Improving diversity at XML Prague

thoughts.md

Improving diversity at XML Prague

XML Prague is an awesome conference, very well organised and with great talks… but there's one point were it could do better: having a more diverse speaker line up.
For instance in 2017, for the 2nd year in a row, all the speakers of the main track where (white) males. Diversity is not only about having more women presenters, although that would be a good start.

This documents intends to present some thoughts and suggestions for improving the issue. Comments and commits welcome!
(disclaimer: I don't claim to have all the right answers, nor to say that it's an easy endeavor. If you feel this document is useless or otherwise wrong, please comment!)

We can surely do it!

First, let's start with the positive sides, which show that there's good hope the situation can be improved:

• it seems that the number of female attendees was higher in 2017 than in the previous years, which would be a good sign (about 30 women attendees + 4 in the staff)
• most people in the XML community are smart, gentle, and considerate human beings; the issue is obviously not one of intentional exclusion.
• organisers are very nice, welcoming, and thoughtful people, and explicitly asked for advice on how to improve the situation.

Suggestions wrt the speaker line-up

• XML Prague should adopt a formal policy on diversity, adopt a Code of Conduct, and explicitly link to it from all the pages on the web site. This would be a good signal that the conference is welcoming to all.
• XML Prague organisers should work towards reaching out to minorities when the CfP is announced:
  • by explicitly acknowledging (on the web site and Twitter) that they'd like to improve the diversity of the speaker line-up
  • by reaching out to well-known potential speakers and inviting them to submit (like Jirka recently did on Twitter with Debbie, Beth, Magda, but it should be re-done when the 2018 CfP is announced)
  • by asking the community to spread the word and suggest name of speakers from underrepresented groups
• There could be a number of slots reserved to first-time speakers, to encourage newcomers (or people affected by the impostor syndrome, which is known to affect minorities more than other populations).
• Topics could be more extensively described (e.g. with subtopics, details or examples), to encourage people who would think their ideas are not a good fit (submitted by @franziiska)
• There may be a policy to prevent one person to speak more than once
• The program committee could be updated to present a more diverse group (it currently consists of 16 people including 14 males)
• Propose short talks (~20 mins), especially for first-time speakers (submitted by @Robbert)
• Make it crystal clear that speakers don't have to pay the conference fee. Possibly, provide some estimates and cover part of the travel costs for low-income speakers (submitted by @Robbert)

Suggestions wrt the attendance

Diversity is not only about women. We also want to be inclusive to people from any minority, which may include people who are actually not meat-eating, alcohol-drinking males.

• Provide a list of suggested vegetarian restaurants (or with decent vegetarian options)
• Provide a list of suggested non-smoking restaurants and/or bars
• Advertise alternative options to beer
  • I guess beer jokes are fine, but they can also be the opportunity to remind people there are alternative options!
  • Ensure that a variety of soft drinks are available at the social dinner (might be the case already, hum, the author of these words doesn't know… but for instance an alternative to the welcoming liquor shot?)
• Ask for sponsors to provide a scholarship targeted at people from underrepresented groups (something like le-tex's student sponsorship, but extended to other sponsors and/or targeted to minorities?)

Useful Pointers

• Increasing Diversity at Your Conference, by Ashe Dryden, contains an awesome list of ideas.
• O’Reilly Conference Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program

@Robbert thanks for the suggestions!

20 minute talks would also be helpful, especially for first-time speakers.

Added.

Ask speakers if they would be comfortable with a public Q&A or prefer to answer questions informally. Ask them again right before the talk.

What do you mean? Make post-presentation Q&A optional? It sounds like a fundamental part of any talk to me, I don't think removing it would be a good idea? Maybe I'm missing the point.

Inform speakers proactively about covering expenses.

Added.

Is writing a paper really necessary?

This is controversial, and has been raised earlier on Twitter. Some people said that proceedings were very helpful to them, even more than talks (especially for remote attendees). I concur that writing a paper is a hurdle or at least a chore to some of us (myself included), but I can't see how to make that optional and still get useful proceedings for those who like them.

I know of only three people who read my XML Prague paper

make it 4, I for one very much enjoyed reading your paper :-)

Hi all, thanks for valuable comments.

For 2018 we will provide shorter speaking slots and also very short slots (5 minutes) for ignite talks. Hopefully this will motivate more people to actively attend and present something as entrance barrier will be much lower. Also full paper for proceedings will not be required, but probably only speakers providing full paper will get free pass, others just some discount. It's about money -- as you know we try to make conference affordable (try to compare XML Prague fees with any other conference) so we are limited in number of people we can let in for free. It's same with sponsoring expenses for speakers/attendees -- unless sponsors will cover it there is not much space -- but both LeTeX and AH did this.

What I disagree with is having CoC and formal diversity policy. We are not discriminating anyone, we tried and now trying even more to encourage anyone to submit and present. In past 12 years I'm not aware of any case of offensive behaviour during the conference (I'm not counting few bitter comments about Javascript and JSON here ;-). I don't think we should start regulating something what is well working now.

Regarding to non-bacon/non-beer minorities -- there were vegetarian meals and non-alcoholic drinks available both for lunches and social event.

@rdeltour How about getting sponsors to put together a small fund, to sponsor speakers/attendees from minority groups that otherwise may not attend due to costs?

For 2018 we will provide shorter speaking slots and also very short slots (5 minutes) for ignite talks. Hopefully this will motivate more people to actively attend and present something as entrance barrier will be much lower.

Cool!

What I disagree with is having CoC and formal diversity policy. We are not discriminating anyone, we tried and now trying even more to encourage anyone to submit and present. In past 12 years I'm not aware of any case of offensive behaviour during the conference (I'm not counting few bitter comments about Javascript and JSON here ;-). I don't think we should start regulating something what is well working now.

I think a CoC really helps to communicate that the conf is welcoming to a diverse audience. It may be clear to you and everyone of us who already attended, but if I was a first-time attendee or speaker, I wouldn't know the 12-year history of XML Prague. A CoC can be reassuring. It can also be used as a preventive measure.

Regarding to non-bacon/non-beer minorities -- there were vegetarian meals and non-alcoholic drinks available both for lunches and social event.

👍

@rdeltour How about getting sponsors to put together a small fund, to sponsor speakers/attendees from minority groups that otherwise may not attend due to costs?

👍 (that was already in the suggestions). I think le-tex is doing a great job already with their student scholarship. We should try to get other sponsors to do the same, or join a shared fund?