The Fairer Plone

I'm having a wonderful time at the Plone Conference in Budapest this year. After a few exhausting months, it's a powerful injection of energy, optimism and future plans. This is my fourth conference, and I'm incredibly proud of the T-shirts I've collected from the previous three. I don't wear them much though, as I find them rather difficult to accessorize.

However, everything has changed this year, I was really touched to see that, this year, there was a woman's style T shirt. For those of you who care, it has a boat-neck, is shorter and more fitted around the body- the logo this year is really sweet and feminine too. Of course I was then subject to a bout of "cleavage anxiety". For the 80% (I estimate) of you who won't know what I'm talking about, this is not about whether it is bigger or smaller than the next woman. It's more about whether for the next three days everyone will be addressing their comments to the area below the neck rather than above.

Then I pulled myself together - what I am thinking! This isn't my University, where actually the comments are often addressed to an area somewhere behind and a little above my right shoulder. I'm going to put this next bit in bold so you all notice it:

I have always been treated as an equal and a person at the Plone Conference and indeed within the Plone community. I have been treated with respect. My comments have been listened to, I have felt that my opinions have been valued and my contributions appreciated.

However. I couldn't help noticing that there aren't that many women at the conference again this year. After a very cursory google, I discovered that this wasn't that unusual. FLOSS communities can often be made up of about 10% women or even less, whereas - looking at Computer Science generally - we might expect 20 -30%. There are about 400 attendees at the Plone conference this year; I don't think there are 40 women here. But there are women making a fantastic and valuable contribution to Plone.

Weaknesses are opportunities - so Alex Limi said in his keynote on Wednesday. Perhaps we should grasp this opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women in Plone, and talk a little bit more about what we as women, gain from and contribute to this community. I'm certainly going to try.