[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:02.20,0:00:06.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,♫ dubstep music playing ♫
Dialogue: 0,0:00:35.25,0:00:39.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This was in the pale dublight \Nby Sumana Harihareswara.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.81,0:00:42.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Welcome to Passionate Voices, \Nwelcome Sumana!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.96,0:00:45.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Hi there, Erik!\NHow's it going today?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.93,0:00:47.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Good, how are you?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:47.14,0:00:49.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm good! It's good to see you!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.71,0:00:51.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Good to see you too!
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.36,0:00:52.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, for our viewers, \Na quick summary:
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.02,0:00:57.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sumana is a technology manager,\Na writer, a coder, a community organizer.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.48,0:01:01.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Born in New Jersey, moved\Nthrough Pennsylvania, Missouri,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.18,0:01:06.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,northern California, before coming to\NNew York, and also has been involved
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.36,0:01:10.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in open source for a long time.\NSumana, what is your passion?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.52,0:01:13.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would say I have two main passions.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.04,0:01:18.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One of them is making people laugh.\NThrough stand-up comedy, through
Dialogue: 0,0:01:18.79,0:01:24.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,extremely silly web apps, my writing\Nand things like that.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.46,0:01:27.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The fanvid that you just saw, for \Ninstance.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.56,0:01:33.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But the other passion, the one that I\Nspend more time, and certainly have been
Dialogue: 0,0:01:33.32,0:01:37.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,spending a lot of my career on, is, I\Nreally care a lot about empowering people,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:37.60,0:01:43.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,especially marginalized and especially\Nunderprivileged peope, using technology.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And sometimes that means\Nworking on technology that does that
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,empowering, such as MediaWiki,\Nthe software behind Wikipedia.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sometimes it means teaching people\Nhow to be better users of technology
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,through making or leading trainings and\Ntutoring people, mentoring people, and so on.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And sometimes it means helping get \Nlots of different diverse people into
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the world of making technology,\Nso we can all empower ourselves.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, for instance I've been involved in\Na lot of diversity efforts on different
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,scales and at different parts of the \N"pipeline", involved in getting diverse
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,people of diverse demographics, talents,\Nabilities and backgrounds into open
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,source software. So we can all make \Nthis software together, that we're all
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,using to improve our own lives.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- So, Sumana, how did you get involved\Nin open source in the first place?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- My origin story is a guy named Seth \NSchoen.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Seth Schoen is a technologist, currently\Nat the Electronic Freedom .. Frontier
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Foundation. Sorry. Like everybody else,\NI accidentally say freedom when I should
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,say Frontier. But, back in 1998, when we\Nmet, we were both undergraduates at
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the University of California at Berkeley.\NAnd I was hanging out with nerds.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These were the kinds of geeks who\Nmade fun of me because I referred
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to individual "Star Trek: The Next \NGeneration" episodes by title instead
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of stardate. So, clearly that made me a\Nhumanities person. [laughs]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I, through one of them, met this guy,\Nwho was introduced to me partly as:
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"He's such a free software zealot, he\Nwon't use Windows at all."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that was Seth Schoen.\NAnd Seth introduced me to the
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,side of open source and free software\Nthat's about empowering ourselves
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and everybody, by making sure\Nthat everybody has control over the
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,software that we use and that in some\Nsense controls us.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The connection between that and all these\Nother values that I care a lot about,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like everbody having a say, everybody\Nhaving a fair chance.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And he introduced me, for instance, to\NSlashdot, which at the time was sort of
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the open source New York Times.\NAnd which incidentally is, through
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a serious of links, the way that I met\NLeonard Richardson, who is now my
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,husband, actually, and who has been\Nsort of my partner in a lot of these
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,endeavors for the past decade plus.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Seth was a fantastic mentor and guide.\NHe was the kind of guy, and still is
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,absolutely the kind of guy, where,\Nyou ask him a question because you
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,don't have enough information. And it\Nwould never even cross his mind to think
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of ridiculing you, or using this as an\Nopportunity for a dominance display.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He always thought really deeply about,\N"Hold on, what do you need to understand
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,here that you didn't understand, that\Ncaused you to ask that question",
