Diversity at W3C; launch of TPAC Diversity Scholarship

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Diversity has become a major issue across society. We would like W3C to be a model of supporting diversity. As an international organization we can see the immense value we gain from having expertise from across multiple countries and cultures. Soon 50% of the world will be on the Web. We know we will need to reflect the diversity of the whole of our world as more and more people begin to access, use and continue to create the Web in all its full potential. During the Spring W3C Advisory Committee Meeting, a panel on diversity focused on progress we have made and how much more is required. I shared graphs on diversity, and the W3C Advisory Committee introduced a Diversity Scholarship.

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Collected information

Press clippings with diversity headlines

Different participants are involved in different ways; with mailing lists and GitHub postings distributed across many locations. As we don't collect participants' personal and demographic data to preserve privacy, it was difficult to gather data for different characterizations of diversity, but we were able to focus on gender and geography for several representative bodies (Advisory Board, Technical Architecture Group, W3C Management (W3M)).

Concrete next steps to improve diversity at W3C

Promote diversity and inclusion

At its May meeting, the W3C Advisory Committee discussed actions that W3C should take to promote diversity, including:

TPAC diversity scholarship

A W3C Member, Samsung Electronics, proposed and agreed to start funding “Diversity Scholarship” for TPAC attendance, and W3C Members The Paciello Group, Consensus System and Microsoft stepped up to sponsor diversity scholarships.

The Diversity Scholarship includes plane and hotel as eligible expenses.

Applicants must be from a traditionally underrepresented and/or marginalized group in the Web community, including but not limited to: persons identifying as LGBTQ, women, persons of color, and/or persons with disabilities; and be unable to attend without some financial assistance. Applications are due by 15 July, by supplying nominal information to the Team (e.g. under-represented community, which role in what group at TPAC, estimated costs to travel and participate at TPAC, why a subsidy is needed).

We hope to be able to support multiple applicants with scholarships. Therefore, please indicate whether you may be able to potentially share costs on some of the costs that you have mentioned.

W3C Management will decide by 25 July how to allocate the available money based on available funding, number of applicants and information supplied. Applicants will be notified personally and recipients will be able to register in time for TPAC.

If your organization or yourself wishes to become a sponsor, please e-mail us!

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