- diversity - mailman.ripe.net

Overcoming divisions, making participation inclusive
by Vesna Manojlovic 28 Sep '18

28 Sep '18

Hi, I was reading this article & I found it strangely relevant for the RIPE community, so I wanted to share it with you: http://netdem.nl/en/articles/new-democracy-overcoming-social-division/ (althou I don't agree with the conclusion of the "fix" ) Vesna Some quotes: In my view, the success of the RIPE community is in its ability to "overcome [] divisions and bring the conflicting groups together at the negotiation table." For example: ISPs, governments/regulators & vendors . And we share some similar challenges: "it is becoming more difficult to find candidates for [volunteering positions] ... it has also become increasingly difficult to develop policy, which would account for the interests of all [] groups." "How to make [] participation inclusive?" "That’s why it is important to keep inventing and enlarging the repertoire of methods for citizens to be active outside of the established procedures." Of course, the differences are that the original article talks about democracy & politics, not the Internet Governance, but the overlap seems more and more prominent. OTOH, there is again the sparkling diversity discussion at IETF... https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg109519.html https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-carpenter-community-leaders-00 https://www.theengineroom.org/diversity-is-a-competency/

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"Free speech" in the RIPE Code of Conduct
by Sasha Romijn 11 Sep '18

11 Sep '18

Hello all, I noticed the following in the RIPE mailing list and RIPE meeting Code of Conduct (emphasis mine): > Please treat each other with tolerance and respect. Free speech and an open exchange of ideas is encouraged and celebrated. Demeaning, intimidating or harming other community members is wrong. We are especially sensitive to behaviour that offends based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnic origin, or other perceived social, cultural, or personal differences. Earlier, the CoC also mentions "diversity of views”. My concern with this wording is that, in my personal experience, “free speech” and “diversity of views” are often used as arguments by people to justify sharing discriminatory views, or demanding that space is made for their ideas. It makes it seem like CoC decisions are taken in a way where free speech and the diversity of views are balanced against harm, rather than just saying that harmful statements are not ok. Even in the more restricted European legal interpretation of free speech, there are many statements that are inappropriate and harmful for a community that aims to be inclusive, yet most certainly within the legal bounds. By making free speech and diversity of views seem equally important to the incidence of harm, I think the current wording allows too much freedom, and can reduce the reporting rate. Increasing the reporting rate is a general struggle for communities, and anything that makes people more hesitant to report weakens the CoC. Personally, I’d be reluctant to report anything non-physical under a CoC that mentions free speech and diversity of ideas as values. If my memory serves me right, the text of the CoC was decided by the WG chairs. Was there an actual expert involved? And what was the reason for the chairs (or whoever else was involved) to mention free speech and diversity of views this way? Did they consider the potential negative impact? Writing CoC language is quite difficult and sensitive, and small changes can have large impacts. Sasha

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talks at monitorama
by Stephen D. Strowes 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

Hey, Monitorama EU, took place this week in Amsterdam. The conference aims to be positive and welcoming to all. There were two talks at the conference this week specifically focussed on diversity/inclusivity that folks on this list may be interested in: Monica Sarbu opened the conference on Tuesday: - title: You don’t look like an Engineer - slides: https://speakerdeck.com/monicasarbu/you-dont-look-like-an-engineer-2 - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V1G0Lb6r-g&t=29m50s Quintessence Anx spoke later the same day: - title: Unquantified Serendipity: Diversity in Development - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V1G0Lb6r-g&t=2h45m S.

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[Moderated]
by Moderated 17 Aug '18

17 Aug '18

This message has been removed from the archive.

