This upcoming weekend, I’m presenting at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit in San Francisco on The Untold Struggles of Open Source Design. My presentation is based on my experiences as a designer and contributor to WordPress, and goes into issues around attracting and retaining designers, process, and leadership.
As I work on my presentation, I’m realizing more and more the need to cross-pollinate with other open source communities. WordPress is an older community, but we’ve seen a lot of turnover in the past twelve years. Some of our habits are engrained based on our long history. There’s a lot we can learn, both from more well-established projects and from newer projects.
So, consider this my public commitment to learn from and share more with other open source design communities. I’ve started by asking around about what communities currently exist. I’ve received a number of replies I hope to look more into:
talk to @DanielFore. @elementary is doing great work.
— Eli Schiff (@eli_schiff) February 19, 2017
material design seemed strong in my few interactions with the project
— eric (@ericandrewlewis) February 19, 2017
Thanks @LibbyLevi! @melchoyce I would love to talk to you about the @patternfly_des project, how we approach #opendesign and our community.
— Leslie Hinson (@patternflygirl) February 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/mairin/status/833441356836134912
Ubuntu have a pro design team at Canonical
— Stuart Langridge (@sil) February 19, 2017
check out @OpenDesignIO think it's the group that grew out of @fosdem which is a massive open source event in Europe.
— Jenny Wong 🐝 (@miss_jwo) February 20, 2017
check out the desktops: @gnome, @kdecommunity & @_Enlightenment_ all #FOSS projects that have obsessed over UI/UX for decades.
— Uhlan Mask (@Rzhevsky) February 19, 2017
If you’re a design contributor to another open source project, let’s chat.