[gnome-women] Saying hi, and asking for interviewees.

[Sarah Riggs <diceratops gmail com>]

Hi everyone, this seems like as good a time as any to introduce myself. I'm Sarah, and I'm working on my master's thesis right now and collecting interviews about women in open source communities. I'm sending along my official recruitment letter, so feel free to forward this to anyone that you think may want to talk about the topic with me.

Thanks for considering!
Sarah

-------------------------
My
name is Sarah Riggs and I am a Master's Degree seeking candidate at
the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill. I
am conducting research which addresses the large gender gap in the
open source community.

In 2006, a team of researchers sought to capture an image of women contributors to open source software, as it was clear that women made up a very small minority of participants (Nafus, Leach, & Kriegar, 2006). Several proactive members of your community then implemented programs aimed at increasing the number of women in open source; however, little research has been done since this study.

By conducting qualitative interviews, my intention is to collect narratives about the experiences of open source participants. I will ask questions about your experiences joining and participating in the open source community. Your answers will be used to to identify ways in which more women can feel comfortable joining the community and contributing to open source software development.

I would like to hear thoughts from women as well as men who are open source contributors. Please consider participating whether you are just starting out, or have been contributing to open source for many years. it is important for this research to obtain a diverse group of respondents with varied backgrounds so this research constructs a representative narrative of experience.

I will be conducting interviews through July 30^th, 2011, and I will be happy to meet you at a time and date at your convenience. Those volunteers who are selected will be allowed to decide the method of participation, and phone calls, face-to-face interaction, or Internet Relay Chat are valid means of communication.

Exhaustive efforts will be made to ensure that any information you give me is confidential, and you are always free to stop the interview at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. I can be best reached by e-mail, smriggs email unc edu

Thank you for your time,

Sarah
Riggs
Principal
Investigator
University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library
Science

Reference:

Nafus, D., Leach, J. & Kriegar, B. (2006). Gender: Integrated Report of Findings (Deliverable – 16). Retrieved from Free/Libre/Open Source Software: Policy Support, http://www.flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf