Last week, I spoke with Valerie Aurora of the Ada Initiative about women in open source and how to get more women involved. In Part 2 of women in the open source world, I speak with Sumana Harihareswara (volunteer development coordinator at the Wikimedia Foundation) who I also met at the Open Sourcebridge conference, where she was named on of three Open Source Citizens at the conference (read her recap of the conference here!)
In the following interview, Sumana doesn't just discuss the challenges that open source software and communities face when it comes to women, but open source's potential for changing the world through diverse voices. It's not just about getting more women involved--breaking down language, access, and ability barriers from the get-go is also necessary. In the following interview, Sumana talks about initiatives at Wikimedia to reach out since its lack of women contributors made headlines, the potential for open source social justice, and tips for your first go at editing Wikipedia. Also she quotes Mr. Rogers AND the Bible, and explains kyriarchy with a Hyperbole and a Half cartoon, which is awesome.
The Bitch Community Lending Library'sbook club recently got together to discuss Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Tune in as we share our thoughts on this feminist sci-fi classic.
Stream this conversation above, download it from archive.org, or subscribe to Bitch Radio via iTunes or RSS! Transcript will be available soon!
I recently attended Open Sourcebridge, a tech conference in Portland Oregon, and got to speak with some really incredible women in the open source world. (Hopefully I'll be filling the little void left in the hearts of feminerds since Jarrah Hodge's series ended!) Open Source is a method of development that's publicly available, collaborative, and peer reviewed. If you read the Bitch website on the reg (which uses Drupal), or browsed the Internet using Mozilla Firefox, or blogged with WordPress, you have used Open Source software! Wikipedia is an example of open source content, where users peer edit the work of others publicly.
Like a lot of cool things that should be open to everyone, the open source community can be a bit of a boys' club. I spoke with Valerie Aurora, programmer, Geek Feminism contributor, and, with Mary Gardiner, co-founder of the Ada Initiative, a "non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the participation of women in open technology and culture." We spoke about how the Ada Initiative came about, the anti-harassment conference policy she helped put together, and how the tech world can be hostile to women.
Welcome back to another episode of Bitch Popaganda! Tune in as Andi, Brian, and Kelsey recap the season finales of AMC's The Killing and HBO's Game of Thrones. Also in this episode: Mary McNamara's recent LA Times article and the burning question, Why do we care about these shows so much?
Catch up with Political InQueery and Grey's Rounds contributor Everett Maroon as we talk about the Obama Administration's LGBT initiatives, how GOP candidates are beginning to frame Obama's presidency thusfar, predictions for summer politics, and yes, Weinergate (with apologies to the Watergate Hotel).
Welcome back to another episode of Bitch Popaganda! Tune in as Julie, Deb, and Kelsey discuss the fall TV lineup, the significance of the prom, and just what's up with Anthony Weiner.
You can listen to the podcast right here, or you can subscribe to Bitch Media on iTunes to download it and listen on the go. (The episode is also available at archive.org. A transcript should be up shortly!)
What alternative? Whose underground? We feel that queer comics artists/comics artists of color (and cartoonists of other marginalized groups) have always been relegated to the underground of the underground. This just won't do! This is where Gay Genius comes in.
This excerpt from the "manifesto" on Gay Genius's 2010 Kickstarter campaign sums up a lot of the impetus behind this new comics anthology out from Sparkplug Comics. With eighteen contributors whose storytelling is as unique as their artistic style, Gay Genius is not just a much-needed volume celebrating the work of queer artists, but it's a must-have for contemporary comics lovers as well. I spoke with the book's editor, Annie Murphy, who won the Xeric Prize in 2008 for her book I Still Live, about what it was like putting the book together, why such a book is needed, and what really constitutes a genius.
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