WEBVTT NOTE Created by CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com 00:00:00.176 --> 00:00:07.926 align:middle Alright, welcome everybody. 00:00:08.126 --> 00:00:14.496 align:middle Um, I guess it's not such a packed room, so I assume I'm kind of preaching to the choir, 00:00:15.406 --> 00:00:19.416 align:middle which is good because, you know, we're talking mostly about things 00:00:19.416 --> 00:00:20.776 align:middle that happened over the course of the year. 00:00:20.776 --> 00:00:28.006 align:middle And actually I, I'm, I'm, I'm kinda hoping that, actually as a follow-up to this talk 00:00:28.006 --> 00:00:32.366 align:middle on Saturday, we will have maybe a short meeting of everybody that is very interested 00:00:32.446 --> 00:00:35.986 align:middle in this topic to see how, what we can do maybe for the next year. 00:00:36.536 --> 00:00:39.576 align:middle Um, so without further ado, let's start briefly. 00:00:39.576 --> 00:00:40.576 align:middle My name is Lukas Smith. 00:00:40.786 --> 00:00:42.926 align:middle I work at a web agency in Switzerland. 00:00:43.616 --> 00:00:45.806 align:middle My twitter handle is @lsmith. 00:00:46.796 --> 00:00:51.366 align:middle And um, yeah, so let me actually, the talk is one year of the diversity initiative, 00:00:51.396 --> 00:00:53.956 align:middle but let me start a little bit before that. 00:00:53.956 --> 00:01:02.846 align:middle So kind of, um, in 2017, I think sometime in spring there was a SymfonyCon or Symfony Live 00:01:02.846 --> 00:01:09.046 align:middle in San Francisco and there was an all male, white male lineup speaking. 00:01:09.256 --> 00:01:13.266 align:middle Symfony got called out on Twitter about that. 00:01:13.266 --> 00:01:20.206 align:middle And uh, and of course there were plenty of very valid excuses why that is the case mostly 00:01:20.206 --> 00:01:22.986 align:middle because there were only applications, you know, 00:01:23.436 --> 00:01:27.956 align:middle respondents that were white males that submitted. 00:01:28.296 --> 00:01:30.706 align:middle And you know, Symfony live in the US. 00:01:30.706 --> 00:01:32.866 align:middle It's much, much smaller than they are in Europe. 00:01:32.866 --> 00:01:35.826 align:middle So, you know, it's, a much, much smaller event. 00:01:35.826 --> 00:01:37.176 align:middle So yeah, it's tricky. 00:01:37.656 --> 00:01:42.606 align:middle But it kinda - I don't know - somehow that that kind of resonated with me in my head. 00:01:42.966 --> 00:01:48.106 align:middle And mostly because, um, I, I kinda, um. 00:01:48.836 --> 00:01:51.216 align:middle So my partner, she is an engineer. 00:01:51.216 --> 00:01:55.416 align:middle She's not in IT, but since I've been living together with her 00:01:55.416 --> 00:02:02.366 align:middle and just getting all these daily things that she experienced in her work in a factory, 00:02:02.366 --> 00:02:10.326 align:middle it kinda made me realize that, that is not enough to just try to be a good guy 00:02:10.756 --> 00:02:13.276 align:middle and to be passive about these things. 00:02:13.276 --> 00:02:17.286 align:middle Like I would have to become active to actually work towards change 00:02:17.286 --> 00:02:21.596 align:middle because the situation was even much worse than I always thought, 00:02:21.596 --> 00:02:24.656 align:middle like in these, before I heard these stories. 00:02:25.136 --> 00:02:27.836 align:middle There was another thing also that kind of triggered this, 00:02:27.836 --> 00:02:34.146 align:middle and kind of in the same timeframe was we had, um, a female apprentice 00:02:34.286 --> 00:02:41.586 align:middle and she wrote a blog post on our blog about how hard it is for her to go to school and have 00:02:41.586 --> 00:02:47.156 align:middle to explain every day that even though she is a girl, she is studying computer science, right? 00:02:47.506 --> 00:02:52.806 align:middle And just like the amount of emotional, you know, weight that was putting on her shoulders 00:02:53.076 --> 00:02:55.586 align:middle and in fact, in the end she quit, right. 00:02:55.586 --> 00:03:00.546 align:middle Because it just, you know, she doesn't want to explain every day anymore why she's there. 00:03:00.546 --> 00:03:05.946 align:middle Right. So, so both of these things combined with, you know, this, you know, when, 00:03:05.946 --> 00:03:11.186 align:middle when Symfony got called out on Twitter, you know, really, um, I think put it on a map 00:03:11.186 --> 00:03:12.786 align:middle for me that I need to become active. 00:03:13.436 --> 00:03:17.466 align:middle And, uh, and then I also started talking with other people in the core team 00:03:18.006 --> 00:03:20.346 align:middle and we all agreed, yes, we should do something. 00:03:20.346 --> 00:03:21.676 align:middle We should become more active. 00:03:22.016 --> 00:03:24.826 align:middle We may need to put this topic on the agenda. 00:03:25.156 --> 00:03:31.206 align:middle So briefly, just again, this, this talk isn't really about introducing these concepts, 00:03:31.206 --> 00:03:34.976 align:middle but just briefly so that what we're talking about here, we're talking about diversity 00:03:34.976 --> 00:03:41.576 align:middle on one end, so, you know, the full range of human differences and making sure that, um, uh, 00:03:41.606 --> 00:03:44.996 align:middle or, or, you know, that's one thing, but actually the more important 00:03:44.996 --> 00:03:46.246 align:middle to term is probably inclusion. 00:03:46.616 --> 00:03:49.256 align:middle Um, and, uh, so that is really... 00:03:49.496 --> 00:03:51.106 align:middle so once you have these differences 00:03:51.106 --> 00:03:54.016 align:middle that you actually involve them, that you empower them, right? 00:03:54.016 --> 00:03:57.746 align:middle That's, that's actually kind of like the step that you want to get at. 00:03:58.306 --> 00:04:03.446 align:middle So that's, that's kinda what we decided was the scope of, of this initiative. 00:04:03.936 --> 00:04:07.106 align:middle So I started reading a lot in the summer. 00:04:07.306 --> 00:04:10.416 align:middle I actually ended up writing a huge blog post. 00:04:10.676 --> 00:04:15.466 align:middle Um, and at some point I decided I'm not really an expert on this topic at all. 00:04:15.606 --> 00:04:18.996 align:middle Um, so I needed to get some professional advice on this thing. 00:04:19.516 --> 00:04:23.326 align:middle So, uh, my wife and I both decided that we think this is important. 00:04:23.326 --> 00:04:27.066 align:middle So we ended up hiring Sage Sharp to review the blog post. 00:04:27.876 --> 00:04:33.816 align:middle Um, and, uh, uh, and as you know, during the review I realized that, you know, it, 00:04:33.816 --> 00:04:36.926 align:middle it goes even much deeper than what I thought, right? 00:04:37.216 --> 00:04:40.266 align:middle So that, you know, it requires even more education than I thought. 00:04:40.446 --> 00:04:42.796 align:middle So in the end, the blog post was never published. 00:04:43.446 --> 00:04:47.416 align:middle But it helped me quite a lot to, to understand many of the topics there. 