Org Update

[jos...@gmail.com]

Leadership

 

Recently we were attempting to use the transitional term (since August) to shift leadership this month. The desired outcome for me, was that for the upcoming term, I would not serve as an officer and give the team the space to thrive, depolarize a situation where a separate conflict became entangled with OSDI, and . Unfortunately, that effort was unsuccessful.  The situation is complex enough that an attempt to characterize it here would do it a disservice, so I wont attempt to. I do want to thank Sonya, Brady, Tim, Adriel for making the effort, and to Tim for providing feedback on it which I will take to heart.

 

At this point, if others are willing to step forward please feel free to do so.  I am also exploring potential leaders to recommend for a new team.  While I will be happy to help as requested, I think it best not to serve as an officer unless it is necessary.

 

Tech

As customers are building out for the upcoming cycle, new systems using OSDI are being evolved and deployed, which is driving proposed additions to the specification. Uninterrupted committee work and technical evolution of the specification is critical to address these customer needs.  At the same time, it's important to make sure that other interested parties have the opportunity to weigh in, so the technical committee will still meet at its usual time slot to process those items.  I'll make sure the requisite logistic are available, but the first item on the agenda will be to elect a technical chair pro tempore for the day.

 

The Elephant

If you feel compelled to respond, please keep in mind that while I may be an unruly gay activist confronting things like Equal Protection issues and Disparate Treatment or Impact among protected classes, I am still a human being.  Our conflict resolution processes need to evolve to ensure equally vigilant protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, race, gender and the other protected classes, minorities and marginalized communities when examining conflicts.  Modern anti-discrimination laws in an increasing set of jurisdictions like where I live also cover other subtle forms like Retaliation, Boycotting, Blacklisting.

I came out in 1993 in a firestorm at Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, where my boyfriend and I were the only 2 out undergrads.  At my first career job, I it got back to me that my division manager told his staff that I was gay, likely to get AIDS, and he didn’t want people like that around. I knew I needed to get out before they found a way to fire someone they had just promoted, that standards were appealing to me, but had no clue what to do.  I got myself to the next IETF conference, slapped a pink triangle on my badge, immediately alienated 90% who judged me on my sexual orientation before knowing my name, but met LGBTs who judged me on my merits and I landed a standards job in Silicon Valley, and promptly started the LGBT employee group.  I’ve been directly confronting homophobia and creating disturbances in the workplace ever since.  When the spoils later came, I have used them to build things like the OSDI standards effort, which level the playing field and make more ambitious tech accessible to marginalized communities in the broader progressive movement.

For the leadership discussions I’m happen to help as needed; I’ll be focused on the tech work in the meantime.

Please keep any comments professional, focused on the mission and the work, and not about me.

--- Connection reset by queer
Josh Cohen, EMT  jos...@gmail.com | @joshco | LinkedIn | GitHub  | OSDI | Hit me up to AutoSync your new Salesforce data to VAN and apply Activist Codes nightly