- diversity - mailman.ripe.net

Finalizing (draft) charter of the Diversity TF by 2nd October
by Vesna Manojlovic 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

Dear all, after the attempt to discuss the charter through Etherpad, here is the new approach: let's do it on the mailing list. It's a mini-project, and here is the description. Please do your part. Thanks, Vesna ========== Goal: formulating charter (web page!) of the RIPE Diversity Task Force (Inverse) Timeline: - December: have the charter accepted / approved by RIPE community (how?) - November: include any suggested modifications - present draft charter during TF report @ RIPE75 - make a web-page & send to RIPE list on 6. October (Friday) - finalize draft charter before 2. October (Monday) - take 3-4 weeks to go through several iterations - re-start the discussion on the mailing list 4. September - discussion started on Etherpad/mailing list in July Examples: https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/tf/ripe-accountability-task-force // https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/tf/bcop Elements of the web page (charter): - short history (introduction) - short description of the scope & goal & timeline - list of members - a chair-persons, or multiple co-chairs - links Tasks: - Vesna: send initial email (this) - All: comment on the text for the web page - on the list (also say if you agree, so we can see that there is a consensus) - All: let me know (offlist) if you do NOT want to be listed as "member" (and you were present on one of the TF meetings) - All: let me know (offlist) if you DO want me to add you as a member - Vesna: keep track of time-line & send reminders - Someone: volunteer to be a co-chair (please start a new thread ;-) - co-chairs (or Vesna): keep track of comments; declare a consensus by 2nd October - Vesna: work with RIPE NCC webmaster to make the page - Vesna: email the page to ripe-list (for info / additional comments) =========text========== Introduction The RIPE Diversity Task Force was formed in May 2017 at RIPE 74 in Madrid. (new) Goal of the TF is increasing diversities in RIPE community. (new) Various diversities (gender diversity, race diversity, age diversity, socioeconomic diversity, regional diversity...) help to ensure larger variety of expertise and experiences available to the RIPE community to achieve its goals of "technical coordination necessary to enable the operation of the Internet." The task force will report on diversity/inclusion at RIPE Meetings currently, propose actions to increase diversity and then evaluate and report on the efficacy of the actions taken. Draft scope The RIPE Diversity Task Force agrees to: - Review and report on the current state of RIPE Meeting diversity - Work with the RIPE NCC to gather diversity metrics for benchmarking purposes - Identify key areas of action and delegate to the appropriate people (either community volunteers or the RIPE NCC) - Report progress on action points via RIPE web sites, the RIPE Diversity mailing list and RIPE Meetings (new) Timeline Although "increasing diversities" is a continuing activity, the effectiveness of the TF will be evaluated during the period RIPE 81 – RIPE 82 to ascertain it is still serving its purpose. Links: Main page about the task force: TBD; link will be somewhere here: https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/tf RIPE Labs articles: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/shane/measuring-diversity-at-ripe-meetings https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/diversity-discussions-at-ripe-74 Archived presentations during RIPE Meetings: https://ripe73.ripe.net/archives/video/1246/ https://ripe74.ripe.net/archives/video/164 https://ripe74.ripe.net/presentations/154-Diversity-RIPE74v2.pdf Mailing list: https://lists.ripe.net/mailman/listinfo/diversity Live working document for the TF collaboration: http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/ripe-diversity-tf-2017 Members: - all that were present on one of the TF meetings (in person or on-line)

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An Interesting Video
by Brian Nisbet 02 Oct '17

02 Oct '17

I never thought I'd be linking the US Air Force on this, yet here we are. A worthwhile 5 minute piece. https://twitter.com/usairforce/status/913541082637578240 Of course there are complexities, it's never that simple, but it's a powerful & adaptable message. Brian Brian Nisbet Network Operations Manager, HEAnet, Ireland's National Research & Education Network

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Experiences from the Django community
by Erik Romijn 26 Sep '17