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Minutes of today's Diversity Task Force Call - 13 July 2018
by Mirjam Kuehne 13 Jul '18

13 Jul '18

Hi all, Here are some notes of today's diversity task force call. Kind regards, Mirjam ====== Diversity Task Force Meeting 13 July 2018 Brian, Vesna, Amanda, Mirjam, Sami (for the first ten minutes) Denesh sent his apologies and an update from UKNOF: “I am working on having us do a talk at the next RIPE meeting about how we have and are approaching diversity. I am hoping the talk will be given by someone else rather than me and at the moment, one of our new board members (from a couple of months ago) - Liz Stevens - has tentatively agreed to do this.” Updates from RIPE 76 -------------------- Amanda reported that we received a report from the organisation who facilitated the childcare at RIPE 76 and also from the participants. Everyone was very positive. There were five kids last time, we expect around ten at RIPE 77. More information on RIPE Labs: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/ripe-meeting-diversity-efforts-on-si… Plans for RIPE 77 ------------------ After it was such a success at RIPE 76, we will provide the same service at RIPE 77. We are also trying to promote it some more (e.g. on the registration page). We already found a childcare organisation in Amsterdam for RIPE 77. We are still looking for sponsors, but the RIPE NCC is also considering to ask for contributions from the parents (25 EUR per day). During the RIPE 77 week, there are school holidays in the south of the Netherlands. We are currently working with sponsor for the Women in Tech lunch. From now on, we will have a banner for “women and inclusion sponsor” on the RIPE Meeting website (in addition to the other sponsor banners). The mentorship programme will be offered again for RIPE 77. Mentors can sign up online for multiple meetings. Newcomers (and other interested participants) can sign up if they want to have a mentor. Registration for RIPE 77 will open on Monday and will include information childcare and mentorship. The gender metrics question will now also be included on the registration form. The RIPE Fellowship and the RACI programmes also help to increase diversity. See more details about the RIPE fellows at RIPE 76 on RIPE Labs: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/ripe-fellows-share-their-ripe-76-exp… There was also a nice RIPE Labs articles about the benefits of role models: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/why-role-models-matter-especially-in… Vesna announced that there will be a hackathon in Amsterdam prior to RIPE 77 in collaboration with the University of Delft. Benno Overeinder introduced us to the managing director for the Dutch office of girls and women in tech: https://www.vhto.nl/ We will see how we can collaborate with her and possibly organise a session around RIPE 77. Brian mentioned that the RIPE Meeting Code of Conduct and the pointer to the childcare is now in the Call for Presentations. Also, the PC agreed to ask presenters of larger organisations to possibly consider proposing another speaker/colleague to increase diversity in general. There is now also a line in the CfP about panels to increase more diversity in terms of companies/organisations. In the future, the PC would also like to include another sentence, something like: “We would also ask you to consider the diversity of the panel (in terms of gender, culture, etc.).” Vesna suggested to make the PC system more flexible to be able to change names/presenters more easily. Vesna will follow-up with the PC and the RIPE NCC web services team. Vesna also mentioned that she will talk to local groups in the Netherlands. And we we will also encourage others to do that. Other activities ----------------- Vesna is involved in organising a feminist meeting in Amsterdam in September. She will present about Internet Governance and will promote our diversity efforts. Mirjam reported that Shane looked at other methodologies to measure diversity at RIPE. He also suggested to look at the criteria we use to hand out prices at the end of the RIPE Meeting (current first person who registers wins a price and first Newcomer who registers wins a price). Maybe it’s time to look at other criteria? The idea used to be to encourage participation. But that is not really necessary anymore. Brian said it’s meant to be a silly fun thing and cautioned us to over-engineer it. Other suggestions were made on the call: - possibly take the first five or ten registrants and pick one of them (only if that person is in the room). - possibly award the 77th registration at RIPE 77 and so on (if that person is not in the room, pick another silly number). The RIPE NCC will come up with a proposal and send it to the diversity list. We agreed to do another call in September.

