- diversity - mailman.ripe.net

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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