26 Sep '17

Hi everyone, I’m delighted to see that the RIPE community is taking important steps to improve diversity and inclusivity. As some of you might remember, I worked for RIPE NCC until 2011 and attended most RIPE meetings back then, though none since. Since then I’ve been doing a lot of volunteer work around diversity and inclusivity, in particular in the Django community. Django is the most popular web framework for Python, developed as an open source project for the last 12 years. In recent times, the Django (and to a different extent, Python) community has made large steps in diversity and inclusivity. It is not uncommon for Django conferences to have an approximate 50/50 split between men and women on stage, even though talk selection is usually blind (i.e. without information identifying the speaker). There is much work left to do though. I felt there may be resources, experiences and best practices that can be helpful for this group too, so I laid out a few things below. (I couldn’t reply to the existing thread, as I only just joined the list.) A fundament is that the Django community and events have a Code of Conduct[2] with a strong process behind it, including things like tracking repeat offenders and (limited) sharing of information between conferences. I recently became a member of the CoC committee that manages part of this. For example, prior to accepting speakers, conferences often send their list of names so the committee can compare that to their list of past incidents. In the interest of transparency, the enforcement manual[3] along with most internal documentation[4] is public. A CoC with a proper process is only a first step. Other efforts in the Django community include extensive outreach to marginalised groups, offering speaker mentors, financial aid programs, ensuring people moderate their alcohol consumption, accessibility information, live transcription, quiet rooms, childcare, and so on. As a side project, I maintain the Less Obvious Conference Checklist[1] which has a lot suggestions of this kind for conferences - most easy, some very hard - many of which can make an impact on inclusivity. Some of the lessons I learned along the way that I thought may be relevant, reading your other discussions: - D&I is more than “at this conference we claim you won’t be harassed or assaulted, or we will take action if it happens”. For many marginalised groups, experiences in tech and tech communities are so poor, that it requires building a lot more trust in that a community is actually doing better in being a nice and safe place, and not just saying so. Personally, I think building this trust is the single hardest issue. - Related to this, if people aren’t reporting incidents under your CoC, it doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. People (including me) can be very reluctant to report, and if they don’t trust the process enough might just end up leaving and telling their friends to stay away. In Django events, we’ve noticed a small increase in minor incident reports - not because more are happening, but because we’ve built enough trust that people report them. - Statistics can be helpful, for example in tracking whether there is progress compared to before. They can also give an indication of whether things you’ve done seem effective. However, I’m skeptic of having direct numbers as single absolute goals. On the other hand, you can probably say that if 2% of speakers are women, something isn’t going right somewhere. On intersectionality: any D&I initiative that wants to stay away from the complexity of intersectionality is dead in the water, as is an initiative that wants to treat everyone equal. My position, even being part of some marginalised groups, and my ability to participate in a community and attend events, is incomparably privileged compared to (for example, on average) a trans woman of colour or someone with housing or income insecurity. We can not treat everyone the same, because we are doing this in a society where marginalised groups and many others are already not treated equal or provided equal opportunities. And simplifying efforts to “sex discrimination” is simply way too narrow. I hope that some of this was useful input. I also do a talk at a number of conferences on empathy in tech, which touches upon D&I and how experiences from marginalised people can be so different, and why this matters so much, among other things. A video should be out soon. In August I’ll be doing a talk at DjangoCon US about the Django CoC, the processes behind it and some of the myths, which might be interesting to this group too. Erik PS: Could someone update the XX/XY labeling on the attendee gender graphs on RIPE labs[5]? Guessing gender from names is hard and inaccurate already, but sometimes all we have and I understand that. However, unless you have an algorithm that actually guesses their chromosomes, labeling the groups as XX and XY is wrong and completely erases transgender people. [1] https://github.com/erikr/lessobviouschecklist [2] https://djangoproject.com/conduct/ [3] https://www.djangoproject.com/conduct/enforcement-manual/ [4] https://github.com/django/code-of-conduct [5] https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/diversity-discussions-at-ripe-74

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Increase in diversity at NLNOG meetings, and other good news
by Vesna Manojlovic 21 Sep '17

21 Sep '17

Hi, few weeks ago there was an event in Amsterdam, that had many participants & topics that overlap with the RIPE community. I wrote about my personal impressions; some of them are relevant for the diversity-task force, so I'm pointing you to the RIPE Labs article: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/becha/experiences-from-nlnog-day-2017 > NLNOG keeps improving year after year ... > NLNOG has just introduced the Code of Conduct, summarised by Job > Snijders during the opening speech. (video). NLNOG also appointed two > "trusted persons" for during and after the event. These are people > that are instructed on how to deal with undesired behaviour and > report back to the organisation. > > Having a Code of Conduct for events is one of the items on the > elusive checklist for increasing gender diversity, as pointed out > here. > > In my opinion, gender diversity is lacking at NLNOG: out of ten > presenters there were ZERO female presenters, and out of ~150 > participants, there were about 10-15 women. I had a talk and a > brainstorm with some attendees on what can we do to make the next > event more interesting (or more safe) for our female colleagues. > There were a lot of ideas: reach out to university students, invite > female speakers in order to provide role models, provide contact for > babysitters during evening activities, open fellowship for women on > parental leave, etc,. But what's key to remember is that actions > take time and effort and energy, and it again places the burden on > the minority to try to improve the situation. Now, several weeks later, and after visiting / hearing about other events, I realize that this is a very long process, and the improvements will be small & far apart -- and we need to be grateful for small victories (like, 10-15 women this year at NLNOG was actually an increase!) Do you have some more encouraging news to share? Thanks, Vesna

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On-line video meeting invitation: Diversity TF meeting, 30-08-2017, 11:00 am EST
by Vesna Manojlovic 06 Sep '17

06 Sep '17

Dear all, here is the information about our next meeting: *Diversity TF meeting* Wednesday, August 30, 2017 11:00 am | Europe Summer Time (Amsterdam, GMT+02:00) | 1 hr Draft agenda: - introduction of new members/volunteers - update on actions & milestones - discussing the draft charter - next meeting Hope to see you there! Please read the previous meeting notes, and the discussions on the lists archives: https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/diversity/ Regards, Vesna Manojlovic Community Builder RIPE NCC Meeting number (access code): 702 314 786 Meeting password: 3Ds5sHZB Add to Calendar <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/j.php?MTID=m9f15a8d7612c53f498156082a3d0b…> When it's time, join the meeting <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/j.php?MTID=m468344e272a67b50c3cc32ba0e553…>. *Join by phone* *0800-051-3810* Call-in toll-free number (UK) *+44-203-478-5289* Call-in toll number (UK) Global call-in numbers <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/globalcallin.php?serviceType=MC&ED=555601…> | Toll-free calling restrictions <https://www.webex.com/pdf/tollfree_restrictions.pdf> Can't join the meeting? <https://help.webex.com/docs/DOC-5412> IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that this WebEx service allows audio and other information sent during the session to be recorded, which may be discoverable in a legal matter. By joining this session, you automatically consent to such recordings. If you do not consent to being recorded, discuss your concerns with the host or do not join the session.

