ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange

Inequality, Choices, and Hitting a Wall

Sep 08, 2010 GMT

Have you read the Evil HR Lady's article called Illegal Gender Discrimination in Tech? Hardly.? Suzanne Lucas, a.k.a. Evil HR Lady, says, “Everyone wrings their hands and frets, 'what can we do about the inequality in X?' Well, first stop and see if people are making different choices.”Ok, so far I can follow what Lucas is saying. I've reevaluated my own choices over the years and plugged holes where I found them. I've learned the art of salary negotiation, am improving my self-promotion prowess, and am known to be aggressively assertive. But then she loses me... and annoys me.Lucas writes, “I know, I know, there is a presumption of discrimination because women are so down-trodden...

36% Female Speakers at Ohio LinuxFest 2010

Sep 03, 2010 GMT

Mackenzie 'maco' Morgan and Moose J. Finklestein wrote an article about women speaking at Ohio LinuxFest 2010. They write, "With a little outreach effort, and embracing diversity as a core value, the Ohio LinuxFest has successfully recruited more women to share their experience at OLF." One of the keynote speakers (Stormy Peters) is a woman, and Ubuntu User magazine contributor Amber Graner is also giving a talk this year. Read maco and Moose's article to find out how they got so many women to submit talk proposals this year.

How to: Host a Community Event

Sep 02, 2010 GMT

PHP Women's LornaJane Mitchell is writing a series of blog posts about hosting events. In part 1, she offers tips for preparing for your event. Part 2, posted today, provides practical advice for handling the day of the event. She says, "Most of all, remember that if your guests have the impression that the event is going smoothly, then it probably is! As an organiser you see all the small behind-the-scenes crises, but if they are invisible to the average attendee, then you're doing really well." Check back on her blog for Part 3 in her event series.In 2008, we also ran an article by Emma Jane Hogbin about organizing events. In that article, Emma shared her advice for event...

VA Hospitals Embracing Open Source Medical Records System

Aug 26, 2010 GMT

Beth Lynn Eicher, co-chair of Ohio LinuxFest, writes about her mother, Susan Rose, and how VA hospitals are using the VistA open source medical records system. Beth Lynn writes, "Mom did not understand what I was up to with open source. I did not understand what she was up to with open source." Check out Beth Lynn's article Government Saves Lives with Open Source, and learn more about the new Medical Track her mom helped organize at the upcoming Ohio LinuxFest.

ROSE Blog Interviews: Susan Rose, OLF Medical Track Committee Chair

Aug 26, 2010 GMT

Last August, I interviewed Beth Lynn Eicher, co-chair of Ohio LinuxFest. In this interview, we hear from her Mom!Q: Who are you? Susan Rose and Beth Lynn Eicher A: My name is Susan Rose and I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For the past 25 years I have worked as a registered nurse in Federal Employment. I remember paper charting and the switch to the blue screen VistA in the early '90s, and later to the CPRS Version of VistA. I just came back from a medical conference and it looks like we will move to a web-based [medical] record. My nursing practice has changed over the years. With the electronic medical record as marvelous as...

Women represent at 2010 Google Summer of Code

Aug 26, 2010 GMT

Carol Smith, Google's Open Source Programs Manager, posted a nice writeup about women at the 2010 Google Summer of Code. She writes, "There was some really awesome work done by more than 1,000 students from 69 countries in this year’s Summer of Code. Of those students, 6.5 percent were women representing 23 countries—six times higher than the estimated proportion of women in the open source community." Check out her article, Sixth annual Summer of Code flexes some serious geek girl muscle, to learn more about some of the participants.

Getting Started: How to contribute to open source

Aug 19, 2010 GMT

Ruth Suehle wrote an on opensource.com that can help you wade into the world of contributing to open source: Ready to be an open source contributor but don't know where to start? Ruth recommends and explains OpenHatch. How is it that I've never visited OpenHatch.org before? The site allows you to find a bug you want to work on, ask for a bug to be assigned to you, create a contributors page for your project, find people to work with near you, and much more. I clicked on “What projects are my neighbors working on?” Find contributors near you in hopes of finding some people in my area. There are a few people listed around here, but I'd...