

Linux Seeks Help From More (And More Diverse) Coders - brandonb
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/linuxcon/

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vezzy-fnord
Gender and ethnic diversity is completely irrelevant to building software of
good calibre. I don't see why people are so occupied with making everything
multicultural and "diverse" nowadays. A diversity of minds might be useful for
the kernel, but a diversity of physical attributes is just superficial and a
red herring.

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sprintf
Do you have a citation? I'm not sure about software specifically, but here are
citations that suggest that diversity improves financial performance, team
performance and innovation:

Beryl Nelson (Google) had a talk in March at a conference called "Voices -
Creating Global Connections":

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMU5RmkxOc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMU5RmkxOc)

Here are a few instructive slides from the first 7 minutes:

* Financial Performance: Companies with a higher proportion of women in their top management have better financial performance

..* from Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Pascal
Baumgarten: Women Matter: Gender diversity, a corporate performance driver,
McKinsey Report, 2007; similar results in Catalyst study; and for differences
in race, by Cedric Herring

* Better Innovation outcomes (Page, 2009, Cox 2001)

..* Mixed gender tech patents are more cited (Ashcraft et al, 2007)

* Teams with gender diversity are more productive; better decisions:

..* Malone et al, 2010: women make teams smarter

* Gender in teams and collective intelligence (higher collective intelligence is correlated with higher percentage of women)

..* Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone: Defend your Research: What Makes a Team
Smarter? More Women, Harvard Business Review Report, June 2011

