• Meetings
• 20100302

Meeting opened by akgraner at 21:00

• <akgraner> here is the agenda for today's meeting - it is a bit long - but wanted to start the discussion

• <akgraner> http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/Meetings/March2010/Agenda

  <pleia2> issyl0: congrats!

  <akgraner> also for this meeting the mootbot-uk is a new mootbot with will give some different outputs

  <maco2> akgraner: the thing we were talking about about a blog the other day isnt on the agenda. is it being included in the "PR" agenda item?

  <akgraner> Congrats issyl0 !

  <akgraner> maco2, yes

  <akgraner> so who is here for the meeting?

  <maco2> o/

  <akgraner> 0/

  <maiatoday> o/

  <Pendulum> o/

  <pleia2> o/ (but at work, so standard conditions apply ;))

  <rikkikite> o/

  <AlanBell> present, but on a blackberry

  <Pendulum> (/me is also at work so maybe only partially here)

  <axolote> present

  <akgraner> alright I am sure there will be others who join in as we progress through the agenda

  <valorie> I'm here

  <sil> present

  <issyl0> akgraner, pleia2, thanksssss!

  <akgraner> welcome everyone I'll give you a sec to open the wiki

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - Open Items

- Open Items

• <akgraner> [TOPIC] - MENTORING PROGRAM - Reviving the Mentoring program. Why? Ubuntu has many training programs and yet some folks forget that its sometimes harder to ask silly questions and learn with a room full of strangers on irc. Some points to consider:

- MENTORING PROGRAM - Reviving the Mentoring program. Why? Ubuntu has many training programs and yet some folks forget that its sometimes harder to ask silly questions and learn with a room full of strangers on irc. Some points to consider:

• <akgraner> * The focus should be on women being encouraged and getting one-one mentoring for any technical task of her choice (sometimes this choice can be difficult and needs advice)

  <popey> o/

  <akgraner> svaksha, added this to the agenda but I believe it is something we all want to see succeed...

  <Mamarok> o/

  <akgraner> right now I believe we have people listed on the wiki who are are willing to be mentors - but is anyone actively mentoring anyone?

• <akgraner> http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/MentoringFAQ

  <issyl0> Hello.

  <Mamarok> akgraner: nobody reported any mentorship AFAIK

  <akgraner> and here is the link to the mentoring program as it appears on the website - http://www.ubuntu-women.org/mentoring.html

  <valorie> it would be nice if both those giving and getting mentoring would blog about it

  <Mamarok> so maybe if mentors actually have mentees they should report it, either on their blog and/or on the wiki

  <Mamarok> valorie:

  <valorie> gmta

  <valorie> lol

  <Pendulum> should someone maybe actually blog about the mentorship program?

  <Mamarok> that would be useful, indeed

  <akgraner> [idea] blog about mentorship program

• <Pendulum> it's not something we necessarily talk about and it may need a little publicity

  <Mamarok> to make it known to a wider public

• Mamarok plans a blog

  <maco2> im not activey mentoring anyone atm. tell me if you want to learn about motu!

  <akgraner> [idea] mentors and mentees talk about it/discuss it as well blog, mailing lists, irc etc

• <akgraner> who on the team has blogs?

  <akgraner> o/

  <Pendulum> o/

  <akk> o/

  <maco2> o/

  <pleia2> we can look at planet.ubuntu-women.org for that

  <Mamarok> o/

  <maco2> pleia2: haha fair point

  <Mamarok> and maybe encourage those who are not on planet yet to get added

  <akgraner> pleia2, you beat me to that I wanted people to see who all in here has blogs then point to planet ubuntu-women

  <czajkowski> I'll blog about it, not down as a mentor but shall blog and poke folks

  <akgraner> so I don't think getting the word out will be an issues - what about the program as it is right now besides communication needs to be revamped?

  <akgraner> besides outward community facing communication I mean

  <akgraner> suggestions? ideas? wish list?

  <axolote> As someone who is really stoked about the Opportunistic Developer possibilities, I'd love to see some mentorship in some of the tools that are being pushed for app development (e.g., python, desktopcouch,pygtk, quickly, bazaar, ground control, etc.)