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Getting hold of Aaron Hughes
by Donal Cunningham 31 Aug '17

31 Aug '17

Folks, I established initial contact with Aaron in July, but haven’t been able to get hold of him since, despite several emails. I’ll keep trying, but wanted to let you know I hadn’t forgotten. Take care, Dónal. -- Senior Network Engineer HEAnet CLG, Ireland’s National Education and Research Network +353 (0)1 6609040 donal.cunningham(a)heanet.ie Registered in Ireland, No. 275301. CRA No. 20036270

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RIPE75 Submissions
by Brian Nisbet 31 Aug '17

31 Aug '17

Afternoon, I've submitted an LT and a BoF to the PC for RIPE75. I'll keep you updated on the submission progress. However we will need to think about a presenter for the LT and a moderator for the BoF sooner rather than later. Thanks, Brian -- Brian Nisbet Network Operations Manager HEAnet CLG, Ireland's National Education and Research Network 1st Floor, 5 George's Dock, IFSC, Dublin D01 X8N7, Ireland +35316609040 brian.nisbet(a)heanet.ie www.heanet.ie Registered in Ireland, No. 275301. CRA No. 20036270

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Neuro-diversity in tech & hackers community
by Vesna Manojlovic 30 Aug '17

30 Aug '17

Hi, at the recent conference SHA2017 there was a very interesting presentation about "Managing Neurodiversity with Cognitive Empathy" : https://program.sha2017.org/events/324.html You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fD2BvS3Aqw I enjoyed it very much, and I think it's relevant both for the RIPE community, and the organisations that employ nerds. My wish is to invite these presenters to give this or similar talk at the RIPE meeting. Below is the text, repeated, for the archives. Cheers, Vesna === lecture: Nerd-Wrangling 101 Managing Neurodiversity with Cognitive Empathy Neurodiversity is the concept that neurological conditions are variations in the human genome. Therefore Autism, ADHD, and mood- and personality disorders are considered social categories intersecting with other social categories. While "Nerd" is very broadly defined, the number of neurodiverse people within our social group is much higher than in the general population. Our social circles, our hackerspaces, our coworkers are assembled from this group. And due to these differences our groups behave differently and encounter different problems that cannot be solved with standard management 101. Working together with a team of amazing people, nearly all of whom have distinctive cognitive needs, we found that classical management and strict structures are impediments rather than support. So we hacked around them. Like you do. In this talk we introduce the concept of cognitive empathy: Being able to think into the brain of your peers even though you might lack affective ("classical") empathy. We will share how we came to new solutions in managing our team by figuring out each others' needs. This talk will be about superpowers and super weaknesses: how to manage them, utilize them, and create an interdependent band of superheroes for which the sum is greater than the parts. ~~~~ Neurodiversity is an approach to learning and disability that argues diverse neurological conditions are results of normal variations in the human genome.This portmanteau of neurological and diversity originated in the late 1990s as a challenge to prevailing views of neurological diversity as inherently pathological, instead asserting that neurological differences should be recognized and respected as a social category on a par with gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability status. The term "Nerd" broadly describes very many of the quirks that come with neurodiversity. While not all nerds are neurologically diverse, many are. ADHD and Asperger's, as well as mood disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety, and personality disorders such as OCD are very common within the hacker scene. This talks aims at everybody who either is themselves among the above mentioned groups or deals with neurodiverse people on a daily basis. We are coming from this perspective because we are managing a team that is neurologically diverse, but also because we are ourselves neurodiverse and have had very frustrating experiences in the past being managed by others who didn't understand our peculiarities or couldn't appropriately respond to them due to company policy. After explaining the general concept the talk will take its time to dive into different diagnoses and pair explaining symptoms with real-world examples of how they can play out in a work setting. We will also explain why we consider some traits as superpowers in a very Marvel Comics-style sense ("The Hulk is very strong but he also smashes things to pieces"). On the other hand, we will go in-depth into what we call super-weaknesses and try to explain how to work around those or harness them for good. Finally we will talk about some general ideas of how to address neurological diversity in a work-like environment. These respecting peoples' sensory, metabolic, biological and bio-cognitive needs. We look for Pareto improvements, meaning that solutions should benefit everyone without disadvantaging a minority. This is especially important as only benefiting a plurality can produce devastating effects on minority groups. We will therefore explain how to make "harm reduction" the highest priority. All great ides, however, only work in an open environment where talking about such issues is accepted. Being unapologetically neurodiverse is a radical act. This talk will also explain why, and what the implications are when fostering a culture of vulnerability.

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New on RIPE Labs: SHA2017: Hackers' Camping, RIPE Topics
by Vesna Manojlovic 04 Aug '17

04 Aug '17

Dear colleagues, Today begins the newest edition of four-yearly Dutch summer camping conferences for and by hackers: SHA2017. http://sha2017.org/ Since there is an overlap between topics and participants within the RIPE community, this is an invitation to the talks and workshops - a small selection was recommended, from more then 200 lectures. There is a special sub-selection of workshops relevant to diversity-tf. Read more about it in this RIPE Labs article: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/becha/sha2017-hackers-camping-ripe-topics ... or if you are there too, get in touch :) Regards, Vesna Manojlovic Community Builder RIPE NCC

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Re: [diversity] [anti-abuse-wg] Diverse interest groups (was- Bringing Law Enforcement Into the RIPE Community)
by denis 02 Aug '17

