[Actionchix] *Vote: Linux Chix mag "audience", "title" and "motto" - Closes Saturday Sept. 15th

[Sarah K.]

1. A & D (open source, with women-centric regular columns)
2. A (open to all)
3. "LinuxChix Magazine" seems most straightforward to me

Some additional thoughts:

One of my big issues right now, both personally and professionally, is
a
lack of female role models, particularly in technical areas, and I
would
very much like to see this magazine effort turn into something that
helps me address that need. Role models aren't just for younger girls
either; I'm almost 40 and have 20+ years of software development
experience... but I spend most of my days alone in a windowless office
writing code, and I don't get many opportunities to interact with other
women who are interested in technology. (A couple weeks ago I was
seeing
a new dentist for the first time, and she asked if I had seen a
particular engineering show on the Discovery Channel. I hadn't seen it,
because I don't have a tv, but I very nearly gave her a hug just on
general principles!)

Another related issue is that I don't have very many sources of
encouragement when pursuing tech stuff. Sometimes it seems as if most
of
the Internet has decided to gang up on newbies and treat them badly
until they have "proved" themselves worthy of a place in a particular
tech subculture. Places like LinuxChix and the Ubuntu forums have done
much better than that, and the welcoming, friendly, and encouraging
attitude is something I *really* need to bring out my best work. Maybe
I've been in the industry too long and I'm just tired of having to
prove myself over and over again. But what I really want to do is learn
to do cool stuff, *do* cool stuff, and share it with cool people. I'd
like to see the magazine give readers that same sense of gentle
encouragement.

I'm sorry that neither one of these say very much what should go *into*
this new magazine; but that's what I'm hoping to get *out* of it!

I also feel very strongly that LinuxChix, as a brand and as a group,
can
offer something special and unique to the open source world, in terms
of
both experience and perspective, and that an effort should be made to
find a voice and style for the magazine that will be able to collect
that and share it with the world. I think it would be much less useful
for LinuxChix to come out with a tech publication that's not very
different from hundreds of other tech publications I don't have time to
read!

Also, for those of you who haven't already seen it, O'Reilly is doing a
series on women in tech at

http://www.oreillynet.com/womenintech/

and I'd like to see something similar, on a regular basis, in the
LinuxChix magazine.

I hope this helps,

Sarah