In an earlier blog post about women in open source, I talked about the huge disparity between the numbers of men vs. women involved in open source. While there are relatively few women in open source, communities are forming to bring these women together in a supportive environment. LinuxChix.org is one community “for women who like Linux and for supporting women in computing” and membership “ranges from novices to experienced users, and includes professional and amateur programmers, system administrators and technical writers.”
The beauty of online communities is that they can be easily formed to bring people with a common interest together across the globe. A few hundred years ago, we were essentially limited to local communities of people living in the same geographic area where we might be the only person in a particular occupation or with a certain interest. Due to the “magic” of the Internet, we can now collaborate with and support others with similar interests across the globe.
LinuxChix.org is just one of several online communities that exist to support other women in open source.