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then he would help you build your\Nmental model.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And he was such a gentle teacher to me\Nexactly when I needed it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so to me that's what open source is.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He was my role model, not just in terms\Nof trying to live values like freedom,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and free speech, and empowering each\Nother.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it was very soon after that \NI switched to Linux, in the late 90s,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which meant that I had to deal with hand\Nconfiguring PPP and all the rest of it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But also, he was my guide and my role\Nmodel in seeing what this world is and
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ought to be, in terms of all of us \Nsharing and teaching each other.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I recently talked to someone else who\Nsaid that his role model in getting into
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,open source had been Linus Torvalds.\NSo he had learned to take people down.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He had learned that the way to build \Nyourself is by shouting and others
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and being quite rude and snarky to them,\Nbecause then there will be people who
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,applaud you for that clever snarkiness.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I'm very, very grateful that in 1998,\Nthat's not who I ran into.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- And where do you think that comes from,\Nthat snarkiness that you sometimes find in
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,open source communities? Do you have a\Ntheory around, like, how these behaviors
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,develop and why people exhibit them?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- I find that basically all the human\Ncommunities that I've ever been
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a part of include some elements of\Npeople being competitive, and of people
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,being nurturing and collaborative.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think if I look in open source,\NI can find both of those things.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If I look in the community of people\Nwho read and write romance novels --
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I've recently started reading romance --\Nthen I would also find that.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look in sports, I mean, you'll find\Nthat anywhere.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I think that the Linux kernel\Ncommunity bears very strongly the stamp
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the person who founded it, and who\Nby norm -- conversations are normative.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Part of how we know what is okay to say,\Nis we look at what other people are
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,saying, right? And we look at what people\Nget praise or punishment for doing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I think that's part of what people \Nsee.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think there's also, of course, as I say,\Npockets and corners, right?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You look at the Python community and\Nyou look at how Guido van Rossum has
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,acted in his capacity as a leader for\Nmany, many years.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And overall you're going to see, there\Nis some snark, there is humor.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You watch his keynote from PyCon this\Nyear, PyCon North America in Montreal
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that just happended last month. And you\Nhear laughter, but it's gentle laughter,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's often self-deprecating laughter.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He talked, he spent a tremendous amount\Nof his keynote talking about the reasons
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on a genuine, legitimate, understandable\Npsychological level, and sort of a
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,lifecycle level, why projects go\Nunmaintained and fall into disrepair.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so he approached that question not\Nfrom, "Okay, now we need to punish those
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,people and I'm gonna make fun of those\Npeople" kind of a perspective.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But he said, "This is going to happen,\Nthis is a natural part of life.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Let us engage in useful conversation,\Nso those tasks can then get taken up by
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the next generation." Which seems to me\Nto be a much healthier approach.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so I think there's some amount of\Ntop-down leadership and role models and
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what not. I think there's also some element\Nof, it is a simple fact that text online, because
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it doesn't bear with it things like body\Nlanguage and oral tone, it is easy for us
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as risk-averse creatures, as insecure\Npeople, to read even neutral words as
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hostile. I ran into this many times myself\Nas a community manager.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,People who do code review know it.\NPeople who are trying to give written
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,criticism even to people in a peer writing\Ngroup or something like that know it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And we added emoticons to our lives partly\Nin order to help compensate for this.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I think in that environment, sometimes\Nit's easy to just go with it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To go with that current, and to go with\Nthat flow.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And say, well, if it's going to be read as\Nhostile anyway -- perhaps this even
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,happens on a subconscious level --\Nthen I may as well hone that.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And there are a lot of people --\NI'm actually a little bit jealous
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the people who decided from a young\Nage on the Internet that they would try
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,playing around with being known through\Ndifferent identities, and hide behind
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,pseudonyms, and hone their flaming skills\Nand stuff like that.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because it is a genuinely valuable skill\Nto be able to be rude to somebody
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,else on the Internet in such a way that\Nother people will applaud you and back
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you up. I do not have that skill. And one\Nreason why I don't have that skill is
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because I never practiced it. Because from\Na very young age I decided, everything
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that I said on the public Internet, I was\Ngoing to sign my entire name to.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And from a very young age I knew that\Nwas going to be an unusual and unique
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,calling card, and I would not be hide,\NI would never be able to say,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"It was that other Sumana Harihareswara\Nwho said those terrible things." [laughs]
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I ddn't learn that skill.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that's one reason why there are \Nkinds of leadership, that no one calls
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,leadership, generally, that I am not \Ngoing to be able to do.