,

Introducing Corteza programmes

Corteza is actively fashioning itself as the Digital Work Platform for Humanity. That’s a big statement of intent, about as ambitious as it gets – and we’re not going to get there overnight. Our policy of social inclusion rolls out the welcome mat to anyone who can usefully contribute. However, this embrace of diversity must be accompanied by a co-ordinated long-term strategy in order to be effective. Good intentions alone are not sufficient to create real and lasting change.

To help us implement Corteza as the Digital Work Platform for Humanity, we’re in the process of creating a range of programmes, based around the platform, which structure its outreach, broaden its expertise base and inform its future design. The programmes categories are as follows: Read more

/0 Comments/by

Lack of diversity is a challenge worth fixing

I have to admit I feel uncomfortable exposing myself as a woman in tech. Yes, I’m a woman and I indeed work in IT. It appears completely natural to me and I don’t see myself working in any other field.

According to Women Who Tech, 25 % of IT of tech positions are filled by women (source) and out of them, only 11 % hold a leadership position. A 2018 Women in Tech Survey reports the top three challenges women in tech are still facing are not being taken seriously due to the gender perceptions (63%), having no female role models to look up to (42%) and the gender pay gap (39%). Read more

/0 Comments/by
,

Driving Diversity and Social Inclusion in the Open Source Corteza Project

With a university degree in Social Science, much of my early adult life was spent debating the equalities and inequalities of life with my fellow students. Admittedly, I wasn’t the student with the most erudite or succinct points of view (and probably never will be!), but one thing became crystal clear to me: While social inclusion can be the goal, it’s often useful to think of it as a discipline and responsibility to be constantly maintained and improved. Exclusion can be structural, but inclusion can be too.

When forming the board of directors of the Corteza project, we went out of our way to ensure that the board had a majority of women. We also recruited a proud member of the LGBT community. We set the bar high, with the criteria of prior proven leadership in their field being compulsory. In the end, we achieved our goal, something which is startlingly rare in open source projects – a board of directors not dominated by men.

However, let’s face it, though it’s a step in the right direction, this is still not a 100% socially diverse board. We have more work to do with regards to casting the net wider in our recruitment efforts. As Corteza attracts wider and wider audiences we intend to profit from this exposure and fulfill our responsibility.

Next on the agenda for the Corteza project is to recruit Chairs for our outreach programmes. These are roles which determine how the overall Corteza project meshes together from a strategic perspective and include the following categories:

  • Humanitarian
  • Ecological
  • Health
  • Locali(s)(z)ation
  • Accessibility
  • Commercial
  • Public Sector
  • Educational
  • Identity & Privacy
  • Compliance
  • Security
  • Digital Economy

Once again, we intend to drive diversity of representation among the programme Chairs and, once again, we will only recruit those who have proven credentials relevant to the specific programme in question. This is a voluntary role and the “give” is one hour of your advice per month to help determine a programme strategy and keep it on track.

If you think you or someone you know might fit the description, please don’t hesitate in reaching out to me here on LinkedIn or sign up to https://latest.cortezaproject.org and open a conversation with me there.

/0 Comments/by