Re: Joint statement on the GNU Project

[Richard Stallman]

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[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
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  > Since the GNU project is a software project, it has no gender to speak
  > of (it neither lacks one, or has one).  So there is little point
  > trying to define it as some specific gender.  And by virtue of being a
  > free software project, it cannot exclude anyone.

The GNU Project overall concerns issues that apply to everyone the same.
We develop a system to give computing freedom to everyone.  Human rights
must be the same for everyone.

People vary in how much they value computing freedom, indeed also
about how much they value freedom in general.  But that does not
concern us.  We offer freedom-respecting software to every user, and
those who appreciate it can use it.  Others can ignore it.

There may be some practical design issues, in some software packages,
for which people of different demographics would like different
behavior.  For those projects, it would be useful to seek out a
diverse set of UI designers and a diverse set of testers.

Perhaps we should actively encourage people starting a new package, or
adding major features, to do this.  It could be useful to look for a
group of design commenters to offer suggestions along those lines.

"Diversity" in this context would involve more dimensions than the
usual list of differences that nondiscrimination law covers, or might
cover.  For instance, it might include profession, preferred learning
style, educational background, personality, and other ways in which
people's thinking can vary.

Are people interested in working practically on this?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)