OStatic

The topic of the difficulties women face in the open source community comes up often. Here at OStatic we've discussed everything from the gender bias and harassment some women say they face, to highlighting the projects that are helping change the way females experience the developer community.

A new project has gotten underway recently that aims to foster a healthy and respectful environment between female PHP developers and the PHP community. PHPWomen has teamed up in a partnership program with six open source projects that it feels represents the best the community has to offer in terms of an open, respectful, and friendly community.

As you can imagine, I've read plenty of articles over the years about the good, the bad, and the ugly of women in tech. Everyone has a theory on why it's easier or harder for us these days, and virtually every woman I know who is even tangentially associated with the tech industry has at least one hair-raising story to tell. Just when I thought there was nothing new under the sun about this topic,?Linux Magazine's Rikki Kite came along with an insightful look at why women might be their own worst enemy when it come to getting ahead in their tech careers.?

The seventh annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) is scheduled to get underway early next month, along with a few co-hosted mini-conferences that address issues surroundingwomen in open source (WIOS) and FOSS health care solutions.

I caught up with one of the event's organizers, Gareth Greenaway, to find get the inside scoop on what's new, what's different, and what they've learned from past events.

The Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) is one of the most heavily attended open source events held each year. Slated to begin February 20, 2009, SCALE will once again host the annual Women in Open Source Conference (WIOS), a one-day event where women in the open source industry have the chance to showcase their work, share accomplishments, and brainstorm ideas.