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Video-conference meeting invitation: Diversity TF, 13 July 2018, 11AM EST
by Vesna Manojlovic 13 Jul '18

13 Jul '18

Dear all, let's have a pre-summer-holidays meeting, to discuss diversity topics! Everybody is welcome to join this video-call, not just "members" -- you become a member by being active! Agenda: - updates from RIPE NCC - updates from RIPE PC - open actions - preparations for RIPE77 - other contributions See you there! Vesna https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/tf/ripe-diversity-task-force *Diversity TF* Friday, July 13, 2018 11:00 am | Europe Summer Time (Amsterdam, GMT+02:00) | 1 hr Meeting number (access code): 705 350 265 Meeting password: C37cUX3q When it's time, join the meeting: https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/j.php?MTID=mc46a5825350add9093c80b2944bff… *Join by phone* *+44-203-478-5289* Call-in toll number (UK) Global call-in numbers <https://ripencc.webex.com/ripencc/globalcallin.php?serviceType=MC&ED=621456…> Can't join the meeting? <https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/article/WBX000029055> 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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FW: [RIPE PC] For review: Draft call for presentations RIPE 77
by Brian Nisbet 21 Jun '18

21 Jun '18

Folks, The PC are looking at the CFP for RIPE 77 and we're looking at adding in some text about a few things. The first is a reference to the CoC, the second to childcare and the last is to something we were discussing in the PC around encouraging speakers, especially from big companies to consider if other, more diverse, voices might be able to present the material. Leslie has already suggested the following re: childcare Did you know that RIPE meetings now have onsite childcare? Read about the experiences of our next generation of engineers at https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/ripe-meeting-diversity-efforts-on-si… The CfP is already quite long, so we need to make sure we don't make it too much longer, but your input would be gratefully received. Obviously we would ask the CfP not be spread outside this group until it goes public as there may be other things we need to change before next week. 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 On 18/06/2018, 14:13, "PC on behalf of Benno Overeinder" <pc-bounces(a)ripe.net on behalf of benno(a)NLnetLabs.nl> wrote: Hi all, Just before you go on holiday, we need to send out the CFP for RIPE 77 in Amsterdam. Find the draft text below. It is an updated CFP from the RIPE 76. There are two items I want to discuss with you: - the terms & conditions as discussed with Athina during PC lunch - inclusiveness in CFP: reference to, e.g., help with child care, code of conduct, etc. The terms & conditions text should be ready for/present in the PC submission system. Normally it does not appear in the CFP. The inclusiveness paragraph in CFP (maybe just 2 or 3 sentences): - is this a good idea? - next, who can provide some text for this paragraph (the Diversity TF?)? We would like to send out the CFP next week Monday, June 25th. Cheers, -- Benno ----------> %%%%% <---------- Call for Presentations A RIPE Meeting is an open event where Internet Service Providers, network operators and other interested parties get together. Although the meeting is mostly technical, it is also a chance for people to meet and network with others in their field. RIPE 77 will take place from 15-19 October in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The RIPE Programme Committee (PC) is now seeking content proposals from the RIPE community for the plenary sessions, BoFs (Birds of a Feather sessions), panels, workshops, tutorials and lightning talks at RIPE 77. See the