00:04:47.876 --> 00:04:51.886 align:middle Um, and so we finally then decided in the core team 00:04:51.886 --> 00:04:54.676 align:middle that we should create an official diversity initiative. 00:04:54.746 --> 00:04:58.936 align:middle It was announced at Cluj last year at SymfonyCon. 00:04:58.976 --> 00:05:03.746 align:middle So, um, so basically now I'm going to talk about everything that happened since. 00:05:04.596 --> 00:05:08.636 align:middle And so the first thing actually happened at SymfonyCon and, 00:05:08.636 --> 00:05:13.086 align:middle and that was really also a very, a revelatory experience, right? 00:05:13.416 --> 00:05:20.316 align:middle So I start to think more about this topic and I see these badges and icons starting to pop up. 00:05:20.316 --> 00:05:23.416 align:middle So we had on our website, we have the silhouette here. 00:05:24.056 --> 00:05:32.696 align:middle Um, and uh, and so this was the default silhouette if you didn't upload an avatar. 00:05:33.106 --> 00:05:37.606 align:middle And, so again, like this was, this was actually the trigger that, that triggered me, 00:05:37.606 --> 00:05:41.156 align:middle that I thought, "wow, what were you doing" - more this thing was it. 00:05:41.266 --> 00:05:43.996 align:middle Like we had this, this badge, the first badge you get 00:05:43.996 --> 00:05:47.846 align:middle when you join the Symfony community was the, "Hey Dude" badge. 00:05:47.846 --> 00:05:55.076 align:middle And during the award ceremony we had these badges, like, "thx Dude" and things like that. 00:05:55.076 --> 00:06:01.096 align:middle So these are things that, you know, they've been in the community for years and I thought I was, 00:06:01.156 --> 00:06:06.266 align:middle you know, a good guy, you know, as I explained earlier and I didn't pick up on it all right. 00:06:06.266 --> 00:06:08.596 align:middle I didn't, I didn't pick up on it. 00:06:08.596 --> 00:06:14.496 align:middle And only when I started to actually educate myself, actually invest some, you know, 00:06:14.616 --> 00:06:19.376 align:middle brain cycles on the topic, I started to notice these things that are so obvious, right. 00:06:19.676 --> 00:06:24.036 align:middle Um, and, um, so, so yeah, that's one of the first things that we fixed. 00:06:24.036 --> 00:06:31.266 align:middle So Javier, um, you know, updated those badges and implemented a new solution for the avatars. 00:06:31.266 --> 00:06:36.766 align:middle You know, so, so that's, that's, you know, a quite interesting experience, right? 00:06:36.766 --> 00:06:41.526 align:middle We always say, yeah, but, you know, is it really so bad I have noticed anything, right. 00:06:41.646 --> 00:06:44.556 align:middle And it's, you know, it's kind of a privilege to be in that situation 00:06:44.556 --> 00:06:47.506 align:middle that you can say I didn't notice anything because probably 00:06:47.506 --> 00:06:51.586 align:middle if you really look, you should notice some things. 00:06:51.586 --> 00:06:55.716 align:middle And of course if you're a part of some underrepresentated group, you do notice them 00:06:55.756 --> 00:07:00.976 align:middle and they do every day kind of tell you maybe you are not supposed to be here. 00:07:01.036 --> 00:07:04.186 align:middle Right? And that's not what we want, that's not what inclusion is about. 00:07:06.086 --> 00:07:11.736 align:middle So some of the first steps we did was we created a Symfony Slack channel. 00:07:11.956 --> 00:07:15.566 align:middle Actually, maybe we already did that a few days before the SymfonyCon. 00:07:16.026 --> 00:07:18.326 align:middle So we have a diversity channel on Slack. 00:07:18.706 --> 00:07:23.266 align:middle I created the GitHub organization underneath the Symfony, or no, 00:07:23.366 --> 00:07:28.676 align:middle I created a repository underneath the Symfony organization diversity - 00:07:28.966 --> 00:07:31.766 align:middle where we started to track with tickets that the ideas we had. 00:07:31.766 --> 00:07:34.156 align:middle And very quickly we had about 30 tickets. 00:07:34.316 --> 00:07:38.426 align:middle Um, I would say about 10 of them have been completed. 00:07:38.426 --> 00:07:43.396 align:middle Plenty of them are still open and we open new ones all the time. 00:07:45.686 --> 00:07:52.516 align:middle But, um, with that we sort of had like the, the initial infrastructure, to get set up. 00:07:53.526 --> 00:07:59.796 align:middle Um, and uh, um, the other thing that I did was I am, so at Liip, my employer, 00:07:59.796 --> 00:08:06.576 align:middle we have an education budget, so I decided to actually use my education budget to Sage Sharp 00:08:06.696 --> 00:08:09.326 align:middle that I would have monthly one hour sessions. 00:08:09.846 --> 00:08:12.716 align:middle Um, and the idea there was that I could double check some of the things 00:08:12.716 --> 00:08:15.346 align:middle that are going on that I could ask for advice. 00:08:15.476 --> 00:08:20.786 align:middle Um, so Sage is just sending me links about things to consider and things like that, 00:08:21.086 --> 00:08:25.126 align:middle but also it was kind of like a monthly, uh, you know, 00:08:25.126 --> 00:08:27.906 align:middle challenging me, uh, what we have done, right? 00:08:27.966 --> 00:08:31.876 align:middle So kind of making sure that I don't forget about this topic. 00:08:32.046 --> 00:08:35.036 align:middle And that has been a huge help over the course of the year. 00:08:35.476 --> 00:08:38.596 align:middle Um, I think we've reduced it now two 30 minute sessions. 00:08:39.116 --> 00:08:42.676 align:middle Um, but yeah, it's a huge help and I think that's actually a very important. 00:08:42.766 --> 00:08:45.886 align:middle Again, I'm not an expert on this thing at all. 00:08:45.886 --> 00:08:50.256 align:middle I'm, I'm, I'm a programmer and there are a lot of things that you can do 00:08:50.256 --> 00:08:53.216 align:middle that are very well intentioned but that are actually harmful. 00:08:53.216 --> 00:08:57.456 align:middle So for example, the first thing that I thought, okay, I need to educate myself so I'm just going 00:08:57.456 --> 00:09:02.286 align:middle to walk up on everyone that looks like they could be potentially be part 00:09:02.286 --> 00:09:05.306 align:middle of some underrepresented group and try to get advice from them. 00:09:05.306 --> 00:09:08.226 align:middle Right? And that seems quite well-intentioned, you know, 00:09:08.226 --> 00:09:11.386 align:middle you're trying to get an education from the source, right? 00:09:11.826 --> 00:09:17.466 align:middle Um, but it is actually a very bad idea because if they are, for example, at a conference, 00:09:17.466 --> 00:09:20.826 align:middle they're here to learn about Symfony. 00:09:21.176 --> 00:09:27.056 align:middle They're not here to educate me on things that I can educate myself on probably quite well 00:09:27.056 --> 00:09:30.836 align:middle because there are a lot of things on the Internet about all these things, right? 