I received a message from Rachel Chalmers, a good friend and a well-respected 451 Group Research Director. I think that her message is important and I’d like to pass it on to you.
Hi Dan,
Hope all is well with you and yours!
I wanted to ask a favor. I am on the board of The Ada Initiative (TAI), a nonprofit aimed at increasing the participation of women in open technology and culture. The principals are two heroes of mine, Val Aurora and Mary Gardiner, both computer scientists and Linux kernel hackers.
Right now we are fundraising so that Val and Mary can be paid for the work they do. It’s important that they earn a salary, because there’s a long, sad history of women volunteering to try to make open source culture less hostile to women, and burning out in about two years. It happened to another professional hero of mine, Kathy Sierra, and right now, it is happening to a close friend of mine, Kirrily Robert. She wrote a long and interesting post about it here:
http://infotrope.net/2011/06/08/please-donate-to-the-ada-initiatives-seed-100-campaign/
Right now, TAI is in the middle of our Seed 100 campaign. Donors can give $512 to be Difference Engineers, or $1024 to be Analytical Engineers. Various goodies are given at each level, and the Seed 100 will have their names listed on the Ada Initiative website in perpetuity. Details here:
http://adainitiative.org/support-us/seed-100-funders/
The response has been terrific so far, but the majority of donors have found us through blogs at Linux Weekly News and via Kirrily’s post, linked above.
I’d be grateful if you’d consider giving us a plug! I’m happy to tell you more about TAI myself, or to put you in touch with Val, Mary or Kirrily, all of whom you would like very much.
With very best wishes, as ever,
Rachel
If you are interested in helping, please click through one of those links.
