Episode 160: Andy Piper, Ana Meta Dolinar & Gemma Penson at State of Open Con 2023

Guest Andy Piper | Ana Meta Dolinar | Gemma Penson Panelist Richard
Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where
we talk about sustaining open source for the long haul. Richard is
at the State of Open Con 2023 UK in London, and he’s excited to
have his first ever in-person podcasts. Today, he has three guests
joining him. His first guest is Andy Piper, who volunteered to come
here and represent the Open Source Initiative. We’ll hear more
about he’s helping the OSI today, what changes he has seen with the
OSI over the past decade, and his thoughts on the Cyber Resilience
Act. His next two guests are Ana Meta Dolinar and Gemma Penson, who
are both University students in Cambridge. They had a stall
upstairs at the event for Women@CL, which is the initiative
promoting inclusivity and community of women who do computer
science, either as students or researchers at Cambridge. Today,
we’ll learn all about the Women @CL, how they’re helping to fix the
huge gender imbalance when it comes to open source and computer
science, and their thoughts on the “leaky pipeline” metaphor.
Download this episode now to hear much more! [00:00:46] Andy tells
us why he’s at the State of Open Con helping the OSI. [00:04:01] We
hear Andy’s perspective on how you can benefit from the OSD by
being an enthusiast and what it gives you by having the OSD there.
[00:06:25] We learn what Andy is currently doing with open source
and being a member of the Python Software Foundation. [00:09:44]
Since Andy’s been a member for over ten years, he tells us what he
has seen that has changed significantly in the past decade with the
OSI. [00:11:26] Andy shares his first experience at FOSDEM 2023.
[00:12:59] What are Andy’s thoughts on the Cyber Resilience Act? He
also mentions a website and blog to check out by Simon Phipps.
[00:15:41] Find out where you can follow Andy and the OSI on the
web. [00:17:56] There is a huge gender imbalance when it comes to
open source and computer science, and Ana and Gemma share the
statistics with us as well as what activities they do to help fix
that imbalance. [00:19:14] Ana explains more about the Oxford Women
in Computing Society. She mentions lobbying and explains how it
requires a lot of background work. [00:21:20] We hear more about
the Oxbridge Women in Computer Science Conference that takes place
April 2023. [00:24:45] Tech has a higher representation of neuro
divergent participants, and Ana and Gemma talk about how visible
this population is at universities and in computer science programs
and how supportive the university is. [00:27:19] We hear Gemma and
Ana’s thoughts on the “leaky pipeline” metaphor and why it may or
may not work. [00:32:00] The last question is on the topic of
governance and how they plan to keep the program existing and
onboard new women to this important cause. They tell us about the
initiative at Cambridge, and a Big Sister, Little Sister program
they have. [00:35:28] Ana and Gemma explain the mentorship from the
graduate school, postgraduates, assistant lecturers, etc.
[00:36:25] If you’re a company that wants to sponsor Women in CL,
find out where you can reach out to them and where to get in touch
with Ana and Gemma on the web. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) Richard
Littauer Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Andy Piper Website (https://andypiper.me/) Andy Piper Mastodon
(https://mastodon.social/@andypiper) Open Source Initiative
(https://opensource.org/) Cyber Resilience Act
(https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act)
The ultimate list of reactions to the Cyber Resilience Act by Simon
Phipps (Voices of Open Source)
(https://blog.opensource.org/the-ultimate-list-of-reactions-to-the-cyber-resilience-act/)
Ana Meta Dolinar email (mailto:amd219@cam.ac.uk) Gemma Penson email
(mailto:gp500@cam.ac.uk) Women@CL-Department of Computer Science
and Technology-University of Cambridge
(https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/women) Women@CL Twitter
(https://twitter.com/womencl1?lang=en) Women@CL Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/womenatCL/) Women @CL Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/womenatcl.cambridge/) Oxford Women in
Computing Society (https://www.oxwocs.com/) Oxbridge Women in
Computer Science Conference (https://www.oxbridge2023.com/) Credits
Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by
Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guests: Ana Meta Dolinar,
Andy Piper, and Gemma Penson.