opportunities
@taylor_atx

17. “It’s hard to break into tech without
privilege or community, even harder
into open source.”
@taylor_atx
- JESSICA LORD IN “PRIVILEGE, COMMUNITY, AND OPEN SOURCE”

18. I’m quitting saying, “I’m lucky.”
I got here because I’m privileged.
@taylor_atx

19. I am not going to…
@taylor_atx

20. WHERE CAN PRIVILEGE
COME FROM
@taylor_atx

21. AXES OF IDENTITY PRIVILEGE
Gender
Sexuality Race
First Language
Ability
Age Class
National Origin
@taylor_atx

22. FINANCIAL
• Financial
• Conferences
• Travel
• Salary
• Cost of Living
@taylor_atxCC0 1.0 Universal

23. LIFE SITUATIONS
• Family responsibilities
• Single with no one to care
for
• Children, significant
others, aging relatives, etc.
@taylor_atxCC0 1.0 Universal

24. COMMUNITY
• Having a community
• People know you
• Personal intros
• People to support you
while dealing with
harassment
• Spaces that you feel
comfortable in
@taylor_atxThx to #WOCinTech Chat

25. OTHER PRIVILEGES
• Time
• Job situation
• Able to take on a long term
commitment
• Timezones
@taylor_atxThx to #WOCinTech Chat

26. OTHER PRIVILEGES
• Existing knowledge of the
code base and other
background knowledge
• Having existing open source
work
• Being on stage, well known,
etc.
@taylor_atxThx to #WOCinTech Chat

27. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
@taylor_atx

28. Recognize that open source is closely tied to privilege, and
decide to make changes
@taylor_atx

29. Use a Code of Conduct and make sure procedures are in place
to enforce it
@taylor_atx

30. See everyone as a first class open source citizen
@taylor_atx

31. What is an Open Source Contributor?
Someone who contributes to open
source.
@taylor_atx

32. See everyone as a first class open source citizen
• Be thankful for even the smallest of contributions
• Acknowledge non-coding contributions the same as coding
• A copy edit, documentation, a logo, bug reports, code
reviews, community management, project management,
mockups, marketing material, etc.
• Change the idea that # of commits is the metric that
worthiness is based on
@taylor_atx

33. “Gendered language performs some of
the work of exclusion by reinforcing the
message that female programmers are
exceptions.”
- TIM CHEVALIER IN “GENDERED LANGUAGE: FEATURE OR BUG IN
SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION”
@taylor_atx

34. Don’t gender certain tasks or follow stereotypes
Expect and insist on gender neural language
• Folks, team, people, humans, friends, everyone, they, them
• Don’t call any group of people, “guys,” even if they are all-
male
• Easy way for men to lend their privilege
@taylor_atx

35. #NORMALIZEYALL
@taylor_atx

36. Two questions people ask when deciding whether to join a
community
• Are they like me?
• Will they like me?
Highlight people in your community to help change what
“Open Source” looks like
• Short blog posts, podcasts, photos, graphics, etc.
@taylor_atx

37. Lending privilege
• Credibility lending
• Access lending
• Expertise lending
@taylor_atx

38. “Whether free-time activities are called
"work" or "play," the existence of free
time to do them in is a privilege.”
- @BETSYTHEMUFFIN ON TWITTER
@taylor_atx

39. We all know Open Source takes time
• Recognize some won’t be able to spend a lot of time
working on Open Source projects
• “Drive by” contributions
• Meet people where they are
@taylor_atx

40. Review power structures and make sure the people in power
represent everyone’s interests
@taylor_atx

41. • Are non-founders getting praise and a voice?
• How do you become a core team member?
• Who gets paid when a project gets money?
• Who’s nominating people things?
• Who decides if an issue is an issue?
• Who decides if a PR gets merged?
@taylor_atx

42. Distribute more authority
• Bigger projects can be broken into smaller components
• Open up and document processes
• “Common” knowledge isn’t always so common, share!
@taylor_atx

43. Money….?
• You are going to have to decide what is best for your
project
@taylor_atx

44. What can companies do?
• In-kind donations — meeting space, free plans, hardware,
etc.
• Sponsor projects and foundations
• Make OSS part of your company culture by giving
employees paid time to contribute upstream
@taylor_atx

45. Mentorship is key
• Put people 1st, contributions 2nd
• What works for existing contributors might not work for
everyone
@taylor_atx

46. On how to become a 10x programmer:
“I can spend 10 hours to fix 10 bugs or…”
- JAN LEHNARDT FROM HOODIE ON REQUEST FOR COMMITS
@taylor_atx

47. Asking can be hard.
Helping can be hard.
- SASHA LAUNDY IN “YOUR BRAIN’S API” AT PYCON 2015
@taylor_atx

48. From Sasha’s talk
• The little voice in your head: “What are they all going to
think of me?”
• Different for everyone, shaped through life experience and
cultural forces
• When you get stumped, model not knowing
@taylor_atx

49. Sasha’s 6 tips for question askers:
1. Welcome questions
2. People will always remember how you made them feel
3. Share the how and the why, not just the what
4. Don’t grab the steering wheel
5. Watch your language
6. Advanced move: Don’t coddle, push and support
@taylor_atx

50. Think about beginners more
• Tags, docs, guides, etc. — “the basics”
• Show growth of beginners with shout outs and blog posts
• Show empathy
@taylor_atx

51. Recognize everything
• Short thank you notes, openly saying thanks, recognition
bot, recommendations, etc.
• Be careful
@taylor_atx

52. “We want to be seen and have our
work acknowledged. We’re humans
after all.”
- @FOX IN “THE DARK SIDE OF OPEN SOURCE”
@taylor_atx

53. THANK YOU!
@taylor_atx

54. Community at Keen IO
taylor@keen.io
@taylor_atx
TAYLOR BARNETT