00:09:31.076 --> 00:09:34.256 align:middle So while it may be well intentioned, it actually is not a good idea. 00:09:34.256 --> 00:09:40.206 align:middle Now, if somebody from an underrepresented group comes up to you and explains things to you, 00:09:40.546 --> 00:09:45.576 align:middle then listen, do listen, don't dismiss it because it didn't happen to you yet. 00:09:46.026 --> 00:09:50.506 align:middle But don't expect, you know, people from underrepresented groups to educate yourself. 00:09:50.506 --> 00:09:56.676 align:middle So these are all these things that, um, uh, yeah, um, you know, this, um, 00:09:56.736 --> 00:09:59.566 align:middle these exchanges with Sage Sharp have been quite helpful. 00:09:59.946 --> 00:10:02.086 align:middle Um, and that's something that also, again, 00:10:02.086 --> 00:10:05.476 align:middle on Saturday when we discussed maybe this is something that we need to bring 00:10:05.476 --> 00:10:08.476 align:middle to a different format where also maybe some people 00:10:08.476 --> 00:10:11.556 align:middle from the community can benefit from this kind of exchanges. 00:10:12.286 --> 00:10:17.346 align:middle Now, of course there was negative feedback when the initiative was launched. 00:10:17.416 --> 00:10:22.296 align:middle Actually not a whole lot, but there were concerns and I think... 00:10:22.676 --> 00:10:25.506 align:middle so, you know, the biggest concern was around like who's going 00:10:25.506 --> 00:10:28.866 align:middle to write the code once everybody has been kicked out. 00:10:29.326 --> 00:10:36.636 align:middle And... is suddenly a pull request going to get merged just because it's from somebody 00:10:36.896 --> 00:10:38.446 align:middle that is from an underrepresented group. 00:10:38.446 --> 00:10:41.126 align:middle Like, are we going to reduce the quality? 00:10:41.496 --> 00:10:46.496 align:middle And, uh, I think these concerns are, again, these are things that, you know, 00:10:46.906 --> 00:10:51.766 align:middle I know at least to me, I don't, I don't share those concerns. 00:10:52.206 --> 00:10:57.156 align:middle But it also is not very useful to just push them away and ignore them. 00:10:57.486 --> 00:11:04.726 align:middle That being said, at least I haven't, like, like these were concerns beforehand. 00:11:04.986 --> 00:11:07.686 align:middle I've actually not heard a single person actually point 00:11:07.686 --> 00:11:10.476 align:middle to a specific case where any of that happened. 00:11:10.516 --> 00:11:15.816 align:middle So I hope that maybe over the course of a year we've managed to sort of reduce those concerns 00:11:15.816 --> 00:11:19.916 align:middle by just the mere fact that none of these problems seem to have actually happened 00:11:19.916 --> 00:11:21.056 align:middle that people were concerned about. 00:11:21.746 --> 00:11:25.486 align:middle Um, but it's definitely something that keeps popping up here and there. 00:11:25.486 --> 00:11:29.176 align:middle It came up again also when we then finally implemented the code of conduct, 00:11:29.176 --> 00:11:31.006 align:middle which I'll talk about in a second. 00:11:31.726 --> 00:11:34.836 align:middle But one thing I think that, that is very important that, 00:11:34.836 --> 00:11:37.766 align:middle um, oh, I forgot to click here... 00:11:38.326 --> 00:11:44.926 align:middle is that it is very naive to think that you can have an open source project 00:11:44.926 --> 00:11:46.236 align:middle and it's just about code. 00:11:46.626 --> 00:11:50.406 align:middle Like the second you put a bunch of human beings working on some things, 00:11:50.406 --> 00:11:55.456 align:middle you immediately have a social dimension and ignoring that just doesn't work. 00:11:55.526 --> 00:11:57.526 align:middle And I can very much say that. 00:11:57.866 --> 00:12:00.956 align:middle So I was the release manager for PHP 5.3. 00:12:01.456 --> 00:12:03.426 align:middle And I don't code C at all. 00:12:03.596 --> 00:12:09.496 align:middle So I was the release manager for PHP, I don't code C, it was just a social thing, 00:12:09.496 --> 00:12:16.256 align:middle like trying to get multiple developers to agree to things, um, to decide to finish 00:12:16.256 --> 00:12:18.676 align:middle that these were all very social things. 00:12:19.176 --> 00:12:24.066 align:middle They don't revolve around code and there were a lot of people that didn't like each other 00:12:24.066 --> 00:12:25.756 align:middle that I needed to get to collaborate. 00:12:25.966 --> 00:12:29.236 align:middle Um, so there's always a social dimension to open source. 00:12:29.706 --> 00:12:37.806 align:middle Um, now, um, yeah, so one thing that, that also, we did very early on that we started 00:12:37.806 --> 00:12:41.386 align:middle to have discussions on Slack about how we communicate with each other. 00:12:41.746 --> 00:12:49.376 align:middle Um, for example, there was a lot of cursing going on - not really necessarily at people, 00:12:49.796 --> 00:12:53.226 align:middle but it seemed kind of like it wasn't really helping the communication. 00:12:53.226 --> 00:12:59.436 align:middle And so we had a fair amount of discussions around that and I think, you know, 00:12:59.436 --> 00:13:04.726 align:middle this was before we had a code of conduct there were, I think for awhile we had a bot 00:13:04.726 --> 00:13:06.646 align:middle that that reminded people not to curse. 00:13:07.086 --> 00:13:10.436 align:middle Of course people, you know, it's very easy to hack around that, you know, 00:13:10.436 --> 00:13:13.706 align:middle you just replace some characters and suddenly you can still curse. 00:13:14.226 --> 00:13:19.376 align:middle But I think overall I think these discussions, while some, some really flared up 00:13:19.376 --> 00:13:24.026 align:middle and became quite heated, I think none of them really derailed into something really bad. 00:13:24.026 --> 00:13:26.356 align:middle And I think, overall, the experience has improved. 00:13:26.356 --> 00:13:31.286 align:middle I don't really have any KPI's I can show you, but I get the sense that it has improved. 00:13:31.536 --> 00:13:39.946 align:middle Then the other things we did was to improve symfony.com itself. 00:13:39.946 --> 00:13:46.596 align:middle And, for example, we have, we built this tool for doing automated checks on websites 00:13:46.646 --> 00:13:48.766 align:middle to check for accessibility issues. 00:13:48.766 --> 00:13:52.926 align:middle So I set that up just because I already had a setup at Liip for that. 00:13:53.296 --> 00:13:55.506 align:middle And so quite a lot of improvements were done there. 00:13:55.506 --> 00:13:57.276 align:middle And that's, I think also a very good example. 00:13:57.276 --> 00:14:02.356 align:middle So if we improve the contrast on the website or the font size and things like that or you know, 00:14:02.356 --> 00:14:08.976 align:middle ensure that that colors are not such a key part, it might help make the site readable 00:14:08.976 --> 00:14:13.406 align:middle for some people, but it also makes the site more readable for everyone else. 00:14:13.636 --> 00:14:16.706 align:middle Right. Um, so it's a win for everyone. 00:14:16.946 --> 00:14:20.286 align:middle The win might be bigger for some people, but there is no drawback. 00:14:20.286 --> 00:14:23.346 align:middle Right. So that's a lot also what the diversity initiative did. 00:14:23.346 --> 00:14:24.426 align:middle Like we did a lot of things. 