02 Aug '17

HI Vittorio On 02/08/2017 12:53, Vittorio Bertola wrote: > > >> Il 2 agosto 2017 alle 12.23 denis <ripedenis(a)yahoo.co.uk> ha scritto: >> >> It is not a question of 'getting heard', it is knowing you have a >> voice and where to use it. Literally anyone can join a discussion on >> a Working Group mailing list, make comments, ask questions, agree or >> disagree with other comments, propose a policy. The RIPE NCC's Policy >> Development Officer will help anyone who wants to propose a policy in >> any area of concern. It would be nice to have a wider participation >> and hear more voices in some discussions. >> >> Neither the RIPE NCC nor the RIPE community has a list of 'targets'. >> Over the last 10 years governments and LEAs have taken much more >> interest in the Internet management, operation and governance. This >> is not unexpected as the Internet has become so integral in so many >> people's lives. As they have asked questions the RIPE NCC, under the >> guidance of the RIPE Community and RIPE NCC membership, has reached >> out to answer those questions. If any of the groups you mentioned >> also join discussions and ask questions they will also be heard and >> answered. > > I'm not saying that RIPE is doing anything bad or with any bad intent, > also I didn't really mean to start a thread, but even if this precise > discussion has been going on for a long time at ICANN and elsewhere > about 15 years ago, and views on it really vary, it looks like RIPE > still has to deal with it. > > The point is that having an open door and saying "if you have anything > to say, just show up" is not enough, if you really want to make > balanced policies. Some stakeholders, like governments and business, > have well funded employees and lobbyists that can afford showing up, > while other stakeholders don't. In fact, the "public interest" is the > hardest thing to keep into account, because any narrow group with > specific interests can show up and scream to push your policies in > their favour, while the general public has a weak interest that only > becomes huge if you could aggregate several billion Internet users, > which you can't practically do. So either you make active efforts to > include these other points of view, e.g. like ICANN has been doing, or > you will always risk to produce policies biased in favour of those few > that actually can afford to show up, and against the general public > interest. > > (Also, we may be going off topic, so apologies in advance - happy to > continue elsewhere if you like.) > I think this has moved off the original topic and is more about diversity. There is now a separate mailing list for diversity issues: https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/diversity/ From what I have seen (and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) they seem more focused on 'diversity of peoples'. A current topic is the issue of gender at RIPE Meetings. But to me if you work under the general heading of 'diversity' that should cover all aspects of diversity. Some people may believe the corporate world is much more represented than the individual netizen at these meetings and on these mailing lists. Then I would say the diversity group should look at how to actively improve the diversity of representation at meetings to achieve a better balance and ensure the general public interest is served, avoiding the possibility of policies being made just for the rich and powerful. I think such a discussion would be better moved to the diversity mailing list. cheers denis > Regards, > > -- > > Vittorio Bertola | Research & Innovation Engineer > vittorio.bertola(a)open-xchange.com > <mailto:vittorio.bertola@open-xchange.com> > Open-Xchange Srl - Office @ Via Treviso 12, 10144 Torino, Italy

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Women account for 34% of ICT workers in India - something to aim for!
by Amanda Gowland 28 Jul '17

28 Jul '17

"Out of the many economies in the Asia Pacific region, India has a larger number of women working in the ICT industry than most others, ataround 34% <https://anitaborg.org/news/perspective/indian-women-in-technology-barriers/>. More women are undertaking STEM courses, witharound 42% of female undergraduates doing computer science and computer engineering <https://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Discussion_Paper_Powel…>and46.8% undertaking postgraduate degrees in and IT and Computing <http://gsm-it.com/userassets/Publications/GSM-IT_SCORECARD-INDIA_Spring_201…>during 2014-2015." Read more on APNIC's blog: https://blog.apnic.net/2017/07/28/women-ict-fostering-leadership-potential-… Thanks, Amanda

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Tips from SIGPLAN report: reducing (climate) costs of conferences, increasing diversities
by Vesna Manojlovic 21 Jul '17

21 Jul '17

Dear all, here is an interesting example from a different-but-similar community: ACM’s Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN), and their report on "reducing the costs of its conference-focused approach to promoting exchange of ideas." While their initial reason for looking into this was to reduce the impact on climate change & global warming, the conclusions are very much aligned with the practical tips for increasing various diversities - and I think we can use this in the RIPE conferences too. Below are some short quotes, and a link to the whole report. I hope you will find it relevant and interesting. Regards, Vesna https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VLIjocofEzDkjFBvHj3i7YeW9h14weWkG7DRw2e… > SIGPLAN is particularly invested in air-travel-intensive > international conferences. There is good reason for this, as > in-person communication is highly effective for sharing and > developing new ideas and carrying on collaborations. > SIGPLAN sponsors or co-sponsors 17 conferences. > Each of these events attracts between 300 and 600 attendees. > According to our own experience and conversations with peers, SIGPLAN > members often attend more than one conference per year, resulting in > multiple flights. > SIGPLAN has strong communities in both Europe and North America, > which means that major conferences require a significant number of > trans-Atlantic flights. As SIGPLAN has expanded in size in recent > years, it has sought to expand geographically as well, necessitating > flights to more far-flung places for those in the current core > communities. Expansion is a laudable goal: science benefits from a > diversity of views. > clear responsibility to understand and explore ways of reducing the > costs of its conference-focused approach to promoting exchange of > ideas. This conversation is also timely in view of other emerging > concerns about travel, as well, including restrictions on visa rules, > infectious disease outbreaks, and questions about fair access for > computer scientists from less wealthy regions. > We could, for instance, merge two or more existing conferences into > larger mega-conferences — in the limit, perhaps even colocating all > SIGPLAN conferences. Or, conversely, we could encourage smaller, > regional conferences. We could hold a single conference > simultaneously at two or more sites, with arrangements for > live-streaming talks from one location to the other(s). In the longer > run, we could consider creating entirely virtual conferences.

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How to not to continue electing only white men (ARIN Board of Trustees)
by Vesna Manojlovic 20 Jul '17

