Loomio
Sun 12 Apr 2015 9:54PM

Keynote: My Journey to Common Knowledge

AI Alanna Irving Public Seen by 255

We are posting a series of Loomio discussions about sessions and talks coming up at the conference, so participants can have a chance to discuss the topics, ask questions, and interact with the presenters.

Keynote: My Journey to Common Knowledge

"In my path from architecture and government to full time open source developer at GitHub I've championed and benefited from open source. In this talk I'll look into how privilege and community can both derail and strengthen open source."

Jessica Lord is a javascript developer on the Atom team at GitHub. Jessica is a former urban designer turned open source developer by way of a fellowship at Code for America. She fell hard for open source and now works at GitHub and spends her free time working on open source projects to teach or enable others to get hacking.

AI

Alanna Irving Sun 12 Apr 2015 9:55PM

Please post your comments and questions and @jessica11 will be around when she can to respond.

AI

Alanna Irving Sun 12 Apr 2015 10:00PM

Please post your comments and questions and @jessica11 will be around when she can to respond.

M

Mark Thu 16 Apr 2015 2:12AM

This talk was really great! One of the best things about it was the way that @jessica11 explained "privilege". So often, this word is used in a way that is or seems or is perceived as "accusatory", such that those who perhaps most need to hear the messages are immediately alienated and are not open to recognising their own privilege.

@jessica11 explained the concept by pointing out that she herself had had the opportunities she has only because of her own privilege, and then talked clearly, powerfully, and nonconfrontationally about how many others are not so lucky. Great stuff, I wish these kinds of messages would be expressed so well more often!

CR

Chelsea Robinson Thu 16 Apr 2015 2:31AM

Thank you so much @jessica11 spreading truth to powerful people. Hopefully you can post a summary of that great list of things we can all do to help more diversity in tech

P&B

PAN & BAM | Creator: Stephen Chernishov Fri 8 May 2015 12:19PM

This truly was a great talk. Because you were real. You talked about issues like, how developers can pay their rent, and the journey to getting into positions where you can master and sustain what you love.
You talked about your own approach and what got the attention of the people you work with now [unconventional training, sharing shared project, and being prepared to persevere even when you didn't feel like the best].
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But mostly, you helped us to open up and search again -
We must reposition contributors to really unleash the magic of open source, collaboration, visionary creation and sustainable development -