00:14:24.696 --> 00:14:26.166 align:middle Actually I've forgotten on the previous slide, 00:14:26.166 --> 00:14:28.786 align:middle we also introduced the #thankyou and the #victory channel. 00:14:28.936 --> 00:14:32.486 align:middle And it's just also again to just create a more positive atmosphere. 00:14:32.836 --> 00:14:34.516 align:middle And I just love that channel. 00:14:34.516 --> 00:14:39.466 align:middle Like it's, it's like if I need a few good moments, like I go to the Symfony Slack and look 00:14:39.466 --> 00:14:41.206 align:middle at that and scroll up or something like that. 00:14:41.206 --> 00:14:47.036 align:middle And it's, and it's kinda like, it creates this positive relationship to the project 00:14:47.306 --> 00:14:49.566 align:middle that I think is helpful to everyone, right. 00:14:49.566 --> 00:14:56.226 align:middle And hopefully it will make it more welcoming for, for new people to come in, 00:14:56.806 --> 00:15:00.076 align:middle potentially from underrepresented groups, but, you know, just everyone, right? 00:15:00.366 --> 00:15:04.056 align:middle And it makes it easier for them to celebrate their first real victories 00:15:04.056 --> 00:15:05.586 align:middle and get recognized for that. 00:15:06.926 --> 00:15:15.176 align:middle And other things we did on the Symfony website was, um, we created a little guide, um, to help, 00:15:15.176 --> 00:15:19.466 align:middle um, how to do feedback during a code review. 00:15:19.556 --> 00:15:25.026 align:middle Like how to phrase things in a way that, you know, the other side isn't put down. 00:15:25.266 --> 00:15:29.156 align:middle Because you're just trying to find a better technology solution, right? 00:15:29.376 --> 00:15:31.286 align:middle You don't need to make it about the person. 00:15:31.286 --> 00:15:33.716 align:middle So it's just, you know, some advice on how to do that. 00:15:33.716 --> 00:15:36.996 align:middle So Sebastian did and it was really awesome. 00:15:36.996 --> 00:15:41.466 align:middle Uh, David, he went over, wrote a little script and went over the website just 00:15:41.466 --> 00:15:43.386 align:middle to remove some of the belittling language. 00:15:43.386 --> 00:15:46.256 align:middle Like, Oh, "this is very easy just to x", right? 00:15:46.366 --> 00:15:51.056 align:middle And you know, if you're a beginner and it's not easy for you, you already feel small 00:15:51.056 --> 00:15:52.536 align:middle and you, you, you want to leave, right? 00:15:52.566 --> 00:15:56.496 align:middle So doing these kinds of things, and again, this is not that it helps the specific group, 00:15:56.496 --> 00:16:00.996 align:middle it kind of should help everyone, but it might make us more welcoming, in general. 00:16:02.336 --> 00:16:07.876 align:middle Then the other thing, and that was probably the thing that took the most effort, 00:16:08.356 --> 00:16:11.746 align:middle we created a code of conduct and we also created the CARE team. 00:16:12.366 --> 00:16:14.626 align:middle And I mean in terms of code of conduct. 00:16:14.626 --> 00:16:19.506 align:middle So Egidijus actually just before SymfonyCon last year, you already created the pull request 00:16:19.986 --> 00:16:24.046 align:middle to add a code of conduct to Symfony. 00:16:24.046 --> 00:16:27.906 align:middle And we had lots of discussions afterwards and not necessarily so much about the code 00:16:27.906 --> 00:16:32.926 align:middle of conduct itself, but more about how to actually, like, if there is a problem, 00:16:32.926 --> 00:16:37.116 align:middle if somebody noticed something, how do we do the reporting and how do we make sure 00:16:37.116 --> 00:16:41.506 align:middle that we actually follow-up on the reports in a way that uh, 00:16:41.506 --> 00:16:44.956 align:middle you know, really addresses those concerns. 00:16:46.086 --> 00:16:48.456 align:middle And so we, we, we studied a lot. 00:16:48.456 --> 00:16:51.756 align:middle Because there are a lot of really good code of conduct that you can just drop in, 00:16:51.756 --> 00:16:53.346 align:middle but there are not that many reporting process. 00:16:53.346 --> 00:17:00.156 align:middle So we spent quite a lot of time researching that, we had several meetings virtually, with, 00:17:00.266 --> 00:17:05.536 align:middle Michelle and Egidijus and Tobias and Nicolas 00:17:05.536 --> 00:17:08.626 align:middle and several other people discussing this back and forth. 00:17:08.626 --> 00:17:15.626 align:middle We also benefited again, quite a lot from the expertise from Sage Sharp and we finally put, 00:17:15.626 --> 00:17:19.616 align:middle you know, put it all together, I think sometime in late spring. 00:17:19.616 --> 00:17:27.416 align:middle And I, and I, what I really also wanted to emphasize then is that we need to make sure 00:17:27.416 --> 00:17:29.516 align:middle that the people in this CARE team 00:17:29.516 --> 00:17:31.846 align:middle that are receiving these reports are really well prepared. 00:17:31.926 --> 00:17:36.596 align:middle So we ended up doing a donation drive to get extra professional training from Sage Sharp 00:17:36.916 --> 00:17:40.766 align:middle so that these people are ready to, to, um, to deal with these reports. 00:17:41.266 --> 00:17:43.706 align:middle And that was actually already the first little test. 00:17:43.816 --> 00:17:46.526 align:middle Like, is somebody in the community going to sponsor this? 00:17:46.526 --> 00:17:51.256 align:middle In the end it was actually very quickly that we got three companies sponsoring, 00:17:51.256 --> 00:17:54.856 align:middle so we had enough money to pay for the training. 00:17:55.136 --> 00:17:59.806 align:middle And yeah, and I think that's, that's something that's very important 00:17:59.846 --> 00:18:03.816 align:middle that we don't just blunder ourselves forward, that we really, 00:18:03.816 --> 00:18:06.436 align:middle we look for professional expertise where it is available. 00:18:12.016 --> 00:18:16.066 align:middle And yeah, I think that's also one important thing. 00:18:16.066 --> 00:18:18.976 align:middle Like, a lot of the concerns that were raised about code of conduct was that - 00:18:19.496 --> 00:18:22.196 align:middle and they're always about the worst-case scenario, 00:18:22.196 --> 00:18:24.396 align:middle like somebody will get kicked out of the community. 00:18:25.006 --> 00:18:29.626 align:middle And, I don't know the details of, of the reports that have happened this year. 00:18:29.626 --> 00:18:32.246 align:middle I do know that there have been some. 00:18:32.736 --> 00:18:36.826 align:middle Nobody has been expelled, um, as far as I know. 00:18:37.266 --> 00:18:42.326 align:middle And I think many of the things that that may happen, are miscommunications, 00:18:42.326 --> 00:18:45.336 align:middle cultural differences and things like that, that you might not be aware of. 00:18:45.886 --> 00:18:49.656 align:middle And I think that's very important when you're reading the code of conduct and you're looking 00:18:49.656 --> 00:18:53.786 align:middle at things that, that are stated there that are unwanted... 