BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
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Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#2BritRuby announcement: http://2013.britruby.com/
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#3BritRuby announcement: http://2013.britruby.com/
This is definitely an interesting development. While I'm saddened to see a Ruby conference canceled with a full roster of qualified speakers, I'm happier to see the pendulum on this side of perfect balance than the alternative. This problem has clearer and more positive strategies than its opposite.
Edit: Whoa. I did more than 10 seconds of research and this situation is more fucked than I snap-judged. My heart goes out to the organizers. A very reasonable twitter debate was mistaken for scandal and outrage and shut down any chance of building a diverse and interesting conference. This was not the right time to take action.
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#4BritRuby announcement: http://2013.britruby.com/
This is definitely an interesting development. While I'm saddened to see a Ruby conference canceled with a full roster of qualified speakers, I'm happier to see the pendulum on this side of perfect balance than the alternative. This problem has clearer and more positive strategies than its opposite. Edit: Whoa. I did more than 10 seconds of research and this situation is more fucked than I snap-judged. My heart goes…
I sincerely don't believe cancelling was the right choice. There were 5 speaker slots left to be filled with a December deadline to fill those slots. Why not use the controversy to attract appropriately diverse speakers with interesting and relevant proposals?
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is definitely an interesting development. While I'm saddened to see a Ruby conference canceled with a full roster of qualified speakers, I'm happier to see the pendulum on this side of perfect balance than the alternative. This problem has clearer and more positive strategies than its opposite. Edit: Whoa. I did more than 10 seconds of research and this situation is more fucked than I snap-judged. My heart goes…
I sincerely don't believe cancelling was the right choice. There were 5 speaker slots left to be filled with a December deadline to fill those slots. Why not use the controversy to attract appropriately diverse speakers with interesting and relevant proposals?
Sponsors pulled out because of the controversy, the contract for the venue had to be signed and the organizers weren't sure they could find more sponsors to fullfil the financial obligations. There weren't many options left but to cancel.
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sincerely don't believe cancelling was the right choice. There were 5 speaker slots left to be filled with a December deadline to fill those slots. Why not use the controversy to attract appropriately diverse speakers with interesting and relevant proposals?
Sponsors pulled out because of the controversy, the contract for the venue had to be signed and the organizers weren't sure they could find more sponsors to fullfil the financial obligations. There weren't many options left but to cancel.
This is the bit that intrigues me. The organisation I work for were one of the primary sponsors for the event. We saw the controversy and simply assumed the BritRuby team could handle it. At no point did we threaten or even allude to the possibility of withdrawing our funding. To make matters worse, had we been aware that the event was at risk due to a lack of funds we could have considered stepping in and increasing our sponsorship. Unfortunately, the first we heard about the cancellation was via twitter.
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#7Why didn't they just keep the subject at Ruby?
People who are interested in Ruby would have come. Why does it matter what race or gender these people are?
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#8BritRuby announcement: http://2013.britruby.com/
This is definitely an interesting development. While I'm saddened to see a Ruby conference canceled with a full roster of qualified speakers, I'm happier to see the pendulum on this side of perfect balance than the alternative. This problem has clearer and more positive strategies than its opposite. Edit: Whoa. I did more than 10 seconds of research and this situation is more fucked than I snap-judged. My heart goes…
This shambles could only happen in Britain. Senior politicians get accused of being paedophiles by journalists with no evidence. Politicians routinely steal from public coffers, and don't even lose their place in Parliament (even though some were sent to prison). The country is awash with video surveillance, yet trying to get the police to respond to a crime report is like swimming upstream. A christian preacher who said "Homosexuals are deserving of the wrath of God – and so are all other sinners – and they are going to a place called hell" received a £1000 fine and a criminal conviction. Indian sikhs who criticise Indian muslims are accused of being racists.
Political correctness had taken hold in local government by the early 1980s. Practically every interaction with them requires you to tell them your race, gender and sexual preference.
The place is a mad-house.
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sincerely don't believe cancelling was the right choice. There were 5 speaker slots left to be filled with a December deadline to fill those slots. Why not use the controversy to attract appropriately diverse speakers with interesting and relevant proposals?
Sponsors pulled out because of the controversy, the contract for the venue had to be signed and the organizers weren't sure they could find more sponsors to fullfil the financial obligations. There weren't many options left but to cancel.
I'd really like to know exactly which sponsors pulled out because of this. Between the first tweet and the announcement of cancellation there seemed to be only 9 tweets of criticism: https://gist.github.com/4108671 .
Seems a bit rash.
Re: BritRuby cancelled due to a lack of racial and gender diversity
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sponsors pulled out because of the controversy, the contract for the venue had to be signed and the organizers weren't sure they could find more sponsors to fullfil the financial obligations. There weren't many options left but to cancel.
I'd really like to know exactly which sponsors pulled out because of this. Between the first tweet and the announcement of cancellation there seemed to be only 9 tweets of criticism: https://gist.github.com/4108671 . Seems a bit rash.
That makes two of us.
Two known sponsors: Globaldev (the company I work for) & OnTheBeach.co.uk
Globaldev's take on the situation: https://twitter.com/globaldev/status/270452743733379072
OnTheBeach's take: https://twitter.com/SwitchJam/status/270261834991407104