Open source needs women

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The Fedora Project is trying to get more women into programming by setting up Fedora Women, a mailing list and forum set aside for its female programmers.

The project is looking to expand its female coding base and thinks the new tools will prove attractive. Coders can initially get involved via the forums and can be assigned Fedora mentors to help join and contribute to the project.

"A large portion of the Fedora userbase is made up of women," said th group in a statement.

"They are often under-represented within the community, with many people not even realizing how big a share of the community they are. The Fedora Women program aims to improve that representation and to provide a forum for the women of the Fedora Community."

This is not the first female programmers group within the open source community. Linuxchix and Debian Women Debian Women both have large member rolls and help women in the programming business.

"The success of these programs is mixed," said Maggie Berry, director of communications for recruitment consultants Women in Technology

"Some women take view that they don't want special treatment. Others like these kind of systems, because they can meet other women in a non-threatening envirnoment."

The Fedora Project is an open source effort partially funded by Red Hat. It aims to develop a continually improving open source operating system to be distributed free around the world.

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