00:18:55.296 --> 00:18:58.716 align:middle or there is a lot of grayness, in there. 00:18:58.886 --> 00:19:01.056 align:middle Right? And this is not a legal document. 00:19:01.576 --> 00:19:05.456 align:middle We don't have a police, we don't have lawyers. 00:19:05.456 --> 00:19:07.706 align:middle We don't have judges or anything like that. 00:19:08.046 --> 00:19:11.656 align:middle That is beyond the scope of what the code of conduct can really cover. 00:19:12.036 --> 00:19:18.176 align:middle What we're trying to ensure is that there is a process to deal with specific situations 00:19:18.176 --> 00:19:22.276 align:middle and these situations can just be, just be aware that this person, 00:19:22.696 --> 00:19:27.156 align:middle based on the code of conduct has the right to say, I don't want this to happen to me. 00:19:27.546 --> 00:19:32.226 align:middle And then the expectation is that this person that did that listens to that 00:19:32.476 --> 00:19:37.116 align:middle and adjusts their behavior, moves on and everything is fine. 00:19:37.156 --> 00:19:42.586 align:middle Right? But if that person keeps that behavioral pattern, then yes, 00:19:42.656 --> 00:19:45.146 align:middle maybe at some point there might be some escalation 00:19:45.456 --> 00:19:47.446 align:middle in the way that it is being dealt with. 00:19:47.526 --> 00:19:52.406 align:middle But in many situations it's just like, listen, learn, move on. 00:19:52.876 --> 00:19:53.266 align:middle That's it. 00:19:53.436 --> 00:19:55.426 align:middle Right. That's all what the code of conduct is doing. 00:19:55.426 --> 00:19:58.756 align:middle It's just setting up a process for these kinds of feedbacks to happen. 00:19:59.446 --> 00:20:04.886 align:middle Now of course, if something really, really bad happens, then we also have a process in place. 00:20:05.356 --> 00:20:10.836 align:middle But in many cases also if something really bad is happening, then maybe you know, 00:20:10.836 --> 00:20:15.316 align:middle it's not something that the CARE team should actually be responsible for. 00:20:15.436 --> 00:20:19.256 align:middle Finally addressing, they should maybe involve the police or someone else. 00:20:19.576 --> 00:20:24.626 align:middle But also, they should have - and this is also something that is maybe non-obvious - 00:20:24.786 --> 00:20:29.416 align:middle is that "how" to actually, so the person that reported the issue - that, 00:20:29.596 --> 00:20:34.646 align:middle that very severe issue - that they are asked: "do you want the police to be involved" 00:20:34.766 --> 00:20:40.266 align:middle and things like that that you have maybe also some alternative ways to get them help. 00:20:40.336 --> 00:20:42.836 align:middle Right? And these are the things that require some expertise, 00:20:42.836 --> 00:20:46.396 align:middle that require some preparation to be ready when it happens. 00:20:46.396 --> 00:20:50.466 align:middle Because when happens, we need to be able to act very quickly and decisively. 00:20:52.506 --> 00:20:56.646 align:middle Um, so another thing that happened actually in the summer, 00:20:56.646 --> 00:20:58.226 align:middle I was getting a little bit depressed. 00:20:58.226 --> 00:21:00.626 align:middle I thought that things weren't really moving anymore. 00:21:00.626 --> 00:21:02.506 align:middle And so the momentum was gone. 00:21:02.506 --> 00:21:06.146 align:middle Like everybody was maybe patting themselves on the shoulder that we have a code of conduct. 00:21:06.146 --> 00:21:10.346 align:middle We have a CARE team and everybody was starting to lean back a little bit I felt. 00:21:10.826 --> 00:21:16.896 align:middle And then sometime in late summer, Joni from the Dutch PHP conference contacted me and said, 00:21:17.376 --> 00:21:21.546 align:middle she's working on, she wants to build a guide for herself, 00:21:21.546 --> 00:21:25.396 align:middle but also for other conference organizers on how to improve diversity and inclusion. 00:21:26.046 --> 00:21:29.836 align:middle And, and she heard that I might be doing something in that direction as well. 00:21:29.836 --> 00:21:33.406 align:middle And I said, yeah, we have a ticket where lots of people have dumped links 00:21:33.406 --> 00:21:37.426 align:middle about useful information, but we never got around to actually create some, 00:21:37.606 --> 00:21:39.076 align:middle an actual usable guide out of it. 00:21:39.186 --> 00:21:43.516 align:middle And she took those links and probably a bunch of links she had on her own. 00:21:43.586 --> 00:21:46.986 align:middle And like a week or two she came back with this amazing document, 00:21:47.326 --> 00:21:53.376 align:middle where she really summarized all, like tons of key issues with links 00:21:53.416 --> 00:21:56.306 align:middle to additional details and things like that. 00:21:56.646 --> 00:22:00.816 align:middle And, so this is put up, I made the short link up at the top 00:22:00.816 --> 00:22:04.766 align:middle because the full link is rather long - it's underneath there. 00:22:04.766 --> 00:22:12.336 align:middle So it's https://github.com/DutchPHPConference /conference-diversity-and-inclusion/blob/ma 00:22:12.336 --> 00:22:12.836 align:middle ster/Guideline.md. 00:22:12.836 --> 00:22:13.606 align:middle And so it's full of tips. 00:22:13.606 --> 00:22:15.606 align:middle It's probably not a complete guide yet. 00:22:15.606 --> 00:22:18.716 align:middle We'll, we'll, continue to expand it. 00:22:19.116 --> 00:22:23.326 align:middle One thing that we also want to do and the guide is to highlight a little bit more, 00:22:23.536 --> 00:22:25.886 align:middle which of the different topics require money? 00:22:25.886 --> 00:22:27.556 align:middle And potentially a little bit of scale. 00:22:27.556 --> 00:22:28.256 align:middle How much money? 00:22:28.536 --> 00:22:33.946 align:middle And also which of the things are, require time or, or very little time. 00:22:34.236 --> 00:22:37.386 align:middle So that people that go over this can very quickly identify things 00:22:37.386 --> 00:22:39.406 align:middle that they can probably very quickly implement. 00:22:39.406 --> 00:22:47.616 align:middle And, but they also can see if they, if they can, can somehow manage to do additional things that, 00:22:47.616 --> 00:22:49.656 align:middle you know, these are additional things that they can work on. 00:22:49.906 --> 00:22:54.316 align:middle But also we look at things, how to potentially get money to be able to finance such things 00:22:54.316 --> 00:22:59.136 align:middle like potentially adding a little optional thing people can put on the ticket price, uh, 00:22:59.636 --> 00:23:04.456 align:middle when they buy a conference ticket, to create a budget to enable you to do certain things, 00:23:04.876 --> 00:23:08.516 align:middle which, you know, um, you know, the companies that are paying the tickets, 00:23:08.656 --> 00:23:13.336 align:middle it probably doesn't really matter that much if the ticket is 20 Euros more or less. 00:23:13.336 --> 00:23:15.076 align:middle And so it could be a very easy thing. 