Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

29 Oct 2012, 14:53 p.m.

Leonard And I Will Match Ten Thousand Dollars Of Your Ada Initiative Donations

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2012 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

Leonard and I met because of the open source movement. We owe our livelihoods to open source, and its values -- inclusiveness, compassion, empowerment, equal and fair treatment for all -- help make us who we are.

This is why he and I are pledging to match up to USD$10,000 of donations to the Ada Initiative made before November 1, 2012.

The Ada Initiative works to increase the participation of women in open technology and culture. They gave me the wording and support I needed to create Wikimedia Foundation's Friendly Space Policy for technical events, which helps everyone at a Wikimedia hackathon feel safer so they can concentrate on rockin' out. If you liked "Be Bold: An Origin Story", the keynote I delivered at Open Source Bridge this year, thank the Ada Initiative, whose advisors helped me shape it. Everyone who wants to grow the open source community benefits from the Ada Initiative's work, and so donating to TAI is like investing in a good piece of machinery; TAI's going to make my work easier for a long time to come.

Please join us in donating to the Ada Initiative, especially if you've also gotten a good career out of open source.

Comments

Avram
http://agrumer.livejournal.com/
29 Oct 2012, 16:21 p.m.

Is... is Leonard drinking a pepper mill?

Mirabai
http://ploversteno.org
29 Oct 2012, 17:38 p.m.

Wow, I was totally gonna donate before, but now there's no turning back. Just went to the site and chipped in a bit of cash. You guys are amazing. You talk the talk and you walk the walk.

Travis Reitter
http://treitter.livejournal.com/
29 Oct 2012, 19:59 p.m.

That is an incredibly generous donation of you two! Thanks for reminding me to contribute my own (much more modest) share :)

Rob
http://robvincent.net
30 Oct 2012, 13:45 p.m.

That is incredibly awesome of you. Thank you both!

Mark Simmonds
30 Oct 2012, 14:17 p.m.

Traveling from boingboing, I've left a modest share here. Kudos to you both for your generosity, and for bringing the initiative to my attention by your focus and support.

kirkjerk
http://kirkjerk.com/
31 Oct 2012, 9:38 a.m.

Slightly chagrined that I first noticed this on Boingboing rather than on the website of my friends!

Anyway, glad you're doing this, and glad reports are you survived Sandy ok!