Re: W3C action/response to the BLM Movement

Thanks Wendy, and Dan for the original suggestion of reallocating the
diversity fund.

We haven't got a fund at the moment because the pandemic sort of got in
the way of fund raising. There's nothing to stop us fund raising now
though of course.

In addition to fund raising, I wonder if some of our larger members
might be willing to offer support in the form of hardware and/or software?

Other ideas for actions:

A while back we talked about holding "open office hours" where people
from groups under-represented at W3c could talk with volunteers to learn
more about the W3C and how/where they might want to participate. I'll go
back and find the original discussion and see where we got to with it.

We could launch a review of W3C documentation and policies, and ask the
W3C team to do the same internally, to look for instances where the
words and phrases used could be changed to be more diversity friendly.
For example, changing whitelist and blacklist to safelist and blockedlist.


We could put together a short guide on language and forms of address, or
a curated list of resources created by other people/organisations. For
example, I'm often asked if it's ok for someone to refer to me as a
"blind person", whether to say "person with a disability" or "disabled
person" and so on. These language nuances apply to all forms of
diversity of course.

We could put together some recommendations for Advisory Committee (AC)
representatives, to encourage them to think about diversity when they
nominate people from their organisation to participate at the W3C.








Léonie.

On 05/06/2020 20:21, Reid, Wendy wrote:
> I definitely want to lead with action, but if we don't make a statement, no one will know what action we intend to take, and if we make a statement with no planned actions, it is a toothless one (bit of a catch-22 I admit!). 
> 
> I love the idea of reallocating the scholarship fund to supporting invited experts. Something along the lines of providing funds to people for expenses that would make participation easier for TPAC and possibly long-term would be an interesting approach. I think if we covered things like short term childcare so people can fully participate in TPAC, equipment (do they need a webcam, microphone, headset?), offsetting the costs of attending a meeting for several days if they're an independent contractor, or other incidentals might make an impact. 
> 
> I'm going to spend the weekend thinking of other actions, I encourage everyone to do so as well! 
> 
> -Wendy 
> 
> On 2020-06-05, 12:27 PM, "Daniel Appelquist" <dan@torgo.com> wrote:
> 
>     I'm in the UK and I'd like to participate if possible.
> 
>     FWIW I agree with Chaals regarding actions speaking stronger than words.  The update to the CEPC is one action that I believe will play a positive role.  In addition to that, considering that TPAC is going to be virtual, could we repurpose the money that member organisations may have been allocating for a TPAC diversity scholarship fund into some kind of fund to support "invited experts" engineers from marginalised communities in w3c working groups?
> 
>     Dan
> 
>     ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>     On Friday, 5 June 2020 15:33, Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org> wrote:
> 
>     > I am in Eastern as well.
>     > 
> 
>     > On 6/5/2020 9:49 AM, Reid, Wendy wrote:
>     > 
> 
>     > > I'm in the eastern time zone as well!
>     > > On 2020-06-05, 9:34 AM, "Siegman, Tzviya" tsiegman@wiley.com wrote:
>     > > 
> 
>     > >      Thanks for starting the discussion, Wendy.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      I am in US Eastern time.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      Tzviya Siegman
>     > >      Information Standards Lead
>     > >      Wiley
>     > >      201-748-6884
>     > >      tsiegman@wiley.com
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      -----Original Message-----
>     > >      From: Léonie Watson <lwatson@tetralogical.com>
>     > >      Sent: Friday, June 5, 2020 3:20 AM
>     > >      To: Reid, Wendy <wendy.reid@rakuten.com>; public-idcg@w3.org
>     > >      Subject: Re: W3C action/response to the BLM Movement
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      ⛔       This is an external email.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      Thank you for raising this Wendy.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      I agree that we should take this opportunity to build on the progress we've made by establishing this CG and the diversity fund, and what the PWE CG has done with the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (CEPC), because there is so much more we could do.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      A call would be a good place to share ideas and suggestions, and of course this thread too.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      Scheduling calls is often an interesting challenge when the participants come from many different places. As a first step could I ask anyone who would be interested in attending a call to let me know which time zone you are in? Email me at lwatson@tetralogical.com if you do not want to share that information on this thread.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      If you could do that by the end of your day on Tuesday 9 June), I will then try to find some meeting times that could work and put together a Doodle poll so we can decide.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      The W3C has changed to using Zoom for conference calls. If anyone has access or other needs that means we need to adapt the way we use Zoom, or even find another platform if we need to, please let me know - and again, you are welcome to email me directly.
>     > >     
> 
>     > >     
> 
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      Léonie.
>     > >      On 05/06/2020 00:03, Reid, Wendy wrote:
>     > >      > 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
>     > >      > Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>     > >     
> 
>     > >      --
>     > >      Director @TetraLogical
>     > >
> 
> 

-- 
Director @TetraLogical

Received on Saturday, 6 June 2020 12:33:40 UTC