DevConf.US 2021

Although open source strives to bring people together with varying backgrounds and experiences, it can be hard to break into this space, especially for underrepresented groups in technology. For example, women make up more than 51% of the US workforce, more than 20% of the technology workforce, and less than 2-3% of the open source software (OSS) community.[1] And of course, these statistics only reflect one of many types of diversity. Unless we actively champion the cause to make the OSS community a more inclusive space where people feel safe to offer diverse perspectives, we will not realize the full potential of working the open source way. In this presentation, Kate Carcia and Arnaldo de Melo discuss their experiences helping others to break into the OSS community and why it matters. Kate discusses her perspectives as a manager on diversifying hiring practices and supporting engineers working on the upstream Linux kernel. Arnaldo shares his experiences as a technical mentor to engineers seeking to contribute to the upstream Linux kernel, where he currently serves as the maintainer for the perf subsystem. Attendees leaving this presentation, whether in a manager or individual contributor role, will understand the impact they can have in creating a more welcoming space in the OSS community and how doing so can lead to better outcomes for the community itself and end-users consuming the software we build together. [1] https://events.linuxfoundation.org/mentorship-session-diversity-in-open-source-software/