00:23:15.076 --> 00:23:16.686 align:middle So lots of ideas like that. 00:23:17.046 --> 00:23:23.306 align:middle So at this event here, some of the things have been implemented, not all of them, um, 00:23:23.306 --> 00:23:28.346 align:middle obviously, um, so in some of the things maybe we need to improve a little bit. 00:23:28.346 --> 00:23:30.526 align:middle So we have the scholarship program. 00:23:30.596 --> 00:23:31.836 align:middle Um, so that's cool. 00:23:31.836 --> 00:23:38.516 align:middle We now, previously it was always that it was actually required that the name that you used 00:23:38.516 --> 00:23:43.486 align:middle when you registered for the, for the conference needs to match your photo id 00:23:43.716 --> 00:23:48.386 align:middle and that is then also printed on, on, on these badges - I don't know, I put my badge somewhere. 00:23:48.776 --> 00:23:55.286 align:middle Um, and so as a first step to, to make it easier for people that are, you know, 00:23:55.286 --> 00:23:59.576 align:middle that have a different name that they prefer to use, we now make at least possible 00:23:59.576 --> 00:24:07.216 align:middle that we use the Symfony Connect name rather than, um, the legal, or photo id name. 00:24:07.516 --> 00:24:10.816 align:middle And you know, these things maybe, maybe you shouldn't, shouldn't even require that, 00:24:10.856 --> 00:24:13.606 align:middle maybe it should be a write-in field or something like that. 00:24:13.916 --> 00:24:16.576 align:middle So these might require some logistics like check-in, 00:24:16.576 --> 00:24:18.486 align:middle and as you notice, check-in is already quite slow. 00:24:18.486 --> 00:24:21.626 align:middle So we need to think about how to make those processes maybe more efficient. 00:24:21.996 --> 00:24:23.186 align:middle But you know, that's the first step. 00:24:23.686 --> 00:24:28.066 align:middle And we also have pronoun stickers at the goody desk. 00:24:28.146 --> 00:24:29.866 align:middle Again, this is the first step. 00:24:30.236 --> 00:24:35.156 align:middle I intentionally, I actually wanted to blog about this before the conference 00:24:35.196 --> 00:24:39.046 align:middle to explain a little bit what the idea behind it is. 00:24:39.046 --> 00:24:45.726 align:middle But essentially, while, you know, the, the standard in society for a long time has been, 00:24:45.726 --> 00:24:51.266 align:middle you will allocate a gender at birth - you're either a "he" or "she" and end of story. 00:24:51.586 --> 00:24:59.036 align:middle Many people don't, not fall or, feel that they fall in this very binary approach. 00:24:59.476 --> 00:25:04.736 align:middle Um, and so they might prefer other pronouns like they or even some others. 00:25:04.736 --> 00:25:09.566 align:middle So, uh, it's, it's a good way to not assume the pronouns 00:25:09.566 --> 00:25:11.486 align:middle when you're talking to someone from the first time. 00:25:11.556 --> 00:25:16.136 align:middle Right. And those pronouns stickers would make it easier rather than having the first piece 00:25:16.136 --> 00:25:19.166 align:middle of your conversation being: "What pronoun do you want to use?", 00:25:19.556 --> 00:25:22.816 align:middle you can look at the pronoun stickers and you know, and you can directly jump 00:25:22.816 --> 00:25:26.876 align:middle to the actual interesting content that you want to talk about. 00:25:27.306 --> 00:25:30.856 align:middle So right now we have this pronoun stickers with he, she, they, again, 00:25:30.856 --> 00:25:33.566 align:middle maybe it will be nicer that we would make it write-in. 00:25:34.046 --> 00:25:40.166 align:middle Um, but I do want to encourage everyone, even if you think, well, I'm, I associated with he 00:25:40.166 --> 00:25:44.276 align:middle or she and it's very obvious and it's very simple and has never been a problem. 00:25:44.706 --> 00:25:48.456 align:middle Still use those stickers, normalize the use of pronouns stickers. 00:25:48.706 --> 00:25:55.756 align:middle That makes it easier for the people that do not fall in the classical assignments of the past. 00:25:56.436 --> 00:25:57.746 align:middle So we did that. 00:25:58.066 --> 00:26:01.986 align:middle We also introduced the quiet room for people to use if they just want, 00:26:02.046 --> 00:26:05.096 align:middle if they sometimes need some space of quietness. 00:26:05.416 --> 00:26:09.036 align:middle But also if somebody needs it for maybe for prayer or something like that. 00:26:09.396 --> 00:26:11.086 align:middle So we introduced the quiet room as well. 00:26:11.396 --> 00:26:13.646 align:middle Um, and you know, just the fact that the topic 00:26:13.646 --> 00:26:17.696 align:middle of diversity is mentioned during the open session I think is already a step as well. 00:26:19.246 --> 00:26:24.046 align:middle Um, then, um, another topic a is we. 00:26:24.546 --> 00:26:26.446 align:middle So many other things that I talked about so far, 00:26:26.446 --> 00:26:29.786 align:middle they're very much about making the community more welcoming, right? 00:26:29.846 --> 00:26:30.826 align:middle And safer. 00:26:30.826 --> 00:26:36.376 align:middle But of course, part of what we wanted to achieve is also to grow the community. 00:26:36.676 --> 00:26:41.226 align:middle And again, you know, growing the community, everyone is welcome, right? 00:26:41.376 --> 00:26:48.056 align:middle But there's of course some, some places where we are, you know, obviously underrepresented. 00:26:48.486 --> 00:26:50.486 align:middle Um, and there are many dimensions to this. 00:26:50.526 --> 00:26:53.886 align:middle One of the most obvious and most talked about his gender. 00:26:53.886 --> 00:27:01.676 align:middle And there we are clearly not at the point where we can say that we have actual representation 00:27:01.976 --> 00:27:05.826 align:middle of how many women they are on the planet versus how many men. 00:27:06.426 --> 00:27:09.786 align:middle But there are plenty of other dimensions that are very important as well. 00:27:10.416 --> 00:27:15.086 align:middle So for example, right now we are very strong in Europe. 00:27:15.426 --> 00:27:18.856 align:middle There's some presence in, in the North America. 00:27:19.246 --> 00:27:21.856 align:middle But, you know, in other continents we're very underrepresented. 00:27:21.976 --> 00:27:26.516 align:middle Um, and so it's very, uh, you know, it's great that now, for example, 00:27:26.516 --> 00:27:31.086 align:middle Fabien is going to Vietnam and to India for some meetups there and trying 00:27:31.086 --> 00:27:33.576 align:middle to jumpstart those local communities. 00:27:33.816 --> 00:27:36.766 align:middle There's discussions about conferences potentially 00:27:36.766 --> 00:27:39.316 align:middle in South America, potentially in Africa. 00:27:39.676 --> 00:27:44.626 align:middle Um, and these are of course very, very, very important things to grow the community because, 00:27:44.976 --> 00:27:48.526 align:middle so for example, if you're in Africa, then, you know, 00:27:48.776 --> 00:27:50.756 align:middle coming to Europe is actually quite challenging. 