[EuroPython] Lack of diversity within selected talks

[Markus Zapke-Gründemann]

Lynn Root schrieb:
> To the EuroPython organizers, talk reviewers, and community at large,
> 
> For those of you who do not know me, I am a board member of the Python
> Software Foundation, the founder and leader of PyLadies San Francisco,
> and an engineer at Spotify.  I have been a speaker at the last two
> EuroPythons, with 3 talks last year, and a keynote the year before.
> 
> I see that the list of preliminarily talks are publicly available. Side
> stepping my issue with lack of communication to proposers of talks at
> large, I am writing to bring light to the lack of diversity of the
> current list of talks, and propose some action items.
> 
> There is how I understand things as they are. Please correct me if I am
> wrong.
> 
> - talk selection was/is being done blindly, as in no identifying
> information about the speaker is revealed
> - there are very little women on that preliminary talk list slated to
> speak
> - there are multiple selected speakers slated to give multiple selected
> talks
> 
> If you do not find a problem with item #2 and #3, please read this
> article [1] about importance of diversity in a technical field.
> 
> Here are my suggestions to rectify this issue:
> - limit speakers to only give one talk. Yes this means going back on the
> original acceptance.
> - reopen CfP and reach out to PyLadies globally to help get the word
> out. As one of the main leaders of the global organization, I know this
> did not happen originally.
> - re-review the talks. Give preference or help for those who would be
> first time speakers. First time speakers may need far more help writing
> a proposal tailored to the EuroPython audience. As reviewers, you have
> an understanding of the EP community and should help pull up new
> speakers.
> - related to #2, and #3, have open office hours  or create general
> availability during the time that the CfP is reopened to help those who
> want it craft a good proposal.
> - select talks for the remainder of the program with the context of the
> preliminarily talks in mind.
> 
> I understand that the blind selection process was meant in good faith to
> remove bias. However, the result is troubling, and needs to be looked at
> in context. If this preliminary list has any influence on the actual
> program, the conference will suffer in terms of overall diversity in
> attendance. I'm not writing to discuss the merit of diversity at a tech
> conference, because I have faith that the reviewers and organizers
> already grasp its importance. But this email is to address what I feel
> needs to change.
Thank you for pointing out that problem, Lynn. Speaking of myself my thought
after PyCon DE 2012 was: How can we get more women to speak at PyCon DE?
Because the number of women participating or even giving a talk was very low.

I had a short discussion with Jan Lehnhardt and he pointed me at "Beating the
Odds — How We got 25% Women Speakers for JSConf EU 2012"[1].

The PyCon DE community was always using their own software[2] for organizing
the conference. So anonymous reviews were added to the version that was used
for PyCon DE 2013, because [1] said this is one of the things to increase
diversity.

The software used for EuroPython[3] is based on the software used for PyCon DE
in the years before. This is why it also has the feature of anonymous reviews.

So far for the "technical" reasons behind the blind review feature.

But looking again at the list of things to do at [1] I can see that one thing
has not been done:

3. Encourage people from under-represented groups to submit to the CFP.

And I think this also one of the things you blame, Lynn.

Even if it hurts and the time is pressing I think we have to discuss the review
process again. Lynn made a few good proposals for that.


Regards

Markus

[1]
http://2012.jsconf.eu/2012/09/17/beating-the-odds-how-we-got-25-percent-women-speakers.html
[2] https://bitbucket.org/PySV/pycon_de_website
[3] https://github.com/EuroPython/djep