Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Re: Cancelling the confcall?

Hi :)
How a person looks can raise barriers.  

Everyone is biased against one group or another.  People that claim they are not are either unaware 
or trying fool themselves or trying to fool other people.  In some countries there are laws to 
prevent certain groups being treated unfairly.  However those countries still find an imbalance 
sometimes given names such as "the glass ceiling".  Communicating by email ostensibly reduces some 
of those barriers as we cannot hear each others accents nor see skin colour and are not distracted 
by how physically attractive (or not) others might be.  Subconciously we guess and judge based on 
chosen usernames, topics and ways of writing.  One big problem is that using computers at all takes 
a high level of education and in many countries (including the one i live in) that creates a hidden 
bias due to the nature of our education systems.  

We should take notice that although there were a few founders that were/are female none of those 
have stood for election.  All BoD members are white, well educated and male.  Luckily there seems 
to be some diversity in ethnicity or at least in the countries people come from.  

While we strive (at least i think we do) for equality and give people equal opportunity to get 
involved it doesn't look like we care about diversity at all.  Some of the disparity could be 
resolved if we existing ling-term hard-workers felt confident about standing for positions of 
authority.  

I worry that by moving to video we would increase the accidental disparity but we obviously need to 
do something different and maybe communicating by video might make us more aware of the lack of 
diversity.  

Regards from
Tom :)


--- On Wed, 2/5/12, Cor Nouws <oolst@nouenoff.nl> wrote:

From: Cor Nouws <oolst@nouenoff.nl>
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Re: Cancelling the confcall?
To: marketing@global.libreoffice.org
Date: Wednesday, 2 May, 2012, 9:34

Florian Effenberger wrote (02-05-12 10:25)

> > And many people only know each other a little.
> > - So a clear agenda helps: topics + description + what is expected in
> > the call (collection or discussing or making a choice).
>
> Yes, indeed, that's something that was simply missing for April's call,
> due to the lack of time, and I am sure this contributed to the lack of
> interest.

Yep - preparation ...

> > - And then that the call is done so that it is easy to have a good
> > discussion and so more. But often this already is difficult when people
> > meet, so without seeing each other ...
>
> So, you are proposing video meetings, or adding pictures to the wiki so
> we "see" each other?

Communication is not only the voice, also where, how a person looks etc etc.
Video would help, but raise the technical barrier incredibly.
So a clear agenda, possibly input from participants before the meeting and guiding the meeting will 
help. This is a specific task, for which someone needs to bring in time and experience.


--  - Cor
 - http://nl.libreoffice.org


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