Category: Quick Thought

Just a quick thought.

How could GitHub announce an all-male conference line up the same week it shares results from an OSS demographics survey with 3% women?

(Post adapted from this twitter thread.)

This week, GitHub released results from a survey it did regarding the “attitudes, experiences, and backgrounds of those who use, build, and maintain open source software.” Of 5,500 responses from 3,800 open source repositories, only 3% of responses were from women.

Also this week, GitHub announced an all-male speaker roster for its upcoming ElectronConf and then promptly postponed due to negative feedback about the line up. The original roster is no longer available, replaced for the time-being with the following message:

“We published a list of speakers that does not reflect the standards to which we hold ourselves. We will be postponing this event until we can deliver a more diverse slate of speakers.”

It also appears the twitter account for the conference (@electronconf) has been switched to private.

How could this happen? How could an organization that appears to be working so hard to improve with regard to diversity and inclusion let such an embarrassing and totally preventable thing happen? Easily. Leadership isn’t truly committed to enacting change.

How can I say this without having any insider knowledge? Because I’ve seen it happen at other organizations. And I’ve studied organizational change and have learned it’s very difficult. It requires leadership be entirely committed to change and act accordingly.

I think we’ve all noticed how many diversity-minded folks GitHub has hired over the last two years or so. While I’m always happy when colleagues and acquaintances receive an exciting career opportunity, it makes me a bit nervous when an organization known to be problematic makes a bunch of hires like GitHub did. One way to quiet your critics, after all, is to hire them! And there’s a ripple benefit to this, too. Other people watching think, “Oh, GitHub hired so-and-so, maybe they can finally get their act together now.” Plus you don’t want to make someone you care about feel like shit by criticizing their employer and possibly their work, so you temper what you say.

Unfortunately simply hiring prominent diversity folks doesn’t actually solve systemic organizational issues. Those skilled in diversity & inclusion can help plan and guide improvements, but leadership has to do the hard emotional labor. And so, unless leadership is committed to change, if you come aboard to work on D&I or any other kind of major change, you are very unlikely to succeed. You might be able to make small improvements here and there, and even release some great product features. But wholesale organization change? No.

(A really good resource for learning more about this, particularly how you can make the most of being an individual contributor, is Who Really Matters: Core Group Theory and I wrote about it here.)

I know this from experience because I’ve been that senior hire at a prominent OSS company who hasn’t been allowed to do anything of real impact.

After nearly four years of one frustrating thing after another, what finally got me to quit Mozilla was this: In a planning meeting for the developer conference (View Source) that I was tasked with producing, the team organizing logistics, in response to me saying I was assembling an accessibility guide for them to follow, said something like “we don’t need an accessibility guide because we’re reasonable people.” This from the same team that had not a single accessibility-related item on their venue selection checklist. No one else present at the meeting, including my manager, said anything. Except for me, of course. I was livid. Having finally realized I would never get passed the hubris Mozilla engenders across its entire organization, I quit a few hours later.

I mention this because I think it speaks to how an organization like GitHub could so publicly and embarrassingly fail on diversity & inclusion and not realize it until it’s pointed out by external folks. Many people think that addressing the systemic issues required for improving diversity & inclusion is about being a good or reasonable person. It is absolutely not. It is about committing to change. To listening and learning, far outside of your comfort zone and doing that over and over again. It’s about bringing in subject-matter experts when needed and supporting them appropriately. It’s about identifying and getting rid of the people in your organization who obstruct change, even if they are ‘nice’ or even (especially) someone you personally like.

Lastly, I want to say: Don’t give GitHub any accolades for “admitting” it’s mistake and postponing ElectronConf. Postponing an annual event that’s six weeks away from happening is a major kind of fail. It jerks everybody around. GitHub selecting and announcing an all-male speaker line-up is not a coincidence or an accident. Diversity and inclusion, like security and UX, is not something you think about at the end of the product development process. Rather, it has to be a priority and an integral part of the conference planning process from the beginning. Whatever led to GitHub publishing the line up they did relates to systemic issues present throughout the development and planning of their conference. Any response that fails to speak to those issues and how they will be addressed rings hollow.

What a wild ride, Mozilla, and this is my stop.

After nearly 4 years, my tenure as Mozilla staff is coming to an end. Today is my last day.

It’s been a wild ride, fellow Mozillians. I’ve enjoyed working with many of you and will miss getting to do so as part of my day job. No specific post-Mozilla employment plans as yet, other than to rest and enjoy the last days of summer.

