"Open source" or "free" software is a rapidly growing phenomenon, with communities around the world working together to develop software that may be freely copied, distributed, studied and improved. In contrast to the proprietary software model, equal opportunities are central to the free software movement, yet less than 5% of free software developers are female, while women account for up to 25% of proprietary software developers. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of free software development and discuss possible causes for this extreme gender imbalance. I will also describe the Debian Women project, a grassroots effort to encourage more women to participate in free software development.

Tuesday, November 22 , 2005

Wu & Chen Auditouium

101 levine hall

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.