  <akgraner> [idea] - Opportunistic Developer possibilities, I'd love to see some mentorship in some of the tools that are being pushed for app development (e.g., python, desktopcouch,pygtk, quickly, bazaar, ground control, etc.)

• <maco2> heh bazaar is the only one of those i can use

  <Pendulum> I really think pushing for female mentors when possible

  <maco2> axolote: i hear ground control is broken right now due to the openid changes to launchpad

  <akk> axolote: Do we have any mentees who want help with development? I didn't think we did.

  <axolote> maco2: yes it is.

  <akgraner> [idea] more female mentors

• <valorie> sorry, my wireless cut out

  <valorie> reading up

  <maco2> akgraner: if we do, i havent heard about them, cuz development is what i'm willing to mentor on

  <akk> Me too.

  <maiatoday> I wouldn't mind doing some dev work

  <maco2> er

  <maco2> that was aimed at akk

  <maiatoday> being a mentee that is

  <akk> I had the impression we had a substantial list of mentor volunteers but no mentees ever asked.

  <maiatoday> I'll mail you maco2

  <maco2> maiatoday: ok

  <akgraner> [action] those willing to be mentors make sure you are listed on the mentors page

• <pleia2> would mentors have to be "ubuntu women mentors" or can we link people up with existing mentorship programs? (i'd prefer the latter)

  <pleia2> the latter is kinda what we do now, it's just not documented

  <Pendulum> I think it should be a mix of both

  <pleia2> yeah

  <Pendulum> because if I asked in UW for a mentor, I'd be specifically looking for a female mentor for whatever reason

  <axolote> i think we should accept any help/metorship that is available

  <pleia2> I dunno, a lot of women come here looking for direction

  <akgraner> [idea] link ubuntu women project team members up with existing mentors in the community

• <Pendulum> but I recognize that for some people what they're really looking for is general direction

  <pleia2> not specifically women to mentor them, just *someone*

  <pleia2> since they don't know where to start in the community

  <axolote> eventually, as more women become more comfortable with developing, we can get more women mentoring other women.

  <axolote> But, I think that in the context of "opportunistic development", we can really get more women contributing on the development side, provided we have other experienced people willing to mentor in the aforementioned tools.

  <Pendulum> I would suggest, however, that when we know that there is a women-friendly mentor out in the community (whether female or male or chicken) that we direct that way since as much as I hate to say it, there are people in the Ubuntu community who are not

  <maco2> axolote: pykde and kapptemplate too?

  <pleia2> Pendulum: *nod*

  <maiatoday> maybe the concept of a buddy from ubuntu-women more than a mentor just to encourage whoever is being mentored to take a step

  <akgraner> so how does the sound over the next two weeks we update/create a list of UW team members who are willing to mentor or who need mentorship

  <maco2> axolote: those are the tools im currently learning to use. apparently kapptemplate is like kde's version of quickly

  <axolote> maco2: of course Those were just examples, hence the e.g.,

  <pleia2> I just don't really like the idea of a static mentor list since it gets outdated so quickly, and leveraging existing programs as well will really broaden the ability for us to offer mentors

  <axolote> maiatoday: yeah, a dev buddy would be great too.

  <akgraner> also durning the next 2 weeks we clean up the wiki's and get the pages polished

  <akk> What is the current mentoring page?

  <akk> Googling for ubuntu women mentors took me to http://ubuntu-women.org/mentoring.html

  <akgraner> akk, I am not sure we have a list as of right now other than the team list

  <maco2> akk: a static page on ubuntu-women.org, not even a wiki page

  <akk> which doesn't list either me or maco

  <pleia2> that static page links to a bunch of wiki page

  <pleia2> s

  <akgraner> akk - http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/MentoringFAQ

  <maco2> though i think we started making a list on the wiki..

  <akk> so it looks like we have an out-of-date page that's first on google

  <valorie> perhaps the static page should just point to a wiki page?

