01574nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245005000055210004700105260004200152520120200194100002001396856003601416       2009                        eng d  a1913-610200aAn International Look at Women in Open Source0 aInternational Look at Women in Open Source  aOttawabTalent First Networkc06/20093 aWhen attending conferences, working with various open source teams, and generally interacting with people in the open source world, we see women as a small representative minority. The disparity leaves us wondering: "How to activate the other 50% of the population?".

The question, "How do we include more women?" has been asked many times and answered in many ways. Cathy Malmrose, CEO of ZaReason, a Linux hardware company, stated, "possibly the most immediately effective solution is to showcase women internationally and their contributions. By simply talking about what women are doing all over the world, it creates an atmosphere of acceptance, encouraging more women to try contributing, no matter where they are located or what their situation is. Our goal is to normalize the experience of having women on open source projects". This issue of OSBR is a powerful effort to do just that.

This article provides a glance at women in open source internationally. It is by no means comprehensive and is based solely on a random sampling of women who are currently contributing. The goal of this article is to give you a sense of the breadth and depth of women contributing to open source.1 aMalmrose, Cathy  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/256