Monday 11:50 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

How to Practice Inclusion and Benefit Django

Kojo Idrissa

Audience level:

Not Applicable

Description

The Django community has a variety of needs, if it is to grow and thrive. Different needs require different skills & personalities. An inclusive community culture maximizes the odds of having the different skills & personalities we need. I'll give my definition of Inclusion (WHAT), explain WHY Django needs it, then focuses on HOW to be as inclusive as possible.

Abstract

WHAT: Inclusion Defined

  • Not about morality
  • Inclusion vs. Diversity vs. Political Correctness

WHY: Why does this matter?

  • Inherent limits on community membership: not ALL 7 billion humans will join AND contribute
  • Inclusion lets you maximize the number of contributors

HOW: How do I DO this better?

  • Check your assumptions
  • Zen of Python on Inclusiveness
    • Errors should never pass silently
      • Check for exceptions
      • Discuss errors when they occur
    • In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess: how much does the ambiguity matter?
  • Get out of your bubble
  • Flip the Demographics
  • Understanding The Power of Privilege
    • Your Personal Privilege Matrix
    • Privilege Arbitrage
    • "Turn Your Sadness Into Kindness"

Closing

What if you feel you can't?

If your heart's not really into it or you feel it's "too hard", be honest with yourself and just hang around others like you. An insincere effort often does more harm than good.

Recognize that this behavior may leave you isolated from a large (and growing) portion of the community.

It's up to all of us

Just as systems tend towards entropy, if you leave a community alone it tends towards toxicity. Good communities require continual effort. - Jacob Kaplan-Moss