Linux Seeks Help From More (And More Diverse) Coders

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2 points·brandonb··2 comments

Gender and ethnic diversity is completely irrelevant to building software of good calibre. I don't see why people are so occupied with making everything multicultural and "diverse" nowadays. A diversity of minds might be useful for the kernel, but a diversity of physical attributes is just superficial and a red herring.

Do you have a citation? I'm not sure about software specifically, but here are citations that suggest that diversity improves financial performance, team performance and innovation:

Beryl Nelson (Google) had a talk in March at a conference called "Voices - Creating Global Connections":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMU5RmkxOc

Here are a few instructive slides from the first 7 minutes:

* Financial Performance: Companies with a higher proportion of women in their top management have better financial performance

..* from Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Pascal Baumgarten: Women Matter: Gender diversity, a corporate performance driver, McKinsey Report, 2007; similar results in Catalyst study; and for differences in race, by Cedric Herring

* Better Innovation outcomes (Page, 2009, Cox 2001)

..* Mixed gender tech patents are more cited (Ashcraft et al, 2007)

* Teams with gender diversity are more productive; better decisions:

..* Malone et al, 2010: women make teams smarter

* Gender in teams and collective intelligence (higher collective intelligence is correlated with higher percentage of women)

..* Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone: Defend your Research: What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women, Harvard Business Review Report, June 2011

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