00:27:50.756 --> 00:27:52.136 align:middle You know, you need a visa and so on. 00:27:52.136 --> 00:27:56.096 align:middle So in fact, actually one of the three scholarships we gave away was 00:27:56.176 --> 00:27:57.646 align:middle from someone from Nigeria. 00:27:57.646 --> 00:28:02.916 align:middle And since we, we took too long to put out the scholarship program in the end 00:28:02.916 --> 00:28:05.056 align:middle when we finally gave the confirmation to that person, 00:28:05.296 --> 00:28:07.456 align:middle they couldn't get a visa in time to come here. 00:28:07.796 --> 00:28:12.996 align:middle So even though it would have been paid for, it wasn't possible for them to attend. 00:28:13.056 --> 00:28:17.456 align:middle So we instead, we just made the promise that for next year, um, they'll, 00:28:17.456 --> 00:28:21.486 align:middle they'll get that scholarship so that they can apply for the visa in time. 00:28:21.926 --> 00:28:24.126 align:middle So that's, that's great. 00:28:24.626 --> 00:28:26.756 align:middle Um, so I mentioned the scholarship program already. 00:28:26.906 --> 00:28:33.496 align:middle We also, or API Platform, sponsored Rails Girls Summer of Code. 00:28:33.936 --> 00:28:36.046 align:middle Um, they also offered to mentor. 00:28:36.446 --> 00:28:39.296 align:middle Uh, in the end, unfortunately they weren't picked as a mentor. 00:28:39.706 --> 00:28:44.086 align:middle But, what I got from Kevin was actually by the mere fact that we were on the website, 00:28:44.346 --> 00:28:47.166 align:middle there were some contributions coming in just from that. 00:28:47.336 --> 00:28:50.036 align:middle So some students that saw API Platform mentioned 00:28:50.036 --> 00:28:53.296 align:middle on the website then started contributing to API Platform. 00:28:53.636 --> 00:28:55.966 align:middle And that, and that's obviously great. 00:28:56.316 --> 00:28:58.916 align:middle And the other thing I mentioned is the event organization guide, 00:28:58.916 --> 00:29:03.506 align:middle which I hope will be something that more and more Symfony events, PHP events, etc, 00:29:03.506 --> 00:29:08.956 align:middle will start using, um, and, you know, just as inspiration for things to do. 00:29:10.416 --> 00:29:15.096 align:middle Now. in many ways, we're kind of following the lead of Django. 00:29:15.166 --> 00:29:20.056 align:middle Django, actually, they, they have quite a significant effort around DjangoGirls, 00:29:20.096 --> 00:29:26.006 align:middle which is similar to Ruby Girls, um, with the intention of bringing in new people 00:29:26.226 --> 00:29:29.876 align:middle and giving them a little bit of a crash course on the framework. 00:29:29.986 --> 00:29:32.916 align:middle Um, and that's also something that we discussed over the course of the year. 00:29:33.296 --> 00:29:35.446 align:middle I'm still hoping that we can maybe get that set up. 00:29:35.876 --> 00:29:40.346 align:middle Um, and, but they started in 2014 with that. 00:29:40.686 --> 00:29:46.746 align:middle And, you know, just, you know, uh, from, from what I've seen from the Django Foundation team, 00:29:47.856 --> 00:29:49.856 align:middle it's not like they are now radically diverse. 00:29:50.006 --> 00:29:54.476 align:middle Like it's, it's, it just doesn't happen within even three years of a very, 00:29:54.476 --> 00:29:58.676 align:middle or four years of a very concerted effort that suddenly everything is, you know, 00:29:58.676 --> 00:30:01.326 align:middle diverse and inclusion is done and all these things. 00:30:01.376 --> 00:30:08.056 align:middle So I'm in many ways I think, I mean, I don't really have any numbers right now 00:30:08.056 --> 00:30:10.346 align:middle and maybe that's also something that we should start collecting, 00:30:10.826 --> 00:30:18.096 align:middle but I don't think that we now have done any, any really significant changes to any KPI 00:30:18.096 --> 00:30:22.916 align:middle that you could think of, um, in terms of actual numbers of representation. 00:30:23.686 --> 00:30:27.006 align:middle What I can say, however, is there have been several people 00:30:27.006 --> 00:30:32.116 align:middle that have personally approached me and said they now feel safe to be in this community, 00:30:32.386 --> 00:30:34.316 align:middle where previously they were unsure. 00:30:34.976 --> 00:30:40.996 align:middle And in many ways I think we've already achieved a lot if we retain, sort of, 00:30:41.406 --> 00:30:44.646 align:middle the people that are here and that they don't get pushed out. 00:30:44.646 --> 00:30:49.526 align:middle So like, the story of the apprentice that I mentioned that she got pushed out, right? 00:30:49.746 --> 00:30:51.366 align:middle If we can get to that point that we're 00:30:51.366 --> 00:30:55.976 align:middle at least don't push these people out, we've already achieved a lot. 00:30:56.106 --> 00:31:01.106 align:middle And if we can then maybe create some word of mouth that this is actually a great place to be 00:31:01.106 --> 00:31:05.726 align:middle if you want to be in IT and you're part of an underrepresented group, this is a great place 00:31:05.766 --> 00:31:09.146 align:middle to be then yes, maybe at some point we can grow the numbers. 00:31:09.546 --> 00:31:16.236 align:middle The other thing that I think is very important, I think every community that does pay attention 00:31:16.236 --> 00:31:18.606 align:middle to this topic makes it easier for the next one. 00:31:18.866 --> 00:31:23.336 align:middle Because there's a lot of experience that is, you know, written down like we can, 00:31:23.426 --> 00:31:29.456 align:middle like one of the ideas of course with putting up, maybe having a Symfony training program is, 00:31:29.736 --> 00:31:32.846 align:middle we can go to what the DjangoGirls people have done. 00:31:33.066 --> 00:31:36.336 align:middle We can go what Ruby Girls people have done and we can learn from them. 00:31:36.336 --> 00:31:41.526 align:middle Right? So we are now in the PHP community, I think to some degree leaders on this topic 00:31:41.956 --> 00:31:44.446 align:middle and um, that's something that we're proud of. 00:31:44.446 --> 00:31:47.946 align:middle But also we should also help carry that to the other communities. 00:31:48.206 --> 00:31:53.436 align:middle And I think once, you know, all open source communities start to make this a priority, 00:31:53.716 --> 00:31:56.856 align:middle it will become much easier for everyone to get, 00:31:57.036 --> 00:32:01.896 align:middle or to ensure that people don't leave these communities, that they stay around 00:32:01.896 --> 00:32:04.356 align:middle and that maybe new people come in as well. 00:32:06.456 --> 00:32:08.216 align:middle So what's next? 00:32:08.216 --> 00:32:10.806 align:middle Again, I think that's something we should discuss on Saturday. 00:32:11.336 --> 00:32:16.936 align:middle So at the Hackathon, I would say let's start meeting at 10 in the hackathon space. 00:32:17.346 --> 00:32:24.226 align:middle Um, and uh, yeah, it would be really happy to see all of you and maybe some more there. 00:32:24.356 --> 00:32:31.926 align:middle And, some things that I currently I'm looking into, I've been talking to Jill Binder, 00:32:31.926 --> 00:32:35.486 align:middle she's been very active in the WordCamp community, so Wordpress 00:32:35.906 --> 00:32:39.836 align:middle and doing speaker, speaker mentoring. 