20 Jul '17

Dear all, I find this example from another RIR community relevant for our efforts on increasing diversity and inclusion: http://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-consult/2017-July/000891.html This time, it's about choosing the board of trustees; but it could be any panel, group of presenters at a conference, C-level directors, working-group chairs, programme committee... I am forwarding this message with a permission of the original author, Bill Woodcock. Thank you, Bill, for your brave stand & great example of being an ally! Regards, Vesna > [ARIN-consult] 2017 Call for Nominations: ARIN Board of Trustees > > From: Bill Woodcock (woody at pch.net) > Date: Tue Jul 18 04:22:09 EDT 2017 > This year I conclude my fifth term as an ARIN board member, and I > have just declined nomination to run again. > > I decline not because I have less to give to the community, but > because my presence on the board is contributing to the most > persistent problem the organization is facing. > > I have nominated six candidates for the board, all of whom are at > least as qualified as anyone presently serving, myself included. > NONE OF THEM ARE WHITE MEN. And the only hard thinking I had to do > was how to narrow it down to just six. There is no shortage of > qualified women, nor shortage of qualified people of other > ethnicities. As a community, we have NO EXCUSE to continue electing > only white men. We know that, we acknowledge it in meetings, yet > when it comes time for the nomcom to build a slate and the electorate > to vote, you keep picking me and people who look like me, rather than > better-qualified women and men who could be representing your > interests better than I do. > > I’m giving up my seat for one reason, and one reason only. Do not > waste this opportunity. Do not screw this up. Do not think that you > can just wait one more year before addressing it. I need you all to > stop making excuses, stop rationalizing that only a white man really > understands your problems, and REPLACE ME AND TIM WITH TWO OF THESE > EXCELLENT CANDIDATES. Their experience is more current, their > perspective is more valuable, and they’ll be more fun at socials. > Once you’ve taken this step, I promise you you’ll be wondering why > you didn’t replace us sooner. > > -Bill http://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-consult/2017-July/thread.html#887

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Poll to choose the date of the next (online) meeting
by Vesna Manojlovic 18 Jul '17

18 Jul '17

Hi, in order to keep progressing with the work of this task force, several meetings are planned. Next one should be in August, using WebEx. This is an invitation to express your preference for a date & time: https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/RIPE_Diversity_TF_August_2017/ It's vacations/holidays season, so it might be difficult to get many people to join. Last time we had 8 people, and the notes were published. General agenda is - to report on progress of multiple actions. More detailed agenda will be sent later. Please let us know if you are interested to participate by taking a poll. Deadline is next week Tuesday, 25.7., noon CEST. Thanks, Vesna Etherpad: http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/ripe-diversity-tf-2017

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Guesswork gender stats for RIPE 74
by Shane Kerr 11 Jul '17

11 Jul '17

Hello all, I updated the code used to guess gender of RIPE meeting attendees to also work for RIPE 74. (The format of the attendee list changed yet again, so I had to update the code to deal with the new format - we now have 11 formats for 74 meetings!) The code is in the same place: https://github.com/shane-kerr/ripemtggender The results for RIPE 74 are: 500.89 men 97.11 women 35.00 unguessable This makes our historical RIPE gender diversity table look something like this: 1 14 13.80 (98.57%) 0.20 ( 1.43%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 2 22 20.77 (94.41%) 1.23 ( 5.59%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 3 16 15.81 (98.81%) 0.19 ( 1.19%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 4 26 25.56 (98.31%) 0.44 ( 1.69%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 5 31 28.42 (91.68%) 2.58 ( 8.32%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 6 31 30.51 (98.42%) 0.49 ( 1.58%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 7 31 29.42 (94.90%) 1.58 ( 5.10%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 8 30 28.62 (95.40%) 1.38 ( 4.60%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 9 56 51.88 (92.64%) 4.12 ( 7.36%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 10 65 59.69 (91.83%) 5.31 ( 