How to make OSS more inclusive?

[jdaudier]

The people who have a high chance of working on open source projects are likely to be single, white, male and in their 20s. I want to start a discussion and get ideas on how we can make open source more accessible and sustainable to noobs, females, parents, etc.

I listed some of my very rough ideas here for a blog post I'm planning to write:
https://www.evernote.com/l/ABcgdMraAqVN9abw7huLCvVl4h51M7_3oK4

I'd love to hear some suggestions. My big one is making a case for companies to allow at least 1 day out of the week for OS time, or else I don't see how we can make OS work accessible and sustainable.

Also, just like how you go clubbing when you're young, do we think OS is just inherently better suited for younger people who have less responsibilities?

[tute]

My big one is making a case for companies to allow at least 1 day out of the week for OS time

Why would companies do this? In an ideal world companies would do it because it is better, not because they should allow it as a perk.

Also, just like how you go clubbing when you're young, do we think OS is just inherently better suited for younger people who have less responsibilities?

I believe, sadly, that until it makes business sense to companies, it is. It's not about younger though, but about people choosing (and being able to make that choice) to invest their free time working on open source projects without immediate reward.

[jdaudier]

@tute I think companies should see the value in their employees learning from other good devs that are from all over the world. I know it's not directly tied to contribution to a work project, but I've learned so much from OSS that I think it's is definitely indirectly tied to helping me be a better dev and, in turn, benefiting the company. I'm wondering how I can properly convey that to companies though. I know it's hard.

[kytrinyx]

I think companies should see the value in their employees learning from other good devs that are from all over the world.

I think that most companies, even when they claim they see this benefit, don't actually believe it. They have too many deadlines, and too many things they need to do. My boss has done a ton of open source work, but there's no way any of my work time is going to go to open source contributions, unless it's extracting an open source library from some of our production code, and then, only if it's already isolated and won't take too much time.

[tute]

Another concrete example when a company would allow me to do open source is when their projects were stuck on known bugs. Then, fixing the bugs in the libraries and using our fork while the patch is waiting to be merged and released upstream, was an ok use of time for everyone.

[kytrinyx]

Yeah, that happens regularly where I work as well.

[jdaudier]

@tute @kytrinyx So how can we make OSS more accessible and sustainable for noobs, parents, and females if companies don't see the benefit? Are we saying it's just not something busy people can do?

[tute]

Now I work for thoughtbot. In our case, the open source work has been an invaluable marketing tool, raising awareness for the company and getting client leads through it.

Also, it helped us hire, as a company that embraces open source allowing its employees to work on it during the work week attracts talent.

The open source workflow also makes us more efficient. For example, we built a Rails app generator called suspenders, which we use to serve most of our clients needs. Any new thing we learn company-wide gets encoded into that generator, taught to other programmers in the pull request discussion, and will be used in upcoming projects.

I also see the benefit of becoming a better programmer through open source work, and that reflecting in client projects, but that's harder to measure. So these are three very specific benefits business-wise of doing open source in our work week. The reasons for each company will vary.

How do you think you could pitch open source time for your company?

[jdaudier]

@tute I guess this is something I'm trying to figure out, so I'm looking for ideas, which is why I started this thread. I found it hard to get buy-in for OSS work during work time, and I've heard others have the same issue, so I'm trying to gather ideas for a blog post to try to convince companies.

[tute]

I add a cite from content I've been working on:

Software companies can benefit from the practices that open source teams have been doing well for years: thorough code reviews, forthright communication, and efficient collaboration. The best open source teams also have clear documentation, regular releases, and predictable versioning.

I'm also interested in this problem, @jdaudier; please share what you find.

[jdaudier]

@tute Thanks! I will share the draft once I have it written.

[kytrinyx]

This is also something I'd love to figure out, and am looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[mozzadrella]

@jdaudier + crew: hi there, I'm Vanessa--a learning designer for stellar.org + pal of @afeld.
Currently working on a research + design project on OSS and inclusivity--saw the draft of your post and really liked it, especially your proposed solutions.

Of the folks who are here, which OSS communities do you admire? Who welcomes newbies + makes them feel like they belong?

Nice to meet you all as well! Thanks for doing what you do.

[jdaudier]

hi @mozzadrella! I contribute to marionette.js when I have free time, and I find the team pretty newbie friendly.

I admire how the hoodie.js team describes in detail how you can help: http://hood.ie/contribute/

[jdaudier]

I finally got around to a rough draft of my blog post related to this topic. Would anyone like to review it? It'll prob take you 15 min to read it.