Ask Slashdot: How Should Tech Conferences Embrace Diversity?

An anonymous reader writes "The Register is reporting on how debate over diversity has managed to get a Ruby conference in the UK cancelled, as the speakers were 100% white male. The person running the conference, Chuck Hardy, said he 'was not prepared to put [himself] in the position of legal liability and cost ramifications if a sponsor were to pull out under social media strain.' He added, 'The ramifications of comments such as race and gender can have financial and legal consequences for the conference organizer. Raise these issues but allow the conference organizers the chance to highlight and act on these industry level issues. Accusation and slander is not a solution.' Should conferences embrace diversity from the start, or should they go forward even if the speakers are all of the same denomination? How far do we have to go to ensure we are diverse?"

Comments

Liberalism: a mental disorder spread by self-pity.

[hessian]

Modern liberalism and subscribing to political correctness is a sign of mental disorder.

Conforming to the herd is always good, especially if you can insist you're not conforming. That is the ultimate "paradox" of liberalism: because it identifies with non-conformity, it can easily be a form of conformity and remain undetected by most.

In the meantime, those who are ahead of the curve are moving past liberalism. 1789 (the French Revolution) was a long time ago, and since then we've learned that what "sounds good" does not necessarily equal good results, and good results are all that matters.

The chattering classes and TV watchers haven't picked up on this yet, because they're subject to the the most powerful media machine ever created. It preaches at them what it thinks they want to hear.

This will change. In fact, it already has. We're just waiting to catch up with the curve.