Hi BinaryDigit and Elizabeth,
Susana had mentioned that our IRC #ubuntu-women channel was unofficial but I had no idea since (being a creature of habit) I use email a lot more than the Forums. (I hope that changes soon :-)) Before Ubuntu I was involved in Debian-Women and LinuxChix (still am) and am sure that Ubuntu-Women will learn and benefit from those projects.
IMHO, volunteers (like us) are transient, so its our responsibility to create an independent community that survives in the future. Surely you will agree that it is much more beneficial for the Ubuntu-Women project to get recognition and support from Ubuntu/Canonical. Being choosy about the sub-projects they support, it took months and things fell into place only after the Asia Business Tour.
Lizzeh, thanks for redirecting your domain. BTW, she is helping me test the site and I am also rewriting some pages, especially on how to involve youself in new projects. There are very few women (atleast not openly visible) in the Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu projects. I have seen some women in the translation teams and LOCO teams but they are few. Maybe the UbuntuForums have a larger representation.
What do you think we should do to increase participation of women in the main Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu projects. There are many women who have done packaging or compiled kernels before so if they could write about that we can include that on our site. So please contribute your ideas/suggestions/articles and all efforts will be appreciated.
Btw, here Ubuntu Women is listed as a 3rd party project that is not sponsored by Canonical, Ubuntu or the Ubuntu Forums. That is confusing , since Canonical is supporting/hosting the Ubuntu-Women website and mailing lists and has recognised the IRC channel in the Community Council meeting. Can someone from the forums clarify this please !?
Thanks for reading !!