  <pleia2> akk: yeah, it's all a mess that's why we are having this meeting

  <valorie> explain the basics > wiki which can be kept up-to-date

  <pleia2> all need to be rewritten

  <akk> Weird, just a month or two ago I got mail asking for my info to update the mentoring page, so I figured that part had been updated.

  <akgraner> so who can take ownership of cleaning up the mentoring wiki's

  <akgraner> and who can help

  <akk> What happened to that info?

  <akgraner> people were cleaning and adding to this page - http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/Profiles

  <akgraner> akk this is the one people were working 2 weeks or so ago

  <akk> I'm not even on that page -- never heard of it before.

  <akk> But no, the mail I'm talking about was specifically for "the" mentoring page (I guess there isn't just one, though).

  <akgraner> so the action item is to clean up the mentoring wiki's but who will talk the lead on that?

  <akgraner> akk I haven't seem one

  <akk> There was also a question about "are you willing to mentor guys, since we don't have any women asking?"

  <akgraner> wouldn't that be up to the individual mentor?

  <pleia2> akk: are you sure you're not thinking of debian women?

  <pleia2> they just redid their mentoring program a couple months ago

  <akk> pleia2: I just found the message -- yes, maybe it was for Debian, not Ubuntu. The message wasn't very clear and I guess I just assumed Ubuntu.

  <akk> Okay, sorry, I was confused.

  <axolote> Sorry, so which page is or will be the official mentoring page?

  <maco2> i think it should be the wiki pae

  <maco2> *page

  <maco2> easier to update

  <pleia2> maco2: +1

  <akgraner> [ACTION] clean up mentoring wiki pages - then roll out a campaign to communicate it to the community

• <Pendulum> if I can get some guidance, I'm willing to do it

  <akgraner> [ACTION] Pendulum to drive efforts to clean up wiki's with guidance from team members

• <pleia2> I can help too, and since I have access to the server I can sort out getting our menu and that static page removed/redirected

  <Pendulum> pleia2: good since I definitely can't do that bit, thanks

  <akgraner> once we have the wiki's polished we can take that and clean up with website - yes?

  <axolote> just to confirm, we're referring to this page?: http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/MentoringFAQ

  <pleia2> axolote: referring to all our mentoring pages

  <akgraner> and all the supporting pages

  <pleia2> there are a number of them

  <akgraner> pleia2, - once the wiki's represent the mentoring program correctly - will be an easy fix to clean up that area on the website?

  <pleia2> akgraner: yep

  <axolote> okay, so the one on ubuntu-women.org as well, + others. okay, got it.

  <pleia2> I can change the link in the menu and set up a redirect on http://ubuntu-women.org/mentoring.html

  <akgraner> pleia2, will you take ownership of transition the wiki info to the website and do you want to train anyone to help with that?

  <pleia2> akgraner: I'll do it

  <akgraner> ie mentor

  <pleia2> I can train someone else too, but we'd also need to give them shell access to the server (this is done by contacting canonical, can take a while)

  <akgraner> pleia2, ahh ok thanks!!

  <Pendulum> pleia2: well depending on how extensive the wiki clean up needs to be

  <akgraner> [ACTION] pleia2 to make sure the website reflects the wiki's when the wiki's are completed to team satisfaction

• <akgraner> ok next topic then

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - INCREASING NUMBER OF WOMEN UBUNTU MEMBERS - Percentage targets for proportion of women Ubuntu Members to be discussed further

- INCREASING NUMBER OF WOMEN UBUNTU MEMBERS - Percentage targets for proportion of women Ubuntu Members to be discussed further

• <akgraner> This was discussed back in January - and AlanBell bell has done a remarkable job setting the spreadsheets and wiki's with all the data

  <akgraner> I am not convinced that we should target Ubuntu Memebership right away

  <akgraner> I think increased Ubuntu Membership will happen as we become more active in the areas listed as measurable goals under new business

  <AlanBell> neither am I!

  <axolote> I agree.

