i didn't even know there was an ada lovelace day

So maybe once a day (or so), I google Dreamwidth for basically two reasons: a.) to enjoy people's squee and b.) to be amused by the non-squee. In between a squee and a misconception-rife non-squee, I ran across this.

Ada Lovelace Day: Two ground-breaking open source projects by Kirrily Robert in her blog Infotrope and discovered something I hadn't thought to wonder about.

But to the best of my knowledge, there are only two open source projects in the world which a) have a significant number of developers, and b) are majority female. They are An Archive Of Our Own (a project of the Organization for Transformative Works) and Dreamwidth.

She also adds, near the end of the article:

And, to fulfil the requirements of the Ada Lovelace Day Pledge, the two women I admire in technology are:

Naomi Novik, chair of the OTW’s Board of Directors and inaugural chair of its ADT committee (developers of the Archive). You might also know her as author of the Temeraire series.

Denise Paolucci, co-founder, project/product manager, and loudest advocate and enthusiast for Dreamwidth.

These two between them have been instrumental in bringing hundreds of other women into open source software, and I admire them immensely.

My knowledge on this subject is limited, but assuming this is true, I think I should say this.

My admiration is a given, but I'd also liked to add my thanks and my apologies both. See, I knew what you were doing was extraordinary. But I didn't know that you had changed the world.

That's very, very cool. Thank you.

Comments

[fairestcat]

Isn't it just so amazing to think about?

I had an inkling of how rare women still are in the technology field, but I had no idea exactly how groundbreaking both OTW and Dreamwidth were until I read that post.

Incidentally, Kirrily Robert is also the most awesome damned_colonial. Infotrope is her more work/technology related blog, whereas Dreamwidth is her more personal/fannish place. (And before anyone worries about outing, she links the two herself in her Dreamwidth profile).

[damned_colonial]

*waves*

[fairestcat]

...who has apparently developed the stealth skill to know when people are talking about her and magically appear.

*G*

[damned_colonial]

If by "magic" you mean "more than 500 people on my reading list".

[fairestcat]

OK, not magic then. Just crazy

[damned_colonial]

You knew that already, didn't you?

[idlerat]

Dude! Awesome!

[gchick]

Lovelace day is indeed made of win - and that particular essay did a lot to kick my butt into getting involved over here. I'd been following the project all along, but I read it just when I finally had a few minutes to say, "hmm, would be nice to have a project to play with..."

(And, yeah, outside of here? Women are about 30% of programmers, but about 1.5% of open source projects. ONE POINT FIVE. And it's all about the culture, on both the DW and not-DW ends of the scale.)

[gchick]

umm. 1.5% of contributors to open source projects.

[kass]

There is a lot of awesome in my corner of the internet these days. It makes me really happy.

[scrollgirl]

Terrific article! Thanks for linking. I should get off my duff and volunteer to do bug testing for DW. It's been ages and ages since I did any kind of testing but Dreamwidth has such helpful posts on how to get started!

[damned_colonial]

Incidentally, I'm planning to nominate Denise for a Google/O'Reilly Open Source award (Mark is not allowed to be nominated because of a conflict of interest). More info to follow on my DW and on my infotropism blog.

[seperis]

I'll watch for it. Thank you!

[musesfool]

Oh, very cool!

[cofax7]

That's so awesome!

[litotease]

See, I knew what you were doing was extraordinary. But I didn't know that you had changed the world.

This line actually has me weeping.

I knew I'd been hanging out with (OK, lurking around in) good company these last few years.

[seperis]

Trust me, I had a hugely embarrassing reaction when I read that, then realized what it meant today. I know the feeling.

[forestgreen]

This is totally awesome! Thanks for linking that article. I so didn't know that.

[were_duck]

Hi, I love your fic and I think you're awesome so I added you to my reading list! *waves*

Thanks for posting this. It is sobering to hear these stats, and exciting at the same time to be a member of both DW and the OTW.

[denise]

\o/

[fanofall]

Oh, my GOD. That is so cool. Thank you for sharing this -- there's no way I would have known about that otherwise and it's awesome for them. It's also a bit cool that we get to reap the benefits of their groundbreaking history-making, but that's another discussion, yes?

[jetsilver]

I have chills reading this. Thank you for posting it; like everyone else here, I knew these projects were awesome and unusual for their gender balance, but I hadn't quite realised just how much.

Makes my fingers itch to learn to code something new.

[denise]

Come to the dark side! We have cookies!

Or, okay, we have dw_dev_training.

Yes, this

[rikkasinappi]

This is one of the reasons I decided to get a paid account and finally delurk. I barely know what css is, but just reading all the technical post on DW makes me grin insanely. So many tech-savvy women!

And um.. Hello?

[damned_colonial]

You (plural, *waves at commenters*) might be interested in this spreadsheet I'm putting together to record/compare the ways AO3 and DW are working as development projects.

If you have anything that needs filling in that I've missed, let me know. Happy to share editing access with anyone who PMs me their email address, too.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[boji.livejournal.com]

This. This. Rocks.

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

I am thrilled to see women taking another giant step into a statistically greater male dominated technology. I am so pleased, at this advanced age, to be allowed a membership of both endeavors.

[nilla.livejournal.com]

*\o/* Thank you for sharing the article!! What Naomi & Denise are doing is admirable and beyond awesome! :D

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Oh, very cool. And perhaps a wee bit cooler since I just read the first book of the Tremeraire series.

[recarte.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really cool; I didn't even know that.

[sorrelchestnut.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting that! I had no idea, and it's really cool to see women accomplishing such cool and important milestones.