8.17%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 11 63 56.43 (89.57%) 6.57 (10.43%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 12 55 49.47 (89.95%) 5.53 (10.05%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 13 80 71.19 (88.99%) 8.81 (11.01%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 14 91 81.88 (89.98%) 9.12 (10.02%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 15 63 54.87 (87.10%) 8.13 (12.90%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 16 62 54.61 (88.08%) 7.39 (11.92%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 17 82 66.56 (81.17%) 15.44 (18.83%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 18 72 63.04 (87.56%) 8.96 (12.44%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 19 75 61.24 (81.65%) 13.76 (18.35%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 20 98 83.06 (84.76%) 14.94 (15.24%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 21 101 80.84 (80.04%) 20.16 (19.96%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 22 95 78.74 (82.88%) 16.26 (17.12%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 23 108 89.68 (83.04%) 18.32 (16.96%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 24 117 98.54 (84.22%) 18.46 (15.78%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 25 153 128.66 (84.09%) 24.34 (15.91%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 26 122 105.18 (86.21%) 16.82 (13.79%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 28 120 95.39 (79.49%) 24.61 (20.51%) 0.00 ( 0.00%) 29 220 165.77 (75.35%) 44.23 (20.10%) 10.00 ( 4.55%) 30 232 184.92 (79.71%) 37.08 (15.98%) 10.00 ( 4.31%) 31 270 215.26 (79.73%) 44.74 (16.57%) 10.00 ( 3.70%) 32 279 219.37 (78.63%) 47.63 (17.07%) 12.00 ( 4.30%) 33 236 191.90 (81.31%) 34.10 (14.45%) 10.00 ( 4.24%) 34 294 234.13 (79.64%) 47.87 (16.28%) 12.00 ( 4.08%) 35 341 279.32 (81.91%) 52.68 (15.45%) 9.00 ( 2.64%) 36 58 39.98 (68.93%) 15.02 (25.90%) 3.00 ( 5.17%) 37 341 279.32 (81.91%) 52.68 (15.45%) 9.00 ( 2.64%) 38 120 99.31 (82.76%) 17.69 (14.74%) 3.00 ( 2.50%) 39 330 244.32 (74.04%) 71.68 (21.72%) 14.00 ( 4.24%) 40 373 299.33 (80.25%) 59.67 (16.00%) 14.00 ( 3.75%) 41 384 307.24 (80.01%) 65.76 (17.13%) 11.00 ( 2.86%) 42 341 260.69 (76.45%) 68.31 (20.03%) 12.00 ( 3.52%) 43 289 217.60 (75.29%) 58.40 (20.21%) 13.00 ( 4.50%) 44 342 267.97 (78.35%) 55.03 (16.09%) 19.00 ( 5.56%) 45 323 254.12 (78.67%) 55.88 (17.30%) 13.00 ( 4.02%) 46 309 245.00 (79.29%) 45.00 (14.56%) 19.00 ( 6.15%) 47 329 254.18 (77.26%) 54.82 (16.66%) 20.00 ( 6.08%) 48 294 220.72 (75.07%) 57.28 (19.48%) 16.00 ( 5.44%) 49 320 255.15 (79.73%) 45.85 (14.33%) 19.00 ( 5.94%) 50 363 284.58 (78.40%) 54.42 (14.99%) 24.00 ( 6.61%) 51 378 299.72 (79.29%) 55.28 (14.62%) 23.00 ( 6.08%) 52 314 242.47 (77.22%) 57.53 (18.32%) 14.00 ( 4.46%) 53 317 260.77 (82.26%) 39.23 (12.38%) 17.00 ( 5.36%) 54 294 245.32 (83.44%) 36.68 (12.48%) 12.00 ( 4.08%) 55 426 349.63 (82.07%) 56.37 (13.23%) 20.00 ( 4.69%) 56 460 394.55 (85.77%) 44.45 ( 9.66%) 21.00 ( 4.57%) 57 352 276.39 (78.52%) 50.61 (14.38%) 25.00 ( 7.10%) 58 475 390.09 (82.12%) 52.91 (11.14%) 32.00 ( 6.74%) 59 349 289.28 (82.89%) 35.72 (10.23%) 24.00 ( 6.88%) 60 485 395.22 (81.49%) 62.78 (12.94%) 27.00 ( 5.57%) 61 476 382.41 (80.34%) 54.59 (11.47%) 39.00 ( 8.19%) 62 495 428.01 (86.47%) 39.99 ( 8.08%) 27.00 ( 5.45%) 63 496 405.61 (81.78%) 60.39 (12.18%) 30.00 ( 6.05%) 64 440 360.38 (81.90%) 57.62 (13.10%) 22.00 ( 5.00%) 65 464 385.83 (83.15%) 48.17 (10.38%) 30.00 ( 6.47%) 66 569 465.54 (81.82%) 82.46 (14.49%) 21.00 ( 3.69%) 67 466 374.39 (80.34%) 68.61 (14.72%) 23.00 ( 4.94%) 68 566 452.66 (79.98%) 80.34 (14.19%) 33.00 ( 5.83%) 69 606 484.62 (79.97%) 98.38 (16.23%) 23.00 ( 3.80%) 70 676 533.99 (78.99%) 96.01 (14.20%) 46.00 ( 6.80%) 71 522 404.96 (77.58%) 83.04 (15.91%) 34.00 ( 6.51%) 72 669 523.89 (78.31%) 104.11 (15.56%) 41.00 ( 6.13%) 73 668 515.95 (77.24%) 112.05 (16.77%) 40.00 ( 5.99%) 74 633 500.89 (79.13%) 97.11 (15.34%) 35.00 ( 5.53%) Don't be fooled by the 5-digits of precision I used here - our "completely unguessable" column is almost 6% after all, and everything else is also a guess. Still, we can probably say that there did not seem to be a lot more women attending RIPE 74 than had attended in the past few years. I am also willing to guess that saying roughly 4/5 or 5/6 of the attendees were men is probably not too far off the mark. I am eager to conduct the same measurement at RIPE 75, and compare it to self-reported data to see if we can start making guesses about the error rate and extend that backwards in time. (I am also curious if the portion of women attendees changes drastically due to the unusual location of the meeting - especially since we have roughly stable portions of women attendees in the last couple of years.) Cheers, -- Shane