00:32:40.476 --> 00:32:45.606 align:middle So she, so she basically has a training program to help people become speakers, 00:32:46.526 --> 00:32:51.066 align:middle which she's trying to, you know, move out of just the Wordpress space 00:32:51.526 --> 00:32:53.226 align:middle and to professionalize a little bit. 00:32:53.226 --> 00:32:55.406 align:middle So that's one topic I'm looking into. 00:32:55.406 --> 00:33:01.656 align:middle And to me, like obviously, I'm in many ways like, okay, so if we, you know, we get, 00:33:01.886 --> 00:33:05.686 align:middle we get great diversity on speaker line ups, then we will not get called 00:33:05.686 --> 00:33:07.976 align:middle out anymore for non-diverse speaker lineups. 00:33:08.066 --> 00:33:08.966 align:middle That's not the goal. 00:33:09.566 --> 00:33:13.686 align:middle Right. But, you know, but I think having more speakers 00:33:13.686 --> 00:33:18.976 align:middle and having more diverse speakers I think is a very good way of showing people 00:33:19.186 --> 00:33:22.376 align:middle that it is possible to get recognized in the community regardless 00:33:22.376 --> 00:33:25.786 align:middle of what your background is or what you identify as. 00:33:25.786 --> 00:33:33.396 align:middle So I think it is a great way to very quickly communicate that this is a safe place, 00:33:33.396 --> 00:33:36.486 align:middle a welcoming place, if we have a more diverse speaker lineup. 00:33:37.396 --> 00:33:43.146 align:middle Another topic I, I'm hoping that we can maybe address on Saturday is that maybe we need 00:33:43.146 --> 00:33:47.386 align:middle to formalize a little bit more the, the diversity initiatives. 00:33:47.386 --> 00:33:51.786 align:middle Like right now I basically have this title given by Fabien, but maybe it would be good 00:33:51.786 --> 00:33:55.716 align:middle that we have somebody that says "I'm going to focus on speaker mentoring." 00:33:55.976 --> 00:33:59.936 align:middle Another person: "I'm going to focus on improving events", 00:33:59.936 --> 00:34:01.906 align:middle in terms of diversity inclusion and things like that. 00:34:02.316 --> 00:34:07.166 align:middle Also, right now we're missing a process for how we deal with the donations. 00:34:07.346 --> 00:34:11.866 align:middle Like we don't have a decision process how we actually use the money that we get donated. 00:34:12.266 --> 00:34:17.616 align:middle So we, we urgently need that in order that we can publish it and be transparent 00:34:17.616 --> 00:34:21.326 align:middle about what we're doing there and also prevent conflicts around that topic. 00:34:22.216 --> 00:34:27.256 align:middle So here I, I wrote, I started writing down special thanks. 00:34:27.256 --> 00:34:30.816 align:middle Um, and I, I already missed a bunch. 00:34:30.816 --> 00:34:35.546 align:middle So, for example, Timo, he's been helping me quite a lot in making my, 00:34:35.546 --> 00:34:37.406 align:middle the words that I write actually readable. 00:34:38.626 --> 00:34:45.156 align:middle And Hamza has been helping a lot and bringing a lot of perspective into things. 00:34:45.156 --> 00:34:48.196 align:middle And, and yeah, a bunch of others. 00:34:48.196 --> 00:34:51.986 align:middle So again, the good news is we have over a hundred people in diversity channel, 00:34:51.986 --> 00:34:54.036 align:middle so it is something that people pay attention to. 00:34:54.306 --> 00:34:58.676 align:middle I'm sure of 100 people, there may be quite a number of people there that are in there 00:34:58.676 --> 00:35:01.666 align:middle because they're still critical of what is happening and they want to pay attention. 00:35:01.666 --> 00:35:05.996 align:middle I very welcome that and I want to get their feedback as early as possible 00:35:06.246 --> 00:35:08.256 align:middle because we don't want to steamroll people. 00:35:08.466 --> 00:35:12.176 align:middle We want to take everyone in along the ride, so to say. 00:35:12.676 --> 00:35:17.036 align:middle Um, yeah, so many people have been, been super instrumental in, in, 00:35:17.036 --> 00:35:19.116 align:middle in different topics that have been pushing forward. 00:35:19.116 --> 00:35:23.126 align:middle And I'm very grateful to them. 00:35:23.606 --> 00:35:27.286 align:middle So last thing was already mentioned in the, in a bunch of places. 00:35:27.326 --> 00:35:30.936 align:middle If you can, it will be great if you can consider donating. 00:35:30.936 --> 00:35:32.636 align:middle Maybe also your employer can donate. 00:35:32.636 --> 00:35:35.606 align:middle This was also very much a feel-good moment. 00:35:35.666 --> 00:35:39.546 align:middle So we started the donation drive I think in early November and by the end 00:35:39.546 --> 00:35:42.636 align:middle of November we already had over three and a half thousand dollars collected, 00:35:43.056 --> 00:35:45.696 align:middle which I think given the amount of money that people make 00:35:45.696 --> 00:35:48.226 align:middle with Symfony is probably, you know, very, very small. 00:35:48.716 --> 00:35:53.456 align:middle But, but, you know, last year when I had the first discussion with Fabian about doing 00:35:53.456 --> 00:35:57.006 align:middle such donation drives, we were both concerned: so how would it look 00:35:57.006 --> 00:35:59.556 align:middle if we do this and nobody donates? 00:35:59.696 --> 00:36:03.736 align:middle And so, so in that way, I think that that's already quite cool. 00:36:03.736 --> 00:36:07.096 align:middle But yeah, if we want to be professional about this, 00:36:07.156 --> 00:36:09.996 align:middle then we will need some financial support here and there. 00:36:10.326 --> 00:36:13.026 align:middle So it's great if people can continue donating. 00:36:13.886 --> 00:36:17.416 align:middle And yeah, so there have been plenty of donations from companies. 00:36:17.746 --> 00:36:23.546 align:middle So SymfonyCasts, Liip donated, Symfony, Blackfire, JoliCode, SensioLabs, 00:36:23.786 --> 00:36:26.926 align:middle and so far they all donated, which is awesome. 00:36:27.276 --> 00:36:31.526 align:middle But I think what's even more awesome, we had a lot of people, individuals donating as well, 00:36:31.786 --> 00:36:35.976 align:middle including one person even donating $50 a month, which is great. 00:36:35.976 --> 00:36:39.316 align:middle Like I understand not everybody can afford it, but if you can, 00:36:39.386 --> 00:36:41.336 align:middle it's great, if you can consider donating. 00:36:41.746 --> 00:36:47.036 align:middle And again, as I mentioned before, let's meet at a 10 hour at the hackathon space on Saturday 00:36:47.316 --> 00:36:49.296 align:middle and see how we can move this forward. 00:36:49.296 --> 00:36:54.076 align:middle If somebody has to leave early, we can also try to see the Wifi here is pretty good, 00:36:54.076 --> 00:36:57.586 align:middle so we could also have a video conference for people that want to join remotely. 00:36:58.246 --> 00:37:11.136 align:middle Um, yeah. And with that, thank you for listening.