Case Study: Gaining Diverse Community Insights (Mozilla)

[emmairwin]

Best practices, standards, recommendations, quotes evolved from 3 months of Diversity & Inclusion research in Mozilla's communities.

Summary from existing sources (blog posts below, with 2 more still on their way) https://medium.com/mozilla-open-innovation

I also have a workshop 'Imposter Syndrome in Open Source' (but warning it challenges the idea of meritocracy, which I see another chapter seems to recommend.

[semioticrobotic]

This is lovely, @emmairwin. We'd be delighted to see a draft of this chapter/case study for the book. In general and wherever possible, case studies should cover:

• The problem/issue the organization experienced
• The solution, based on open principle(s), that the organization implemented
• The outcomes or results of this implementation

You and I can riff on that structure, too, to help your specific vision take shape.

As for the workshop: Yes, we would be interested in seeing that, too! "Meritocracy" is a pervasive notion in open source, but it's far from being a universally accepted one.

[emmairwin]

What would the deadline be? (sorry if I missed)

On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 9:09 AM, Bryan Behrenshausen < notifications@github.com> wrote:

This is lovely, @emmairwin https://github.com/emmairwin. We'd be delighted to see a draft of this chapter/case study for the book. In general and wherever possible, case studies should cover:

• The problem/issue the organization experienced
• The solution, based on open principle(s), that the organization implemented
• The outcomes or results of this implementation

You and I can riff on that structure, too, to help your specific vision take shape.

As for the workshop: Yes, we would be interested in seeing that, too! "Meritocracy" is a pervasive notion https://opensource.com/open-organization/17/2/what-we-think-we-know-about-meritocracies in open source, but it's far from being a universally accepted one.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/open-organization-ambassadors/open-org-workbook/issues/1#issuecomment-322041265, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AADsys-bQyEB2vTvYujuM7566J1VUdulks5sXvWHgaJpZM4O1UHj .

-- -- Emma Irwin

[emmairwin]

we're also at research / hypothesis and experiment phase vrs - problem, solution, outcomes as you request. for D&I I feel we in the open are truly in an innovative stage , and not ready to speak absolutely. Interested if this still feels a good fit.

On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 7:58 PM, Emma Irwin emma.irwin@gmail.com wrote:

What would the deadline be? (sorry if I missed)

On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 9:09 AM, Bryan Behrenshausen < notifications@github.com> wrote:

This is lovely, @emmairwin https://github.com/emmairwin. We'd be delighted to see a draft of this chapter/case study for the book. In general and wherever possible, case studies should cover:

• The problem/issue the organization experienced
• The solution, based on open principle(s), that the organization implemented
• The outcomes or results of this implementation

You and I can riff on that structure, too, to help your specific vision take shape.

As for the workshop: Yes, we would be interested in seeing that, too! "Meritocracy" is a pervasive notion https://opensource.com/open-organization/17/2/what-we-think-we-know-about-meritocracies in open source, but it's far from being a universally accepted one.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/open-organization-ambassadors/open-org-workbook/issues/1#issuecomment-322041265, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AADsys-bQyEB2vTvYujuM7566J1VUdulks5sXvWHgaJpZM4O1UHj .

-- -- Emma Irwin

-- -- Emma Irwin

[semioticrobotic]

Thanks, @emmairwin. It may still be. Even though we are indeed looking for case studies from organizations that have completed certain initiatives, perhaps there's a story here about designing the assessment tool or interview protocol itself. How did you produce it and determine the object of your analysis? Was that initiative community-focused, etc.?

[emmairwin]

Perhaps framing might be "diverse methods for conducting research in open communities".

Roughly:

Problem: To generate a strategy for diversity & inclusion in Mozilla's communities, we need to understand what we mean by diversity & inclusion - in global context, across languages, gender identity, cultural identity, legal and many dimensions we are simply not aware of.

The solution, based on open principle(s), that the organization implemented

• Qualitative Methods (interviews, focus groups - in person, focus groups via text-chat, in person, in video, in person/video in native language)
• Quantitative Methods - creating a baseline - evaluating data sources for D&I insights.

The outcomes or results of this implementation

• things we learned (i.e. text chat isn't only for low bandwidth, introverts and non-English speakers also chose this option).
• Playbook for generating diverse insights into your open community
• Metrics that matter - standards & best practices for building effective base lines and evaluation of d&I in your community (wip)

The strategy resulting from this research comes out towards the end of September. If this feels valuable I can propose a draft, but also if it doesn't feel complete enough that's fine as well - and will keep in mind for future.

[semioticrobotic]

This is great, @emmairwin! Spectacular. Having this in the book would be lovely. Assuming you are the author, I will make sure our working table of contents is up to date. Please send a draft whenever you have one.

Thanks!

[yevster]

An idea for an exercise under this chapter: a Bias Defense Checklist when evaluating contributions.

The idea would be to enumerate a number of known biases that an evaluator might have prior to considering a contribution (e.g. a project administrator evaluating a PR or even assigning a priority to an issue). For each item, the reader would write +1 if the item is likely to bias him/her in favor of the contributor, -1 if the item is likely to bias him against the contributor, 0 if no bias is likely.

For instance:

• Has this contributor ever helped or done even a small favor for you? (+1 if yes, 0 if no). [Bias: reciprocity]
• Have you ever helped out or done even a small favor for this contributor? (+1 if yes, 0 if no) _[Bias: "Foot in the door"]_
• Is this person good looking? (+1 if yes, -1 if no, 0 if unknown). _[Bias: Halo Effect]_
• Is the person of the same or similar gender, age, and/or race as you? (+1 if yes, 0 if no) _[Bias: Similarity Heuristic]_
• Is the person male? (+1 if yes, 0 if no) [Bias: Cultural image of the successful contributor]
• Have you previously expressed an opinion on the value of the contribution or the skill of the contributor? (+1 if prior opinion was positive, -1 if prior opinion was negative, 0 if no prior expressed opinion) _[Bias: commitment/cognitive dissonance avoidance]_

Etc. Obviously, there's not a lot of rigor in knowing the relative strengths of one bias compared to another. The goal is not so much to compute a net result, as to be reminded of biasing factors prior to evaluating a contribution.

[semioticrobotic]

Love the idea of a Bias Defense Checklist, @yevster, and would like to see more. One question:

The idea would be to enumerate a number of known biases that an evaluator might have prior to considering a contribution (e.g. a project administrator evaluating a PR or even assigning a priority to an issue). For each item, the reader would write +1 if the item is likely to bias him/her in favor of the contributor, -1 if the item is likely to bias him against the contributor, 0 if no bias is likely.

Do you think there's a way to "abstract" the exercise outside the context of software development/code contribution? I ask because ideally the handbook should be useful to all kinds of organizations.

[yevster]

Yes, of course! Sorry, I seem to have a "developer bias" where I associate "open" with "open source". But when I say "evaluating a contribution", I do mean a contirbution in any domain from any member of an organization or community.

[semioticrobotic]

Fantastic, @yevster. Thanks for considering that feedback and direction. I will add you to the book's working table of contents! Expect to see a code push soon.

[semioticrobotic]

We've crossed our first milestone, @emmairwin and @yevster! That means we're now moving onto the writing stage of the project. Please feel free to drop me a line (here, email—whatever works) with your questions, comments, and concerns as you go along. You can also send a note to bbehrens@redhat.com if you'd like me to add you to the author email list. Thanks, and happy writing!