[TOS] how broad a mandate?

[Alexei Fedotov]

> Given all of that, should we also
> cover equity issues, such as why gender ratios in open source are much
> worse than they are in the industry as a whole (where they are in turn
> worse than in most white collar sectors)?

Hello Greg,

Assuming we are discussing introductory course on open source ways, I
don't think netiquette or cultural issues should be covered there.
Why? Such questionable presentation would ruin a career if any public
spokesman. Thus, I think the open source teacher is to concentrate on
the specific communication issues, and recommend his students
attending writing and public presentation courses (and reading books)
at the same time instead of touching common issues in his lectures.




On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 4:32 PM, Greg Wilson <gvwilson at cs.utoronto.ca> wrote:
> [Disclaimer: I'm not trying to make trouble or raise temperatures in this,
> just trying to get a feel for what participants in this list think is in
> scope.]
>
> It's pretty clear that materials for teaching open source have to talk
> about licensing, which I believe necessitates discussion of the wider
> social context of copyright vs. file sharing, software patents, free
> speech, etc.  Discussions of open source "in the large" also often touch
> on the needs of developing countries.  Given all of that, should we also
> cover equity issues, such as why gender ratios in open source are much
> worse than they are in the industry as a whole (where they are in turn
> worse than in most white collar sectors)?  Incidents such as Mike
> Gunderloy's resignation from the Rails Activists group [1] over the
> responses to Sarah Allen's complaints about GoGaRuCo [2] mean that
> students are going to encounter the question; should we be trying to give
> them context?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>
> [1] http://afreshcup.com/2009/04/28/a-painful-decision/
> [2] http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-at-gogaruco/
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-- 
With best regards / с наилучшими пожеланиями,
Alexei Fedotov / Алексей Федотов,
http://www.telecom-express.ru/
http://people.apache.org/~aaf/
http://harmony.apache.org/
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