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GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

amasad.me

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Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#61

Post by willbw »

underwater wrote: post #60
onion2k wrote: post #10

The point people are making about using GitHub profiles for hiring is that it ignores great developers who don't write code outside of their job (that might be due to other interests, family responsibilities, a second job, whatever). The fact this guy is in a position to write code in his spare time just means he's not in that group, and the fact his open source work on Github specifically landed him a job he wanted…

I don’t code much in my spare time. I have kids and a busy home life, but really it doesn’t take long to build up a portfolio of work that is representative of your skills. Sharing my work got me, as an Aussie working mediocre jobs, on the right person’s radar to help me land a job at Facebook. This shaved probably 10 years off my career path. That was a great return on investment and a big leveller for someone who d…

As an Aussie with a similar background - what sort of work were you sharing that got you on someone's radar? Your own projects or contributions to someone else's?

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#62

Post by albertgoeswoof »

josteink wrote: post #57
albertgoeswoof wrote: post #2

The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Eg if you have a family, long commute etc. And if they already are an excellent programmer and hitting all expectations, why should they do this? In fact, an employee who’s spending 5-6 hours/day on side projects mi…

> The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Like most people I know, I use open source software in my day-to-day job even though I work in a company who provides proprietary software and services. That means that when I do encounter errors or bugs in those…

That’s often not your choice, your employer needs to give you the time and in some cases permission to do it.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#63

Post by brett40324 »

smonff wrote: post #55

Also, what about Stack Exchange profiles?

IMO as someone who has been on stack exchange for a long time, while barely posting anything, ever. I would loathe feeling the need to have an active history of participation to boost my employment opportunities. At the same time, someone with a lot of good answers in their field should definitely include their profile in a job application.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#64

Post by onion2k »

amelius wrote: post #56
vezycash wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a good way to end the debate on Github profiles is this: Github profiles are advertisement for programmers. Advertising requires resources - time, money, creativity and commitment and not every business is ready to pay to price. Sometimes advertising pays off, some times it doesn't. No police arrests a business owner for not advertising. Same with github profiles. Decide to have one, contribute a little, much…

Designers have portfolios. Would you do them away as "advertisements" as well? They are much more than that, e.g. they show the skills of the designer.

A lot of designers don't have portfolios.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#65

Post by rectang »

sintaxi wrote: post #33
onion2k wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying that being in a position to have spare time to work on open source is a sign of privilege, and that employers should recognize that when they're hiring. Some great developers work on open source projects, but equally some great developers don't. Open source contributions are not a useful filter.

> I'm saying that being in a position to have spare time to work on open source is a sign of privilege That is an assumption made without evidence. An equally qualified assumption would be that its a sign of privilege to not need to contribute to open source. You get an awesome education and go straight into well paying entry level position. Committing to open source is not something casually done at ones leisure. An…

People who have the time to contribute to open source possess a privilege when compared people who do not have the time. It may also be the case that there are other privileges at work, and that if you have two people they both have privileges over each other in different ways.

I think it's better to consider privilege as multifaceted rather than a single global quantity. And in that case, I don't see such a strong disagreement between you and the comment you're replying to.

I very much agree with your second paragraph.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#66

Post by josteink »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #62
josteink wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Like most people I know, I use open source software in my day-to-day job even though I work in a company who provides proprietary software and services. That means that when I do encounter errors or bugs in those…

That’s often not your choice, your employer needs to give you the time and in some cases permission to do it.

If your company allows you to use buggy components but doesn’t allow you to fix bugs...

Then that’s a company with some pretty serious problems, and it’s going to show in all of their products. If you as a developer decides to stay in that company then that will also reflect on you.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#67

Post by rectang »

golergka wrote: post #49
rectang wrote: post #47

It is unavoidable that privilege affects who contributes to open source and how much. Whether or not this is bad is a philosophical issue: is it bad that life is unfair? The harm comes when people deny the existence of privilege and other forms of luck, and attribute success to their own moral superiority and the moral inferiority of others.

Fairness and morals in general are leaky abstractions that only apply to a subset of all possible situations. The most "fair" system can't survive a single generation of you allow parents to invest their resources in competitive advantage for their children – which is one of the most basic human desires.

The pull towards corrupt aristocracy is strong all right! But it's worth resisting.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#68

Post by tziki »

detaro wrote: post #58
tziki wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The acceptance rate of both men and women dropped if they were identifiable as men or women. The study doesn't make any attempts to explain this.

Yes, and the one of women drops below the one of men, and that's clearly what the initial reference to the paper was talking about.

But only in the case of 'outsiders'. In the case of 'insiders' the acceptance rate of men drops more than that of women when their gender is known (no p-value provided so hard to tell if statistically significant).

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#69

Post by albertgoeswoof »

josteink wrote: post #66
albertgoeswoof wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s often not your choice, your employer needs to give you the time and in some cases permission to do it.

If your company allows you to use buggy components but doesn’t allow you to fix bugs... Then that’s a company with some pretty serious problems, and it’s going to show in all of their products. If you as a developer decides to stay in that company then that will also reflect on you.

Oh right yes I’ll just quit my job and not pay my mortgage so I can work for a company that has great values.

Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged

#70

Post by miki123211 »

amasad wrote: post #40
gaius wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when you're young you frankly don't need a whole lot of sleep So, you are perpetuating ageism then. Let’s see how cocky you are in 10, 20, 30 years when you can’t get a job because of all the bloggers crowing about their Github profiles...

Since I'm talking about programming I'm also perpetuating ableism because you need to have functioning hands and eyes. I'm also perpetuating alivism because you need to be not dead.

not exactly true. See https://www.parhamdoustdar.com/2016/04/12/advantages-of-bein... or https://www.vincit.fi/en/blog/software-development-450-words...
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