W3C action/response to the BLM Movement

Dear Colleagues,


I hope everyone has been keeping well and safe during these times. I wanted to reach out to this group as I believe we need to do something to address the W3C’s lack of diversity and inclusion in 2020, a time where we see protests for the rights of black people take over not just the United States and Canada, but many other places as well.


The web is a platform for many great things, including the organizing for many of these protests and movements, but it is also where world leaders make threats and groups gather to profess hate. As an organization we’ve built specifications around the ideas of inclusivity, security, and privacy, but the faces in the rooms where these discussions are held still do not reflect the makeup of the world around us. Tech, and by extension the W3C, is notoriously male and white.


I notice that W3C has not yet made a public statement about their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and I wanted to come here because if/when that happens, the logical request will be for what actions is W3C intending to make to address our lack of diversity.


So I raise the question here first, because I think everyone here is of the mind that we should do something. I do think this should be a sentiment and action that comes from W3M, the AB, AC, and the members as a whole, but I hope we can come up with a starting point for everyone to build off of.


What should W3C do about the lack of diversity in our working groups and F2F meetings?

How can we as an organization support community members who are limited in participation by factors like economics, family situation, geography?

What actions should we take to recruit more members from diverse backgrounds and retain them once they are here?


I propose we have a call soon to discuss these matters, but I will leave that judgement to the chairs. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Wendy Reid
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