Diversity Panel at Flock Krakow

There is something we all love, a good chat with friends, and that was the Diversity Panel at the Flock Krakow. In a really interesting panel filled with not only amazing people, but experienced, we discussed how can we improve our efforts into making everyone feel comfortable and encourage people to do what they like instead worrying about what people might think. I need to thank specially my Diversity Team, Justin, Amita, Jona, Bee and Silvia; who made possible for me to attend despite all the difficulties; I cannot express how grateful I am for all your effort! Now, lets get into topic: (sorry if I don’t put names next to the ideas, video wasn’t that good to identify you all).[cq_vc_materialcard title=”Listen” titlecolor=”#1e73be” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-comments-o”]It’s easy to get your head stuck on the latest package that needs to be built, on the last po that needs to be translated on those damn px that keep getting in your artwork; we should take a time to raise our heads and see the people that work with us. Our community is filled with tons of people with a set of skills that make the project grow every single day, yet, sometimes we consider this as a full-time job instead of a collaborative effort. At the moment when we stop listening to those new contributors who are in need of guidance, our numbers lower since we aren’t able to raise a new generation of “Us”.[/cq_vc_materialcard][cq_vc_materialcard title=”Spread” titlecolor=”#1e73be” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-bullhorn”]Feel proud of working with others instead just looking at your own rewards. The community IS your family, and we should treat it like one. We won’t be able to include more people into our lines unless we speak about it, feel proud about it and let the rest of the world that we DO like it. It’s easy to forget that we all started as newbies asking dumb questions, it’s easier to forget that it’s US who have the responsibility to make everyone feel that there’s a task for everyone in our community. It’s time to spread that we DO feel proud of our friends and our project. One great idea is to have Diversity people working on each Team to make everyone included. It’s no secret that we have more knowledge of the people that are inside the teams we participate and not necessary know everyone in the project… it’s a large project. Having a diversity member on each team will reduce the gap between us and people who might need our help.[/cq_vc_materialcard][cq_vc_materialcard title=”Encourage” titlecolor=”#1e73be” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-bicycle”]Our process I believe are inclusive, if not, most of us wouldn’t be here right now, however, I do feel that we have a weakness in our assets. One of our weaknesses is that most of us just stuck our heads on what we do, and don’t take a moment to see our surroundings. There is a TON of people who’s willing to contribute, however, we should ALL work as mentors (no matter if that adds a +1 karma to your logs). With so many badges, statistics and such, we have somehow forget why we are here at the community, and that’s not only to do fantastic things, but also to have fun. Once we understand that our number of happy contributors are as important (or more) than our number of badges or our numbers at the track, we will be able to create a healthier and more welcoming community.[/cq_vc_materialcard][cq_vc_materialcard title=”Support” titlecolor=”#1e73be” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-child”]It’s no secret that some people feel uncomfortable and that some people enjoy that, there is a troll and a bullie everywhere. We need to create a support net that can help people to feel protected and secure, and also to teach people how to deal with it. We must not build a wall around our people, but to teach them how to forge some tools to prepare them to fight back any attack. I believe that we can be an instrument to teach people how to live happily in this world.[/cq_vc_materialcard]I would like to thank Matthew, Christoph, Marina, Laura, Kohane, Kushal and everyone who I didn’t recognize the voices that were there giving their inputs; this shows that there is a true interest into building a better community for our users, not just build better software.