full descriptions of the different presentation formats, https://ripe77.ripe.net/submit-topic/presentation-formats/. Proposals for plenary sessions, BoFs, panels, workshops and tutorials must be submitted for full consideration no later than *26 August 2018*. Proposals submitted after this date will be considered depending on the remaining available space in the programme. The PC is looking for presentations covering topics of network engineering and operations, including but not limited to: - IPv6 deployment - Managing IPv4 scarcity - Data centre technologies - Network and DNS operations - Internet governance and regulatory practices - Network and routing security - Content delivery - Internet peering and mobile data exchange - Connected Things (aka. Internet of Things - IoT) Speakers Presenters, RIPE Working Group Chairs and the RIPE Programme Committee are required to cover their own costs to attend a RIPE Meeting (meeting ticket, travel and accommodation). We have various ticket options available depending on your needs. In extraordinary circumstances, the RIPE Chair can waive the meeting fee for presenters. These requests are dealt with on a case-by-case basis via pc(a)ripe.net. Also note that, on an individual basis, participants can apply for a RIPE Fellowship to develop their professional or academic career. For more information, please visit: https://www.ripe.net/participate/ripe/ripe-fellowship Submissions Presenters should be clear on whether they wish to submit a presentation for a plenary or working group (WG) session. At present, most working groups will solicit policy proposals, discussion points or other content directly via their mailing lists. If you’re not sure what kind of session you should be presenting at, please visit: https://ripe77.ripe.net/plenary-or-wg/ RIPE Meeting attendees are quite sensitive to keeping presentations non-commercial, and product marketing talks are strongly discouraged. Repeated audience feedback shows that the most successful talks focus on operational experience, research results, or case studies. For example, presenters wishing to describe a commercial solution should focus on the underlying technology and not attempt a product demonstration. Presenters should indicate how much time they will require. In general, the time allocated for the different presentation formats is as follows: - Plenary presentations: 20-25 minutes presentation with 5-10 minutes discussion - Tutorials: up to two hours (Monday morning) - Workshops: one hour (during evening sessions) to two hours (Monday morning) - BoFs: approximately one hour (during evening sessions) - Lightning talks: 10 minutes total for both presentation and any discussion The following general requirements apply: - Proposals must be submitted using the meeting submission system, https://ripe77.ripe.net/submit-topic/ - Lightning talks should also be submitted using the meeting submission system (https://ripe77.ripe.net/submit-topic/) and can be submitted any time up to and including the meeting week. The allocation of lightning talks will be announced on short notice, in some cases on the same day but often one day prior to the time slot allocated. - Presenters who propose a panel or BoF are encouraged to include speakers from several (perhaps even competing) companies and/or a neutral facilitator. - All presentation proposals will only be considered by the PC if they contain at least draft presentation slides (slides may be updated later on). For panels, proposals must contain a clear description, as well as the names of invited panellists, presenters and moderators. If you have any questions or requests concerning content submissions, please email pc(a)ripe.net. -- Benno J. Overeinder NLnet Labs https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/

