Comments for fberriman

Comment on Designing better user experiences – TXJS 2012 by April recap – TXJS & Front-Trends | fberriman

April recap – TXJS & Front-Trends | fberriman — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:54:10 +0000

[...] I love tacos). Was very pleased to be asked to return to this conference after I spoke there last year. The day was remarkable, if only because it’s one of the first conferences in a very long [...]

Comment on Conferences aren’t the problem by What the NFL can teach us about diversity in technology | NCZOnline

What the NFL can teach us about diversity in technology | NCZOnline — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:34:04 +0000

[...] Conferences aren’t the problem by Frances Berriman [...]

Comment on Baked posts by fberriman » Back the Pastry Box Book

fberriman » Back the Pastry Box Book — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:58:11 +0000

[...] As I mentioned, I wrote for the Pastry Box Project for all of 2012. [...]

Comment on Conferences aren’t the problem by Bruce Lawson’s personal site : Reading List

Bruce Lawson’s personal site : Reading List — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:06:58 +0000

[...] Conferences aren’t the problem – Frances on the fact that lack of diversity of conference speakers reflects lack of diversity in our industry. She’s right, of course. If our industry were really diverse, our sites would be accessible. [...]

Comment on A follow-up to “Conferences aren’t the problem” by Frances

Frances — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0000

@Luigi - You may have found the discourse between the organisers and complainants acceptable. I didn't. That's just the way opinion goes. But as I more clearly stated in this post, and the previous one, I do agree that conference organisers have a responsibility and that members of the community should feel able to point the times out when they have not represented them fairly. And, again, if you had read my posts completely, you'd see that I was offering other reasons for why poor representation may happen, so it's not "exactly why cases like BritRuby and EdgeConf keep happening".

Comment on A follow-up to “Conferences aren’t the problem” by Luigi Montanez

Luigi Montanez — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:20:40 +0000

It’s absolutely right for conference organizers to be held accountable when they have a clear lack of diversity in their lineup. That they should be absolved of any blame is one of the foundational reasons why the EdgeConf controversy happened while BritRuby was still fresh in everyone’s memory.

In your previous post, you stated that BritRuby was cancelled because of twitter bullies, and linked to the organizer’s statement. Why embrace his statement so easily? Because here are all 250 words tweeted about the BritRuby controversy before the organizer crumpled and cancelled the event:

https://gist.github.com/4112922

That’s not bullying, that’s holding a community leader accountable. Giving a pass to event organizers who clearly ignored diversity is counter-productive and downright harmful. Conference organizers appoint themselves community leaders for their target audience. Community members should rightfully call out leaders who they believe are failing the community.

It’s easy to give sympathy to the event organizers. They’re such nice people, it’s such hard work, and their heart is in the right place! But that point of view is exactly why cases like BritRuby and EdgeConf keep happening.

Comment on A follow-up to “Conferences aren’t the problem” by Bookmarks for January 7th through January 8th : Extenuating Circumstances

Bookmarks for January 7th through January 8th : Extenuating Circumstances — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:00:47 +0000

[...] [toread] fberriman » A follow-up to “Conferences aren’t the problem” – [...]

Comment on Conferences aren’t the problem by monxton

monxton — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:54:15 +0000

You talk about reaching out to young women and encouraging them to choose technical subjects. Of course that’s good, but it is not enough. More pernicious is the “Leaky Pipeline”, what happens once women have joined the industry and causes so many to give up, stay stuck in junior roles or change course into management and non-technical roles.

I have learned to be suspicious of organisations which make a noise about encouraging more girls to study IT, something outside their immediate influence for which they cannot be held responsible. They do a lot of hand-wringing about the small number of female applicants, but keep quiet about what proportion of their female intake they hang on to, and what is being done to support them.

Comment on Conferences aren’t the problem by Gender imbalance not conferences’ fault » b.c.s.

Gender imbalance not conferences’ fault » b.c.s. — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:00:48 +0000

[...] response to the latest industry spat about a lack of diversity in web conference line-ups. In Conferences aren’t the problem, Berriman argues that such events are “just showing the symptoms of a severe lack of [...]

Comment on Conferences aren’t the problem by Yaz

Yaz — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:26:00 +0000

Just thought I’d mention the Ladies Learning Code initiative (http://ladieslearningcode.com) which in some ways addresses these issues.

It has been a smashing success in Toronto. It has now expanded to Vancouver and other places.