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Notes from the RIPE Diversity Task Force on-line meeting, 27.6.2017
by Vesna Manojlovic 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

RIPE Diversity Task Force (on-line meeting, 27.6. 10:30 CEST) 1. Introduction of (new) members/volunteers =============== Participants were asked what brought them to this Task Force, what is there background and how do they want to contribute. Denesh Bhabuta (UKNOF / DNS-OARC): wants to learn from the RIPE Community; could possibly bring efforts back into other communities / conferences; also has a personal interest, as a father of a daughter. Donal Cunningham (HEAnet): notices that at most technical conferences he is surrounded by white males, and is interested in fixing that problem. Malcolm Hutty (LINX): background in Internet Governance and community organisations; was prompted by the the feedback at RIPE74, which was mostly welcoming the efforts to increase breadth of participation, but the comment was repeatedly made from the floor that RIPE participants "do not support diversity for diversity's sake", and he would like to address the concerns that underlie such a comment. Gergana Petrova (RIPE NCC / RACI): finds diversity an important issue; it's challenging to work on it without offending anyone; wants to work on improving the current situation. Brian Nisbet (HEAnet): is active in working on the issues of increasing diversity, and wants to contribute to it in RIPE Community (also PC "representative" and WG co-chair) Amanda Gowland (RIPE NCC): non-techie, helping organise these technical conferences; can help with writing (working as Technical Writer) Vesna Manojlovic (RIPE NCC): used to be an engineer, then trainer & now Community Builder; exposed to lack of diversity in hackers community, and helped addressing the issues there; wants to exchange experiences between them & RIPE community. Shane Kerr: interested in the topic of increasing diversity; did the measuring to find out what the actual situation is. (also WG co-chair) 2. Discussing the draft charter =============== A suggested draft charter was on the Etherpad. Malcolm Hutty made the most substantial recommendations on how to modify it and was asked to clarify his suggestions: http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/ripe-diversity-tf-2017 Malcolm said he thinks we should be careful not to be too political, but remain practical, and focus on the concrete actions. He added that we should strive towards increasing accessibility for everyone, instead of singling out specific groups and that we should be welcoming to everyone, regardless of differences. Gergana said she suggests to be more than just "welcoming”. Instead we should be "inviting" and "encouraging". Denesh noted that with the introduction of the RIPE Meeting Code of Contact, the RIPE NCC has already started the overall inclusion programme; now are are moving to the next steps. Shane was wondering why Malcolm also objected to using metrics. Malcolm responded that we should focus on individuals, and not divide people based on demographics or other grouping methods. Brian commented that no matter what, there are clear differences that place all people into certain groups. Malcolm said that he thinks we should not explicitly exclude anyone, and not do any active discrimination, but instead we should remove the reasons for individuals not taking part. Amanda asked Malcolm what he thinks the reasons are that RIPE's representation of women within the community is 5%, while the "tech industry" female participation rate is 15%? Malcolm thinks that we should investigate whether there are systemic reasons in RIPE's own practices and approaches that inhibit women from participating, and if so seek to address them. But we also need to be open to individual agency, and so setting any particular target for gender balance is inappropriate. Brian asked for clarification and wondered if Malcom means that "they are just not interested in taking part"? He thinks that we have passed that stage of discussing *if* there is a lack of diversity within RIPE Community - we are now working under the agreement that there *is* a need for increasing diversity. Donal added that it has been shown that companies with more diverse boards have greater "return on investment". Also, for our focus group, since we have limited resources (such as time and attention) , we need to choose which actions will be helpful to most people; therefore, we should focus on _groups_ rather than on individuals. Malcolm asked what is the meant by "under-represented groups" - and what would be the goal of balancing the "over-represented" and "under-represented"? Vesna: (long story...) 50% Malcolm said that he doesn’t think this is an acceptable goal, it is artificial and numerical; our goal should be for everyone to feel welcome and respected enough to take part, as individuals, and not as part of a grouping. Donal suggested that the RIPE community could commit to, at first, have at least *the same* ratio of female participation as the technical industry; and later, maybe, to even go for 50%. Vesna closed this agenda topic and suggested to continue to wordsmith the charter on the list. 3. Actions & milestones =============== Amanda reported that one of the suggested actions was to get more metrics. The registration for RIPE 75 will open soon, and there will be an opt-in question added at the end of the registration form. The text was shared on the diversity list and on RIPE Labs. The data collection was made as anonymous as possible (opt-in, collected by the 3rd party, no personal info requested, IP-tracking disabled) in order to minimise the danger for the participants. The goal is to collect at least some data about gender ratios of participation, in order to measure, over time, if our actions have improved the situation. Vesna added that furthermore, we can always repeat the analysis Shane did before RIPE 74 (based on public registration data and participant’s names. Shane confirmed that he would be willing to runt his again.. Action on Shane to repeat the analysis for RIPE 73 and RIPE74 participants, and share the results with the list. Amanda said that a new idea is to invite one of the women who lead the diversity workshop before RIPE 74 to submit a talk proposal for RIPE 75, on why diversity is important (this has been done in the meantime). Amanda also said that the RIPE NCC is investigating on-site child-care options for RIPE 76. Denesh noted that as a conferences organiser, he has been asked by female participants about policies for the breastfeeding in public. Since they want to be as inclusive as possible, they said that this is not a problem. Vesna asked if they have been looking into providing a separate room, for those women who prefer the privacy & comfort (for nursing), rather then accessibility & inclusion? But having a separate room might be a logistical challenge. Denesh responded that they always have a separate space available, for various purposes, so that can also be used for nursing in private. Donal volunteered to take on the suggestion of contacting Aaron Hughes, to work on the "mentoring" programme for newcomers. 4. Scheduling next meeting: =============== Next meeting: sometime in August. Here is the poll for dates & times: https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/RIPE_Diversity_TF_August_2017/ 5. New actions: =============== Shane: re-run metrics Donal: contact Aaron Hughes All: work further on the charter Someone? : come up with the numbers of "tech industry gender ratio" Vesna: admin: send notes; schedule next meeting

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survey included without any announcement to WGs
by denis walker 28 Jun '17

28 Jun '17

Hi Despite my objections and suggestion for a safer way to do this, I see you have gone ahead and included the SurveyMonkey link on the registration form for RIPE 75 without any announcement to the WG chairs, this Wg or any other Wg. You have even said on the form "Please answer the question anonymously via SurveyMonkey" which is simply NOT true. People should be told that this data is NOT collected anonymously, but will be used anonymously. As I have said before, this is not the same thing. cheersdenis

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How to contribute to the charter?
by Malcolm Hutty 26 Jun '17

26 Jun '17

Dear all, I am responding to the invitation for volunteers for the taskforce, and also for contributions to the draft charter. I would like to make some suggestions on the charter, but I see etherpad does not have change control markings. So while I could add new sections easily enough, if I were to change or delete existing text, that would hide what others have written before me, which isn't my intention. I also fear it might not be well received by the original author of those words. I know Google docs represents deletions/edits with a strikethrough on the original text, rather than suppressing it - but I also know that some people prefer not to use Google docs, and etherpad may have been chosen quite deliberately. So my first question is, how would you prefer to receive such contributions? Would you like me to start a new etherpad, for example? Malcolm. -- Malcolm Hutty | tel: +44 20 7645 3523 Head of Public Affairs | Read the LINX Public Affairs blog London Internet Exchange | http://publicaffairs.linx.net/ London Internet Exchange Ltd Monument Place, 24 Monument Street London EC3R 8AJ Company Registered in England No. 3137929 Trinity Court, Trinity Street, Peterborough PE1 1DA

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Fwd: WebEx meeting invitation: RIPE Diversity Task Force (on-line meeting, 27.6. 10:30 CEST)
by Vesna Manojlovic 26 Jun '17