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Reviewing our on-site childcare pilot at RIPE 76
by Amanda Gowland 18 Jun '18

18 Jun '18

Hi all, We just published an article looking back on our childcare pilot at RIPE 76: https://labs.ripe.net/ Warm regards, Amanda

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Harvard's Gender Tech 2018 Event - on now
by Amanda Gowland 05 Jun '18

05 Jun '18

Following the #HarvardGenderTech18 feed on Twitter is proving to be very interesting - highly recommend!

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Draft minutes - RIPE Diversity TF Meeting - 15 May 2018
by Amanda Gowland 01 Jun '18

01 Jun '18

Hi everyone, Please find the draft minutes from our last meeting below. If you have any comments/changes, please send those through before these get posted online. Warm regards, Amanda --- RIPE Diversity Task Force Meeting - 15 May 2018 Present: Amanda Gowland,Brian Nisbet, Sara Marcolla, Cristian Sirbu, Ingrid Veling, Mirjam Kühne, Vesna Manojlovic, Denesh Bhabuta Agenda: - On-site Childcare Pilot at RIPE 76 - Gender Metrics update - Mentoring at RIPE Meetings - Outreach w. local tech community - AOB On-site Childcare Pilot at RIPE 76 Amanda gave an update on the on-site childcare pilot. The room was perfect - large with a lot of natural light. The provider, WorldWide Kids, did an amazing job with the set-up. As expected, the take-up wasn't massive (originally eight children registered but half dropped out before the meeting). There were five children that ended up in the room but the buzz on Twitter and at the meeting about the service was hugely positive. ISOC was the sponsor for the pilot and we hope that we can secure additional sponsorship for RIPE 77 in Amsterdam. We expect the take-up to be much bigger now that word of mouth is out. Gender Metrics Update Shane gave an update on gathering metrics. He sent an email to the Diversity TF mailing list with some more ad-hoc metrics, but found it hard to pull info like this out of the existing data. ACTION: Amanda send Shane the data from the gender question linked to the RIPE 76 registration process. ACTION: Amanda to ask Martina to have the gender question actually integrated into the registration software rather than via a third-party tool + ask RIPE NCC legal about any GDPR ramifications Shane added that he will give an update in the WG Chair Lunch AOB if time allows to see how they can use the data he's collecting for their working groups. There was a discussion in the group about how the metrics don't take into account the diversity (or lack thereof) of leadership roles in the RIPE community - specifically, the RIPE Programme Committee and the Working Group Chairs. This is something that the TF should start addressing. Brian noted that there aren't that many women in leadership roles currently. Ingrid asked if there was data on how many women commented at the mics. There isn't but the group agreed it would be good to gather this data, let's think about the best way to do it. Shane mentioned that he'd done some software tweaking to try and make better guesses of gender based on the names. He's still working on it, will be on GitHub soon. Vesna said that she would like it noted that we are aware of the binary issue (Male identified names, female-identified names) and we will go from there, it's a starting point. Mentoring at RIPE Meetings Amanda gave an update on mentoring. They been doing it for the RIPE Fellowship for the past two meetings and it's worked well, but it's all done ad hoc and it's quite a lot of work. She would like to implement a more formal and automated process for getting experienced RIPE community members on board. She's working on a project plan currently and the plan is to launch this in time for RIPE 77. Ingrid mentioned that she was speaking with a young woman who was intimidated going to socials. Amanda said that this isn't the first time that they've heard comments like this - which is why she thinks it's really important to start fostering allies at meetings so intimidating behaviour can be recognised more easily. Outreach for local tech community The TF efforts to engage more actively with the local tech community in France were not so successful. Brian mentioned that it would be much easier to do this in Amsterdam. Amanda mentioned that she tried very hard to get some French women working in tech to speak at the Women in Tech lunch but no luck. Sara commented that at Europol, they aim to get at least 30% of women at their conference. Mirjam mentioned that we could consider making it it a requirement that slots need to be occupied by a certain number of women. Denesh commented that it can be a real challenge. At UKNOF, 50% of the presentation submissions in general are rejected, so they don't have a lot of female presentation submissions to consider. Ingrid asked if there were ever duo-presentations and if not, perhaps it's an idea to encourage frequent RIPE Meeting presenters to bring a female colleague on the stage to co-present with them. Cristian suggested that perhaps the RIPE PC and WG Chairs could be proactive about asking their contacts for female presenters. Vesna mentioned that many conferences provide funding to bring in more female presenters. The financial barrier is often a factor. Amanda commented that the RIPE Fellowship provides funding to attend and perhaps it would be good to market this more towards potential female speakers. AOBs ACTION: Vesna will schedule the next TF meeting. Sara asked to have a meeting with the RIPE Diversity TF and Europol's Diversity TF. In 2019, they are organising a conference on diversity. They have budget to fund presenters. ACTION: Vesna - organise meeting with Sara. Cristian mentioned having a 'companion' ticket - discounted ticket for people to bring their partners to events. Denesh asked why the RIPE NCC explicitly mentioned not having kids on the conference floor on the childcare page. Amanda explained that when they announced they would be doing childcare at the last RIPE Meeting, they received a few negative comments from attendees imagining kids running around the meeting, so that text was added to just set expectations. Mirjam complimented Denesh on UKNOF's diversity and inclusion efforts and suggested that he give a presentation about this at RIPE 77. *Open Actions* ACTION: Amanda send Shane the data from the gender question linked to the RIPE 76 registration process. ACTION: Amanda to ask Martina to have the gender question actually integrated into the registration software rather than via a third-party tool + ask RIPE NCC legal about any GDPR ramifications ACTION: Vesna will schedule the next TF meeting ACTION: Vesna - organise meeting with Sara

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