I’ll continue as a volunteer as module owner for MozillaWiki.

Please keep in touch. You can find me in various place online:

* twitter: @christi3k
* linkedin: christiekoehler
* facebook: nopetopus
* email: contact me here
* irc: ckoehler (mozilla), christi3k (freenode)

If you want updates about what I’m doing post-Mozilla delivered right to
your inbox, subscribe to my TinyLetter.

Cheers!

(p.s. I’m leaving Mozilla employment voluntarily and on good terms. If someone tells you otherwise, they are mistaken.)

I have joined tableflip club

If you’ve never heard of tableflip, read this.

After nearly 4 years of employment, I have given notice at Mozilla. My last day will be 27 August.

I’m not going quietly.

Mozilla has serious, systemic cultural and organizational issues. Addressing these is imperative to Mozilla’s advancing its stated mission to “promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web.”

In the coming weeks, I’ll be writing more about Mozilla. In the meantime, you can read these collected tweets about why I’m leaving: part 1 and part 2.

The Recompiler: Now with more podcast!

The Recompiler logoIf you’ve been watching my tweetstream recently, you know that The Recompiler (@recompilermag), a magazine about technology, is in the final days hours of it’s inaugural subscription drive.

Yesterday, Audrey announced that we’re going create a podcast version of The Recompiler!

Some of you may have listened to In Beta, which I co-hosted last year. Doing that podcast was great fun and I’m so looking forward to hosting this supplement to The Recompiler. The podcast will enhance the written version of the magazine with tech news, criticism & commentary plus interviews with our authors.

If you’re craving awesome, insightful conversation on technical topics from fresh, less-heard-from voices, then The Recompiler podcast is for you!

Get involved and support The Recompiler today by purchasing a subscription and look for the first written issue and episode this summer!

It’s the 4th of July and I’m Celebrating Independence from Facebook

I just requested that Facebook permanently delete my account.

This change is a long time coming. I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the power Facebook exercises to commodify and influence our social interactions. There’s nothing holding Facebook accountable in the exercise of this power. Aside from all of that, I get very little out of time spent on the site. Yes, it’s a way I can connect with some folks for which I’m not in the habit of calling, emailing or writing. There’s nothing stopping me from doing this, however. I have the phone numbers, emails and addresses of the folks I generally care about keeping in touch with. I do wish more folks had their own blogs, though.

Earlier in the week I posted a message on my timeline telling folks that in a few days I’d be deleting my account. I listed a few other ways to get in touch with me including twitter, my blog, and email. The other thing I did was look at the settings for every Facebook page I’m an admin on and ensure I wasn’t the only one (I wasn’t). I also downloaded a copy of my info.

Today I logged in, ready to delete my account. First I couldn’t find a way to do so. I noticed a “deactivate my account” link under security settings. I figured this was the only way, so I tried it first.

When you try to deactivate your account, Facebook presents you with a page that does everything to try and get you to keep your account active. It shows you pictures of your friends, says they will miss you and prompts you to message them. I found it particularly funny that one of the friends it showed me was Creepius the Bear (and identity created to demonstrate how creepy one can be on Facebook):

Creepius will miss me after I've left Facebook.
Creepius will miss me after I’ve left Facebook.

And then after this you must provide a reason you’re deactivating your account. For any reason you select, you’re given additional information that supposedly resolves the concern:

Facebook wants to know why you're deactivating your account.
Facebook wants to know why you’re deactivating your account.

What caught my attention was the Email opt out option, which states:

Note: Even after you deactivate, your friends can still invite you to events, tag you in photos, or ask you to join groups.

Not what I wanted, so I started figuring out how to work around this. Unfriend everyone first? Sounds tedious. Then someone asks me in IRC, “why don’t you delete instead of deactivate?” I responded saying I didn’t know that was an option. So, I searched Facebook’s help for “deactivate my account” and found this help page: How do I permanently delete my account?

I follow the link in that article, and got this prompt:

Deleting my facebook account.
Deleting my facebook account.

Much nicer, right? No guilt-trips and attempts to invalidate address my concerns. I clicked “Delete My Account”, filled out my password and captcha and got the following confirmation:

Confirmation that my account has been deactivated and will then be deleted
Confirmation that my account has been deactivated and will then be deleted

I also received confirmation via email.

So, that’s it! Assuming I don’t log in to my account during the next 14 days, my account will be deleted. Ah, freedom!