26 Jun '17

Dear all, please see below for the details of the meeting tomorrow, as was announced few weeks ago. This is just one of the opportunities to contribute to the Diversity Task Force work -- if you can not join the call, please read the notes that will be published, or the previous publications on RIPE Labs, and volunteer to do some of the actions. Agenda: - scheduling next meeting - introduction of new members/volunteers - discussing the drat charter - actions & milestones - new actions Reminder of the Etherpad document for online collaboration: http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/ripe-diversity-tf-2017 Please let me know (off-list) if you are planning to join. Regards, Vesna Manojlovic Community Builder RIPE NCC -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: WebEx meeting invitation: RIPE Diversity Task Force Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2017 09:03:22 +0000 (GMT) *RIPE Diversity Task Force* Tuesday, June 27, 2017 10:30 am | Europe Summer Time (Amsterdam, GMT+02:00) | 1 hr Meeting number (access code): 705 593 356 Meeting password: MSFPJRH5 Add to Calendar <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/j.php?MTID=m5570ded4571b5669142f2c063475d…> When it's time, join the meeting <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/j.php?MTID=mc9355ebc871a432648bd105b741c1…>. *Join by phone* *0800-051-3810* Call-in toll-free number (UK) *+44-203-478-5289* Call-in toll number (UK) Global call-in numbers <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/globalcallin.php?serviceType=MC&ED=548909…> | Toll-free calling restrictions <https://www.webex.com/pdf/tollfree_restrictions.pdf> Can't join the meeting? <https://help.webex.com/docs/DOC-5412> IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that this WebEx service allows audio and other information sent during the session to be recorded, which may be discoverable in a legal matter. By joining this session, you automatically consent to such recordings. If you do not consent to being recorded, discuss your concerns with the host or do not join the session.

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Fwd: [ripe-list] Please join RIPE Diversity Task Force
by Vesna Manojlovic 23 Jun '17

23 Jun '17

FYI We've sent another invitation to the broader RIPE community. Vesna -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [ripe-list] Please join RIPE Diversity Task Force Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:10:44 +0200 From: Vesna Manojlovic <BECHA(a)ripe.net> To: ripe-list(a)ripe.net Dear colleagues, There have been efforts to increase diversity and inclusion at RIPE Meetings since RIPE 73 in Madrid. A new task force was formed at RIPE 74 and we would like to invite anyone interested in diversity to participate. It's important that we have a variety of voices contributing to the discussion. Even (especially!) if you're new to the community - we want to hear from you! This is a great way to have an impact on the development of RIPE Meetings to come. Join the conversation on the RIPE Diversity mailing list: https://lists.ripe.net/mailman/listinfo/diversity Catch up on the archives on the RIPE Forum: https://www.ripe.net/participate/mail/forum/diversity Get up-to-date on progress so far on RIPE Labs: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/diversity-discussions-at-ripe-74 If you want to join our first call for the RIPE Diversity Task Force, mark your calendar for Tuesday, 27 June at 10:30 CEST. A link to the conference call will be posted to the mailing list soon. If you miss this online meeting, there will be more opportunities later - we are planning to work on this long term. Regards, Vesna Manojlovic Community Builder RIPE NCC

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Task-force practicalities: meeting, charter, collaborative documentation, actions
by Vesna Manojlovic 23 Jun '17

23 Jun '17

Hi list, it's good to see some activity on the list, after the article is published! I am hoping to see many of you join the task-force too! I'd like to get practical, and get on with the "tasks" of the task-force :) To that goal, I suggest that we have a first online meeting ASAP: date & time: 26.6.2017 (Tuesday), 10:30 AM CEST URL - to be sent later (online-video-meeting tool Webex, most likely) Provisional agenda: - introduction of new members/volunteers - discussing the drat charter - actions & milestones - next meeting To work on the agenda in more detail, to word-smith the charter, and to keep track of the actions, here is a new Etherpad document: http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/ripe-diversity-tf-2017 If there are any changes needed, to the date or agenda, please use this list to discuss them. Any volunteer to draft the first version of the charter? Ciao, Vesna

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An idea for doing an anonymous survey
by denis walker 22 Jun '17

22 Jun '17

Hi I recently completed the ICANN survey on diversity and gradually an idea came to mind. First a question. Why are you linking the RIPE survey to the registration process? This is the bit that causes me a problem. This link makes it much more difficult to collect the diversity data anonymously. ICANN has not linked their survey to any registration process for any specific meeting. They have simply announced a link to a survey that anyone, like myself, can go to and complete. Within the survey they asked some questions like "Have you ever attended an ICANN meeting?". This allows ICANN to gather anonymous information and put it into context regarding ICANN meeting attendees. So, you could create a survey, using SurveyMonkey if you wish, and send a link to the survey to all the attendees of RIPE 74. This allows you to retrospectively gather this information for RIPE 74. Because it is not directly linked to the registration it will also be anonymous. If 500 people attended the meeting and 200 people choose to complete the questionnaire you have no idea which 200 they are. That would satisfy my concerns and you have the data in the bag for the last meeting. For future RIPE Meetings, you could again create a survey and include a link to it in the information pack handed to attendees at the meeting desk. Open the survey on Tuesday, by which time the majority of attendees have picked up their pack. Close the survey at the end of the meeting week, or maybe allow an extra week to complete it. An advantage of closing the survey at the end of the week is that even the IP addresses used by most people won't be identifiable if you did accidentally collect that information. The advantage of this is that you can run surveys at meetings without any link, direct or otherwise, to the identifiable registration data. cheersdenis

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Proposal for anonymous gender metric question now on RIPE Labs
by Amanda Gowland 20 Jun '17

20 Jun '17

Hi all, Based on our discussions here, I've written a post for RIPE Labs on how we can include an anonymous question to gather gender metrics on the RIPE 75 meeting registration form. https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/gathering-gender-metrics-at-ripe-mee… Happy to hear your input. Thanks, Amanda

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FYI: ICANN gender diversity survey
by Shane Kerr 20 Jun '17

20 Jun '17

All, ICANN announced a survey of their own about gender diversity last week: https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-06-12-en Nice to see ICANN looking at this. Cheers, -- Shane

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scope of effort?
by Paul Ebersman 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

Great to see this started. While I assume the initial focus is on RIPE, are there any plans to spread the effort to other NOGs around the world?

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