[H-GEN] Room Bookings Update

[Jacinta Richardson]

Res wrote:

> others don't (when I made my initial comments nobody said porn, only
> objectionable
> content, which is very broad)

Oh I realise that, I didn't mean to imply that you were supporting the display
of porn!  I just picked something that should be *obviously* objectionable and
yet which still is an occasional issue with technical presentations.  Clearly
there are still some geeks who don't think about whether such content would be
objectionable (or who feel it okay to go ahead and show things they've been told
are objectionable even after being told not to).

I would hope that what is considered acceptable in a professional situation to
be a lot stricter than what may be technically legal (if we had a lawyer present
who understood all the relevant case law).  I would even hope that what is
considered acceptable in a professional situation may be stricter than what you
could comfortably display in a mall with a grumpy, semi-hostile security guard
looking over your shoulder.  For example, while I found the World of Warcraft
video of "The internet is for porn" hilarious and imagine that it would be
perfectly okay for me to share it with a friend from my laptop (at a reasonable
volume) in the said mall situation; I don't think it should be acceptable in a
technical presentation (not that I've seen anyone try this).

Unfortunately, as you said, common sense isn't common enough.  Perhaps it won't
hurt to try to list what is objectionable; starting with if you wouldn't show
your friend's very conservative grandparent that image; is it really suitable to
put up on a screen?

Val Henson wrote a good howto on being inclusive:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/x28.html

Making your meetings women friendly isn't really any different than making them
newbie-friendly.  If you're looking for a starting point, reading the article
can't hurt.

All the best,

	J

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