Killing OWOOT

I founded Oceania Women of Open Tech (OWOOT) — a group for women in open technology in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands — in 2011. And today, after some discussion on its mailing list over the last week, I closed it due to lack of activity. I’m sad it didn’t continue in the way that all endings are sad, but I’m not especially sad. Not everything works out and I think it’s healthier to wind up things than to have everyone wonder what’s happening with them and whether any change is coming in the future. Especially when you consider the cookie licking problem. My moribund project could be inhibiting someone’s new project, simply by existing!

Speaking of my projects, or rather, things I founded, the Haecksen miniconference at linux.conf.au is now separate from OWOOT, and continues to exist for the time being. (Although I am told attendance was low at linux.conf.au 2014, and the current Haecksen volunteers might also reconsider it in a year or two.) Because there’s no longer an OWOOT list on which to coordinate it, I asked Linux Australia to found a new list. To help organise Haecksen in future, please join the Haecksen organisers mailing list. To attend Haecksen, watch the public Haecksen website or the Linux Australia mailing lists for information.