Free as in sexist? Free culture and the gender gap

Can someone check it, please? I wanted to read this article and see if there actually were any fresh insights.

I'll fix it when I arrive to work, sorry about that my bad.

Thanks, Mike.

strange, the link worked for me when I clicked on it again from the story I posted. Anyway here is the link:

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4291/3381

I get:

Warning: gethostbyaddr() [function.gethostbyaddr]: Address is not a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address in /mnt/httpd/cgi-pub/ojs/classes/core/Request.inc.php on line 253

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /mnt/httpd/cgi-pub/ojs/classes/core/Request.inc.php:253) in /mnt/httpd/cgi-pub/ojs/classes/template/TemplateManager.inc.php on line 187

Worked for me. Here's the URL as it is when I'm reading it:

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/articl...

So strange. I am able to access the page in multiple browsers on different OS's with no problem. I'll have to look at what I might be doing wrong when I get home from work.

I am able to go to link with ease myself..

Same here

From the error message, it appears that the uic.edu site was experiencing a temporary problem with their php code.

Still seeing the error. I'll try later on a different machine.

Working fine for me. reading article now.

Male or female.

If wishes were horses.... :(

There'd be meadow muffins everywhere you stepped.

That's why the Duke of Wellington invented boots.

The real Question is how does one deal with jerks in an open community?

Open Source -> Open Criticism -> Open Ostracism

It should not be acceptable to abuse other members of the community. Period.

@dinotrac, tell that to Linus.

(Sorry for being offline for so long.)

@Linux doesn't abuse other members of the community.

Rips them new orifi for their actions, but that's a different thing.

There is brutal honesty..and then there's abusive behavior. Brutal honesty is needed sometimes, abusiveness never has a need.

Linus has never professed to be a "people person" and yes he has occasionally ripped into contributors (and others) for what had apparently gotten under his skin. But guess what? He gets to if he wants, he has proven time and again why he is gatekeeper of choice for the kernel. This is just my take, I'm not defending him. I have better jobs to fail at. :-)

Brutal honesty has a greater purpose other than just the strong language used to convey it. Abusive behavior has no purpose other than to make another feel like dirt.

I agree with Dino:

Quoting:Open Source -> Open Criticism -> Open Ostracism

If everyone who has ever heard of you has heard your a prick..there's probably a reason.

There is another point that y'all are missing. Sexism or racism or xenophobia or other such maladies are more than just being abusive. It is designed to be exclusionary: to drive a group of people out of the community for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the ability to contribute to that community. If women are effectively excluded from FOSS then FOSS is poorer for it. When you eliminate half the population you eliminate a great pool of talented people. The same could be said for religious intolerance or the agism commonly seen in the IT workplace in many companies and in the FOSS community as well.

Being an abusive jerk is poor behavior. Being exclusionary and discriminatory, or perhaps, at times, even persecuting people for their race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, etc... to me, is an entirely different thing.

Quoting: If women are effectively excluded from FOSS then FOSS is poorer for it.

Not only for the developer/promoter/user pool loss, but for the loss of their viewpoint, which is oftimes different but no less fundamentally valid. It takes both kinds to make a functional community... I think Nature has proven that.

As for Linus, what does he flame? Perceived incompetence, mostly. Brain wiring and functional hydraulics have nothing to do with that.

@caitlyn -

Yes. The last thing we should be doing is chasing talent away.

Quoting:As for Linus, what does he flame? Perceived incompetence, mostly. Brain wiring and functional hydraulics have nothing to do with that.

Agreed. I have yet to see anyone accuse Linus of sexism. RMS is another matter. Ted T'so... well... ESR, yep. The list goes on and on, but Linus isn't on it. to his credit.

I think Linus mainly looks at code and function. Write good code that functions well you'll impress him. Write garbage and he'll call you on it. Break something he likes and, well... we've seen how he's reacted to the GNOME developers as an example.

@caitlyn -

I have no doubt that Linus would not hesitate to rip new orifi in a female developer who did something silly stupid bad.

Which is how any rational person should want it. Equal props and equal rips.