How often can you write about porn on a dev blog?
Along with the rest of the Ruby community, my attention was brought to the silly CouchDB slideshow that Matt Aimonetti presented at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference. I wouldn’t say I’m offended by the images, or the concept in general, but I do think that it’s funny that someone would do that at a conference. I think it’s even funnier that his wife/business partner approved of it! I wonder how the conversation went. “Honey, check out the cool slideshow I made for the conference! It has scantily clad women. I think it’ll really capture the audience’s attention.” I would hope that my spouse and/or business partner(s) would at the very least question how the audience might receive it. I know that my husband fell over laughing when I told him about it. You couldn’t make this stuff up any better.
Anyways, being a woman Rubyist, I do feel that I have a difficult time in the software development world. I have to earn my wings everywhere I go, re-climb the ladder, and reestablish a rapport. Rapport that many other males get for free! However, I don’t think that this guy’s presentation really made it worse.
On a side note, I tried to join DevChix a few months, but didn’t get a reply. I wonder what you have to do to qualify.
Do I think that his actions accurately portray the community’s attitudes? Well, I think that’s kind of a broad judgement to make. He made a mistake, and he’s getting the full wrath of the internet. It’s not going to change anyone’s attitudes towards women in Computer Science.
After looking through the slideshow, I still have no idea what CouchDB is, but it now feels dirty.
Something good did come from this though. I’d never heard of this guy before he put half naked chicks in front of a room full of programmers. He is an active member of the Rails & Merb communities. He is a participant in the merging of Rails and Merb into Rails 3.0. I’m sure that his talk at RailsConf2009 is going to be packed! It’s too bad that I won’t be there to see it 
Is Aimonetti saying that EngineYard is like the John Holmes of Ruby?
One Response
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Hi Serene,
I am very sorry if you didn’t get a response. We try to be very responsive on admittance and to be honest it your membership was missed it was probably my fault. I apologize for that. If you are still interested please email me directly and I will get you added right away.
Cheers
Desi