  <pleia2> +1

  <AlanBell> it is a side effect of everything the group does

  <valorie> I hope we continue to encourage, promote, and high five new members though

  <akgraner> Is there anyone who would like to help AlanBell maintain the metrics

  <maiatoday> if there are more active women, membership will follow by itself

  <AlanBell> it is measurable and can have targets against it

  <pleia2> it's great to keep track of so we can measure progress

  <AlanBell> but they should be achieved by just getting more people involved

  <czajkowski> I'll help AlanBell with the maintaining of the metrics?

  <valorie> well, and always saying 'you can do it'

  <akgraner> also any objections looking at the new items on the agenda as this ties into those?

  <valorie> and being willing to help with wikis and such

  <AlanBell> I see it as a good measure of the overall sucess of the project

  <akgraner> [ACTION] czajkowski to help AlanBell bell with updating ubuntu membership metrics

• <AlanBell> thanks czajkowski !

  <akgraner> [idea] review and present this data at UDS - as a way to measure overall community change

• <czajkowski> AlanBell: nay bother

  <akgraner> thanks czajkowski!

  <czajkowski> good idea also

  <valorie> thank you, and thank you to Pendulum too

  <akgraner> and by change I hope it will show progress, growth, etc by both men and women but over time see some balance

• valorie is jammed right now and can't offer to volunteer any more....

  <akgraner> [ACTION] akgraner to talk to community team about best ways to present metrics at UDS

• <akgraner> ok so we have about 15 mins left - so I am not going to lay out all the agenda items but will run through them right quick and post them to the mailing list for further discussion - is that ok with you all?

  <akgraner> however there is one that need some discussion today -

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - New Items

- New Items

• <akgraner> [TOPIC] - UBUNTU WOMEN DAY - International Women's Day: Ubuntu Women's Day - Highlighting women within the Ubuntu Community

- UBUNTU WOMEN DAY - International Women's Day: Ubuntu Women's Day - Highlighting women within the Ubuntu Community

• <akgraner> so it was suggested that we have an Ubuntu Women day where the Ubuntu Community is encouraged to take a back from Ada Love Day and blog about women in the Ubuntu Community

  <akgraner> what do you all think? Considering March 8th is around the corner if we are going to do this we need to get it announced NLT tomorrow morning

  <akgraner> comments, concerns. ideas, objections???

  <Pendulum> I think it's generally a good idea

  <czajkowski> Is it a a bit late, would it be best to put aside a month some time to do this ? like May month of blog about women in Ubuntun ?

  <czajkowski> is there enough time is what I'm trying to get at

  <valorie> question -- are there other 'month of blog' stuff in Ubuntu?

  <akgraner> also the voting for our Other competiton will be on the Fridge if it is not already and to various blogs and mailing lists - one it hits the Fridge can you all that have blogs grab it an get it out as well?

  <czajkowski> valorie: no idea, was just an idea tbh. I'd rather do something properly then half assed with a week to do it

  <valorie> I'm just wondering if we advocate for a month of blogging about women, if there would be a backlash against that

  <maco2> valorie: not that im aware of

  <czajkowski> valorie: same could be said about a day, shrugs

  <valorie> sure

  <valorie> I'm not sure my concern is valid

  <akgraner> valorie, czajkowski - I think if we all blogged about it and it was on the Fridge - as well as Ubuntu User, OMG!Ubuntu, workwithu, and all the mailing lists we could get some good feedback

  <valorie> but when I think about Skud's blog and etc. -- ugh

  <czajkowski> akgraner: I think it's a great idea don't get me wrong, just 6 days to do so means it may not get done well

  <akgraner> this would be on March 8th, in conjunction with International Women's Day

  <axolote> If it is too late for international women's day, perhaps the blogging could coincide with the april ubuntu release.

  <czajkowski> axolote: nice idea

  <pleia2> we could just promote http://findingada.com/

  <akgraner> pleia2, that was the other idea

  <pleia2> ah yes, I see now

  <axolote> there will be increased interest in ubuntu in general at that time (per usual), so a blogging blast might be good visibility for ubuntu women.

