Women in Technology

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Article:		What Corporate Projects Should Learn from Open Source
Subject:		Meetings
Date:		2006-03-07 00:32:00
From:		schiffbruechige

While I agree that corporate projects can learn some things from open source ones, I think there is a big difference in how a lot of things are handled. For example, OSS project meetings are rarely (if ever) face to face ones, instead they are held on IRC channels, newsgroups, chats and mailing lists. The usage of this medium is precisely the reason why 13 year-olds and 70 year-olds alike can gain acceptance and respect for their contributions. (Ditto women!) They are known first through their efforts, and only later is it known who they are, if at all. In the real/corporate world, these people will be taken first at face value, and then for their knowledge, if they get that far. Large, long, face to face meetings held in the corporate world are less useful, one can't point people at websites, code, or explain code so easily. Internal IRC servers or similar, which employees can use to help each other while they work would be much more beneficial.