If you like the idea of doing this, but want a more gradual approach, check out de-facing, in which one person talks about their plan to leave Facebook one friend at a time.

Legally Wed

Yesterday, nearly four years after our religious ceremony, Sherri and I became legally married. I am so incredibly happy and proud to be able to call Sherri my legal spouse, and me hers, with all the rights and responsibilities therein.

Christie's mom Laura reads a few words.
Christie’s mom Laura reads a few words.

The ceremony was brief, at our home, with a few clothes friends and family members in attendance.

These are the words I spoke to Sherri:

Not quite 7 years ago, I set out for Portland to start a new part of my life. Someone, or something must have been aware of my plan, because I was guided to you shortly upon my arrival here.

Since then I have learned that you are one of the most generous, compassionate and courageous spirits I have ever met. From the beginning, you opened your heart wide to me and while cautious at first, I have learned to take great refuge in your presence.

As many here know, the last handful of years together has been difficult. But between the challenges we’ve faced, we’ve found space for joy, laughter, and delight. I would do everything all over again for the privileged of getting to build this life with you.

My vows to you:

Because our life together will not always be easy, I vow to meet challenges in our relationship with a sense of compassion and adventure.

Because our family is but one piece in a very large puzzle. I vow to live a life of service to you, to our marriage and to our community.

Because while love is not scarce, many resources are, I vow to make sure you always have the things you need most such as food, water, shelter and art supplies. I vow to utilize our resources wisely.

Because I want to spend the most amount of time possible with you and grow old together, I vow to care for my body and mind.

Because play is just as important as work, I vow to cultivate playfulness, laughter and lightness in our relationship.

Because what I was hiding, deep inside, you brought out into the light, and even thought it is terrifying at times, I vow to stand bravely in the light of your love.

My dearest Sherri, You are the first person who made me truly feel loved. I look forward to sharing a life of practice with you and I am truly honored that you are recognizing again this commitment with me here today, in front of our friends and family.

While I wish we didn’t have to wait at all to get legally married, I’m grateful we have been able to do so in our home state earlier than I had anticipated. I’m grateful for the opportunity affirm “yes, I know what these vows mean in practice and I continue to commit to every single one of them.”

The Ursula K Le Guin quote that Sherri sent out with our invitations says it all:

Love does not just sit there, like a stone; it had to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.

Joining the Community Building Team at Mozilla

Grow Mozilla

After almost a year and a half on the Technical Evangelism team, my role at Mozilla is changing. As of March 3rd, I am the Education Lead on the recently formed Community Building Team (CBT) led by David Boswell.

The purpose of the CBT is to empower contributors to join us in furthering Mozilla’s mission. We strive to create meaningful and clear contribution pathways, to collect and make available useful data about the contribution life-cycle, to provide relevant and necessary educational resources and to help build meaningful recognition systems.

As Education Lead, I’ll drive efforts to: 1) identify the education and culture-related needs common across Mozilla, and b) to develop and implement strategies for creating and maintaining these needs. Another part of my role as Education Lead will be to organize the Education and Culture Working Group as well as the Wiki Working Group.

Community Building Team, March 2014 in SF
Community Building Team, March 2014 in SF

I’m super excited to be joining Dino Anderson, David Boswell, Michelle Marovich, Pierros Papadeas, William Quiviger, and Larissa Shapiro and for community building to be a recognized, full-time aspect of my job at Mozilla.

If I had been working with you on Firefox OS App localization and you still have questions, let me know or email appsdev@mozilla.com.

Lessons Learned, 2013 Edition

Change people’s hearts and their minds will follow. In other words, you have to change people’s hearts before you can change their minds.

I’m more important to make a connection than to be precise or correct.

We have an extraordinary ability to ensure that our needs are met. This is fundamentally an emotional processes, not a rational one.

People are, above else, social creatures. We deeply need each other to survive, but we also often harbor great fears about revealing our fundamental selves.

Life is complicated. And yet can be reduced to the utter simplicity that we have a limited time on this Earth and should use that time as wisely as possible.

We may have more advanced technology, but we human nature hasn’t fundamentally changed. We have basically the same challenges we have for hundreds, probably thousands of years. There are patterns to these problems and studying them gives us insight into how to approach them.

Sometimes people you love die and it’s awful.

Sometimes people you love amaze and astound you and it’s wonderful.

Good friends are invaluable.

Cultivate the relationships that nourish you. Let go of the ones that don’t.