For Ada Lovelace Day, I’d like to post about two open source projects that, as far as I know, stand alone as large-scale efforts with majority female contributors.
Open source software, as a field, is about 95% male. There are various statistics out there, but I’m drawing on figures from a couple of different surveys of open source software contributors and users, and my own 15+ years’ experience on mailing lists, at user group meetings, conferences, and the like.
Some open source projects, like Ubuntu and Drupal, are known as more women-friendly environments. Ubuntu’s code of conduct, for instance, set expectations about appropriate behaviour and help foster an environment where women feel more welcome and less threatened. DrupalChix say that Drupal has 10% women on the project, thanks to the supportive environment that group helps create.
But to the best of my knowledge, there are only two open source projects in the world which a) have a significant number of developers, and b) are majority female. They are An Archive Of Our Own (a project of the Organization for Transformative Works) and Dreamwidth.
OTW and An Archive Of Our Own
The Organization for Transformative Works is a non-profit group dedicated to supporting the fannish creative community: those who write fan fiction, create fan videos, art, and the like. They have several projects, including an academic journal and a wiki of the history of fandom’s transformative works, but one of their largest efforts is the Archive, a fan-focussed repository for fiction. This archive software is open source, and developed primarily, if not entirely, by women.
Francesca Coppa has posted about women, technology, and OTW here for Ada Lovelace Day:
The Archive of Our Own may be the largest woman run and staffed open source software project on the web. 1134 revisions have been deployed to the Beta Archive to date, and we have had five major releases and innumerable small ones. 150 volunteers have worked on AD&T/Code/Test, many of whom we have trained ourselves in Ruby and other languages; we aim to teach and mentor all, women especially, who want to learn. You can see our code here.
Speaking of Ruby, I was stunned and delighted at the OTW’s process for choosing a programming language for the Archive. In the Livejournal post, Python vs Ruby deathmatch!, they asked non-programmers to read up on either language and then write a short “Choose your own adventure” program.
The trick is that we would like you to try writing this program with no help from any programmers or coders. DO feel free to help each other out in the comments, ask your flist for help (as long as you say “no coders answer!”), or to Google for other help or ideas–in fact, if you find a different tutorial or book out there which you think is better than the ones below, we really want to hear about it.
There were 74 comments in reply, and the results — 150 volunteers on the project, many of whom had never programmed before — speak for themselves.
Dreamwidth
Dreamwidth is another open source project I became aware of through fandom, though it is not a purely fannish endeavour. Dreamwidth is a fork of the LiveJournal codebase, and an attempt to run a journalling community transparently and openly and in a way that supports creative communities.
Dreamwidth’s diversity statement gives you some idea of the project’s culture:
We welcome people of any gender, race, ethnicity, size, nationality, sexual orientation, ability level, religion, culture, subculture, and political opinion. We welcome activists, artists, bloggers, crafters, dilettantes, musicians, photographers, readers, writers, ordinary people, extraordinary people, and everyone in between. We welcome people who want to change the world, people who want to keep in touch with friends, people who want to make great art, and people who just need a break after work. We welcome fans, geeks, nerds, and pixel-stained technopeasant wretches. We welcome internet beginners who aren’t sure what any of those terms refer to.
Since Dreamwidth is in closed beta, and all who are using it are involved in the development project, the stats showing about 70% female participation (of those who specified their gender) are impressive. The Dreamwidth staff show a similar gender spread. Most of the women participating in the project have minimal programming experience, and are learning as they go.
Some thoughts
Though I’m loath to draw sweeping conclusions from these two projects, I do see commonalities that might help answer the eternal question of “How do we get more women into Open Source?”
- Start with women from day one, in leadership and other roles.
- Stand for something that women actually care about, and don’t be afraid to state it up front and loudly.
- Make efforts to recruit women regardless of technical experience.
- Recruit from existing, active, creative communities who know how to communicate and collaborate online.
- Offer training, peer support, and activities to teach coding from the ground up.
I’d be interested to hear of any other large, women-centric open source projects out there, or thoughts on any of the above.
And, to fulfil the requirements of the Ada Lovelace Day Pledge, the two women I admire in technology are:
Naomi Novik, chair of the OTW’s Board of Directors and inaugural chair of its ADT committee (developers of the Archive). You might also know her as author of the Temeraire series.
Denise Paolucci, co-founder, project/product manager, and loudest advocate and enthusiast for Dreamwidth.
These two between them have been instrumental in bringing hundreds of other women into open source software, and I admire them immensely.