It has been two years since we made progress on diversity and inclusion initiatives at GNOME. During this time, Kristi, Aarti, Sri and the GUADEC organizing committees have continued to keep up with diversity workshops at GUADEC. We have had great diversity workshops and follow up ideas. Now, we need to translate key takeaways from workshops, talks, etc. into actionable steps and build quantifiable progress in our community. Part of those steps is to build outreach to people, organizations, conferences and events. For instance, GNOME community members are helping to drive diversity at other conferences like Linux App Summit.
Building DEI in our community and in our organization will be a key factor in growth, sustainability and fundraising for the GNOME Foundation and the GNOME Project.
We are kickstarting the diversity and inclusion initiative with the following goals:
Better outreach to under-represented minority communities.
Retain community members through improved onboarding and communications.
Better opportunities to attend events, conferences, and hackfests.
We have also put together some resources for anyone wanting to contribute to the diversity and inclusion initiative. This initiative will help those who participate build critical soft skills like communications, project management, and event planning. We will be happy to mentor any who wish to be part of this. All experience levels are welcome.
Do you have other resources or ideas that will help us make better progress? If so, please join the Matrix channel - #diversity-and-inclusion:gnome.org (You're invited to talk on Matrix). Please distribute and share! We will have regular meetings as part of this initiative that will be published on the GNOME Discourse Diversity and Inclusion channel.
Hi @Reginadata, this is exciting to see. Looking forward to what will come next.
I tried to join but it seems the room is invitation-only with the link above (see my error below). I tried searching for #diversity-and-inclusion:gnome.org but Matrix told me that the room does not exist. Is it possible for the room to be made public?
MatrixError: [403] You are not invited to this room. (https://fedora.ems.host/_matrix/client/r0/join/!gDYcfFnIBrAySOLnNn%3Agnome.org?server_name=gnome.org)
I used the ‘share’ button for the matrix channel. I’m still puzzled as to why it doesn’t work unless it’s going to a server you’re already logged into. I’ll have to figure that out.
Oh, this is awkward. I would swear when I wrote my reply, I didn’t see the messages from @bazylevnik0 before me. Anyways, I am having the same problem.
The room access should be set to public. It appears that the room is private or invite-only right now. Here is an example from the Fedora Project homeserver:
That works for me, I could join #diversity-and-inclusion:gnome.org by adding the room.
I note the room can’t be found in the GNOME Space so it’s not very discoverable. Not all clients support spaces but Element does and since I discovered it, this has been awesome for finding rooms.
Took a bit of playing, but I eventually got in… definitely not the easiest place to join. On the bright side, I guess I know how to join half-hidden matrix rooms now?
