I don’t normally follow the RubyOnRails community but a current controversy in the RoR community caught my attention. The heart of the matter is a recent conference presentation, titled ‘CouchDB – Perform like a porn star’, that offended a number of the community members. More details can be found in blog posts from Martin Fowlers SmutOnRails, Tim Brays Nastiness and Nick Sieger Stand and Be Counted.
The thing that really caught my attention is the response from RoR community. It is really clear to me the RoR is a very unwelcoming community. You either fit the mold of the leaders or you are on the outside.
This makes me wonder about the Eclipse community. Are we welcoming to different types of individuals and different beliefs. In particular, we don’t have a lot of women participating in the Eclipse community. Is there something that we need to do or change at Eclipse to encourage more women? Kim Moir has already raised some ideas in comments on Mike’s blog. Are there other things we could be doing.
I want to be a part of a welcoming community. Egos, passion, technical excellence are important but openness and understanding to others is just as an important. What do we need to do to make Eclipse a more welcoming community?
