Linux.conf.au 2014 – Day 4 – Session 1

Programming Diversity by Ashe Dryden

  • What is diversity
  • More than gender
    • backgrounds experiences and lifestyles
    • not always visable
    • sexuality, age, language, class, race, ability
  • Terms
    • Intersectionality
      • The interaction of traits (race, sex, etc) and how people treat you beacuse of that
    • Privilege
      • unearned advantages a person gets for a perceived trait
      • Education, access to technology, higher pay, assumed competency, quality of network
      • Seen as a skill-set instead of traits
      • Easily fit/identify with subculture
    • Stereotype Threat
      • Worry you will confirm the stereotype that is applied to you
      • Lots of pressure
    • Imposter Syndrome
      • Unable to internalise their accomplishments
      • almost anyone can suffer
      • less likely to apply for jobs, apply to talk at conferences or even attend conferences
    • Marginalised
      • Doesn’t fit into the default groups
      • their needs or desires being ignored
      • Even marginalised groups marginalise others, nobody is trait blind
  • Women are about 20% of tech
  • Maybe Women aren’t into programming
    • Women like Grace Hopper prominat in field early
    • No physical of biological difference in race or gender affecting programming ability
  • Bulgaria
    • 73% of CS Students are women
    • teach children in schools that STEM is important to everybody, push everybody towards it
  • Diversity matters –
    • Companies that are more diverse tend to have better sales, profits, etc
    • Diverse teams:
      • solve complex problems faster
      • more creative and stimulated
      • get better decisions and generate for something
      • financial viability and success
  • Why lack of diversity?
    • Pipeline
      • Difference in toys and games for boys and girls
      • no famous role models that represent them
      • Access to technology. On average Boys get first computer at age 11, girls at age 14. Early teens great best age to learn and retain skills
    • Geek stereotypes
      • people who don’t identify and aren’t represented by the geek stereotype are turned off by those who do
    • Attrition
      • 56% of women leave tech in 10 years
      • twice the rate of men
      • our Grandmothers more likely to be programmers than our granddaughters are
    • Why attrition?
      • Harassment
      • People in marginalised groups twice as likely to report being harassed or mistreated
      • men 2.7 more likely to be promoted to higher ranking positions
    • Why can I do about this stuff?
      • Change starts with us
      • educate people who don’t understand this problem
      • Get to know people different from us – talk to people wearing a specific color that day
      • Follow people on twitter that are different from you
      • bias & discrimination are often subtle
      • learn to apologize
      • Talk about these issues openly ” That’s not cool 🙁 “
      • increase education and access
      • Facilitate event for marginalised groups
      • work with colleges and universities to remove bias
      • “have you programmed before?”
      • Thinks about what the “about” page of your website looks like
      • Think about the company culture
      • Job listing language and requirements – joblint.org
      • Interviewing
      • equal pay
      • mentoring and career goal attainment

 

From Kookaburra to the Cloud: where to now for copyright in Australia by Ben Powell

  • Several recent cases
  • Australian law deals by exception, under copyright except where “fair dealing” , “fair use” etc allowed specicly by law
  • ALRC Review
    • More exceptions or general “fair use”
    • Report not yet tabled, but interim discussion paper released
  • Kookaburra
    • Song from 1932
    • “Down under” 1981
    • Nobody noticed till 2007 when on TV Quiz show
    • Court decided infringing
    • Two culturally significant songs
  • Fair Use vs Fair dealing
    • Fair dealing has specific exceptions
    • Things are not fair dealing
      • Sampling
      • non commercial use of incidental music
      • memes
      • commercial services to allow recording in the cloud
      • stoarage of copyright material
      • copying DVD to other devices
      • search engines (thumbnails)
      • digital archiving
    • More exceptions?
      • Quotations
        • in the Berne Convention
        • anachronistic term
        • doesn’t cover transformation, implies verbatim use
      • Transformation
        • not a substitute for the original work
        • low threshold – undermines creators rights
        • high threshold – confusing, how much change needed
        • How does commercial use fit?
        • Hard for court to decide
      • Private and Domestic use
        • Format shifting and time shifting exists already (VHS only, not DVD)
        • doesn’t cover the cloud
        • not technology neutral
        • Canadian more technology neutral but “non-commercial” bit heard to define
    • Fair Use
      • See US Copyright Act
      • Fair Use in Australia
        • Fairness facter
        • illustrative uses (non-exhaustive)
        • flexible defence, weighing up the factors
      • Advantages
        • Balance
        • Flexible
        • aligns with community expectations
      • Against Fair Use
        • Uncertainly ( parliament vs law)
        • Requires litigation
        • Originated from different legal enviroment
      • The reply to objections
        • Uncertainty – See normal consumer law with terms like “unfair contracts” , “misleading and deceptive conduct”
        • Different legal env – same common law roots, AUSFTA meant to “harmonise” copyright law.
        • International Law , 3 step test – The US gets away with it, never chellenged
  • Govt unlikely to go forward with fair use based on their leanings
  • The introduction of a Fair Use defence would encourage Australian innovation
  • “General the US likes to export the ‘bad parts’ of it’s copyright law, not the ‘good bits’  “

 

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