[Events] economic diversity

[Deb Nicholson]

> So: with all of OpenHatch's strengths, we are not going to be able to
> help much if someone is currently absolutely homeless and jobless, and
> does not have regular access to the web via a device with a real
> keyboard.  But we would still improve the economic diversity of our
> contributor base by reaching out to pink-collar women who have clerical
> jobs, and poor students at community colleges.
>
> We might do best to define a few opportunities and demographics that
> would be easy to start with -- like targeting community colleges for
> some OpenHatch Comes to Campus events.

I think these suggestions (especially community colleges) are very
doable; there's infrastructure and there are students who have already
self-selected as "I want to learn more things."

On the topic of reaching out to low-income teens: I visited Free Geek
in Portland a few years ago and they said they'd had trouble getting
teens from other (low-income) neighborhoods to come to them. On the
other hand, when Mairin and I partnered with an organization that was
already working with at-risk girls (our local Girl Scout chapter) we
saw good attendance. The classes were taught in a computer center
inside the housing project the girls lived in and Girl Scouts had
already identified girls who were interested in extra-curricular
educational activities. We gave the girls USB sticks that they kept at
the end of the course.

I think our most successful attempts to increase economic diversity
will involve partnerships with groups and institutions that already
have a relationship and a presence within the communities we want to
work with.
Cheers,
Deb

>
> I do agree that the questions "what hardware & software?" and "what
> would make this appealing to the demographics we're interested in?" and
> "but what if they can't practice at home?" would be pretty important to
> this kind of attempt.
>
> --
> Sumana Harihareswara
> Engineering Community Manager
> Wikimedia Foundation
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