  <akgraner> So reserve this idea for March 24? and promote the heck out of Finding Ada

  <czajkowski> aye

  <czajkowski> 24/03 sounds way more atainable

  <Pendulum> we could do it as Ubuntu Women do Finding Ada, and ask people in the Ubuntu community to especially look within itself for women

  <akgraner> [Action] - Ubuntu Women Project to promote http://findingada.com/ - and encourage community members to look at women with the Ubuntu Community as well

• <akgraner> ok 4 mins

  <czajkowski> Can I just make one suggestion, when schedling meetings can we try and not clash or run close to meetings taking place in -meeting in case some folks are in there that are in here also, happened last time loco council one and I had to split between two, and tonight membership board was on so if folks go for membership they may ahve to split between 2

  <akgraner> I'll look at the schedule closer

  <akgraner> the other new items I will take to the mailing list

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - Announcements

- Announcements

• valorie is glad to finally make it to a meeting!

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - SCaLE 8x - http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/

- SCaLE 8x - http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/

• <akgraner> thank you to all the Ubuntu Women team members who were able to make there and meet up, attend and contribute to the success of SCaLE8x, WIOS, Ubucons et al

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - International Women's Day Competition Voting - ends march 7th, 2400UTC

- International Women's Day Competition Voting - ends march 7th, 2400UTC

• <akgraner> You should see the write on the Fridge about this today - please grab it and get it out to the community when you see it

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - Reminder that Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week ongoing this week and ends on March 6th

- Reminder that Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week ongoing this week and ends on March 6th

• <akgraner> please attend if you can and if you can't and you can blog about it please do

  <akgraner> [TOPIC] - Events - http://fossevents.org/

- Events - http://fossevents.org/

• <akgraner> also reminder that this calendar exists if an open source event you know about is not on there please send the info - czajkowski and issyl0 both help with this calendar

  <akgraner> alrighty sorry for the rush of stuff in the last 15 mins

  <issyl0> Yes, and that calendar is fossevents.org

  <czajkowski> thats what the link says

  <akgraner> meeting in two weeks - to start working on goals for Lucid, and see where the mentoring program stands?

  <issyl0> czajkowski: oh, yeah. Sorry, that's me not reading above where the HL was :P

  <issyl0> Woo, OK.

  <akgraner> it that ok with everyone

  <akgraner> I'll check the calendar to see what other events are going on and do my best to see that people aren't split between meetings

  <AlanBell> sounds good

  <axolote> yup.

  <Pendulum> akgraner: can we try a day other than Thursday if possible? since Tuesdays seem to be meeting day for everyone so may contribute to the level of people being split

  <Pendulum> err... other than Tuesday

  <akgraner> alright then if there are no overriding objections

  <czajkowski> aye tuesday does seem to be rather Ubuntu meeting tastic

  <akgraner> I'll take a look and and see if I can't come up with a poll that excludes other meetings yet gives the best neutral time zones

  <akgraner> [Action] - meeting in two weeks - to start working on goals for Lucid, and see where the mentoring program stands

• <akgraner> anything else?

  <akgraner> going once

  <akgraner> going twice

  <akgraner> Thanks everyone see you in two weeks!

  <akgraner> #endmeeting

Meeting closed at 22:07

People Present

• akgraner
• pleia2
• maco2
• maiatoday
• Pendulum
• rikkikite

• AlanBell

• axolote
• valorie
• sil
• issyl0
• popey
• Mamarok
• akk
• czajkowski

Actions Recorded

• those willing to be mentors make sure you are listed on the mentors page
• clean up mentoring wiki pages - then roll out a campaign to communicate it to the community
• Pendulum to drive efforts to clean up wiki's with guidance from team members
• pleia2 to make sure the website reflects the wiki's when the wiki's are completed to team satisfaction

• czajkowski to help AlanBell bell with updating ubuntu membership metrics

• akgraner to talk to community team about best ways to present metrics at UDS

• - Ubuntu Women Project to promote http://findingada.com/ - and encourage community members to look at women with the Ubuntu Community as well

• - meeting in two weeks - to start working on goals for Lucid, and see where the mentoring program stands

Meeting agenda can be found here