Ada Initiative

The Ada Initiative was a non-profit organization that sought to increase women's participation in the free culture movement, open-source technology and open culture. The organization was founded in 2011 by Linux kernel developer and open source advocate Valerie Aurora and open source developer and advocate Mary Gardiner (the founder of AussieChix, the largest organization for women in open source in Australia[1]). It was named after Ada Lovelace, one of the world's first computer programmers, as is the Ada programming language.[2] In August 2015, the Ada Initiative board announced that the organization would shut down in October 2015. According to the announcement, the Initiative's executive leadership decided to step down, and the organization was unable to find acceptable replacement leaders.[3]

History

Valerie Aurora, already an activist for women in open source, joined Mary Gardiner and members of Geek Feminism to develop anti-harassment policies for conferences[2]

Initiatives

In collaboration with members of LinuxChix, Geek Feminism and other groups, the Ada Initiative developed anti-harassment policies for conferences.[11] The Ada Initiative also worked with open source conference organizers to adopt, create and communicate policies to make conferences safer and more inviting for all attendees, particularly women. Conferences such as Ubuntu Developer Summits and all Linux Foundation events, including LinuxCon, have adopted policies based on the Ada Initiative's work.[4]

The Ada Initiative developed policy framework for creating a Women in Open Source Scholarship and programming guides for outreach projects and events. The organization also hosted workshops and training.[12] These workshops and programs consisted of Allies Workshops for male and institutional supporters and "First Patch Week" programs, which encourages women's participation in Free and open source software (FOSS) through mentoring. The workshop framework is freely available,[13] although the Ada Initiative also offered facilitators to conduct the workshops in person.[14]

By encouraging women's participation in open-source culture, the Ada Initiative encouraged women to engage in open source professionally and full-time- not just as volunteers. The organization also researched women's roles and experiences in open source, focusing on bringing research up to date; the last survey done of the gender balance in open source had been completed in 2006.[15] Research methodology and a new survey were produced in 2011.[16] A repeat of the survey took place in 2013, with hopes to provide a standard resource for the industry.[17] The 2011 survey invited participants of any gender and inquired about subjects regarding open source and free software, hardware, open mapping, and other related open source areas, as well as free culture such as Creative Commons, online activism, mashup, maker, hacker spaces and related communities.[16]

The Ada Initiative was the organizer of AdaCamp, an unconference "dedicated to increasing women’s participation in open technology and culture."[18] Seven AdaCamps were held between 2012 and 2015.[19][20][21]

type	501(c)(3)
founded	2011
dissolved	October 2015
founder	Valerie Aurora Mary Gardiner
location	United States
focus	Women's rights, FOSS, free-software community
website	http://adainitiative.org

History

Administration

Board and advisory board

Initiatives

Violet Blue's security presentation

See also

External links

References