Coraline Ada Ehmke
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Coraline Ada Ehmke is an American software developer and open source advocate based in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
. She began her career as a web developer in 1994 and has worked in a variety of industries, including engineering, consulting, education, advertising, healthcare, and software development infrastructure. She is known for her work in
Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called ...
, and in 2016 earned the Ruby Hero award at RailsConf, a conference for
Ruby on Rails Ruby on Rails (simplified as Rails) is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby under the MIT License. Rails is a model–view–controller (MVC) framework, providing default structures for a database, a web service, and we ...
developers. She is also known for her
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
work and activism, writing the
Contributor Covenant The Contributor Covenant is a code of conduct for contributors to Free and open-source software, free/open source software projects, created by Coraline Ada Ehmke. Its stated purpose is to reduce harassment of minority, LGBT and otherwise underrepr ...
and Post-Meritocracy Manifesto, and promoting the widespread adoption of codes of conduct for open source projects and communities.


Career

Ehmke began writing software in 1994, using the
Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...
programming language. She has since written software in
ASP.NET ASP.NET is an open-source, server-side web-application framework designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, applications and services. The name s ...
and
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
, before discovering
Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called ...
in 2007. She is the author of 25 Ruby gems and has contributed to projects including Rspec and Ruby on Rails. She has spoken frequently at software conferences, and she has given keynote addresses at multiple technology conferences worldwide, including RubyFuza in Cape Town, South Africa and RubyConf Brazil. In 2013 at the Madison+ Ruby conference, Ehmke was among a group of people who announced the creation of a community for
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...
technologists called LGBTech. During this announcement, she also came out publicly as
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
. In 2014, Ehmke created OS4W.org, a website to help all women contribute to open source by connecting them with mentors and
pair programming Pair programming is an software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the ''driver'', writes code while the other, the ''observer'' or ''navigator'', reviews each line of code as it is typed in. The ...
partners, and identifying open source projects that welcome diverse contributors. Also in 2014, she created the
Contributor Covenant The Contributor Covenant is a code of conduct for contributors to Free and open-source software, free/open source software projects, created by Coraline Ada Ehmke. Its stated purpose is to reduce harassment of minority, LGBT and otherwise underrepr ...
, a
code of conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is commonly writt ...
used in over 40,000 open source projects including all such projects from
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
, and
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
. In 2016, she received a Ruby Hero award in recognition of her work on the Contributor Covenant. After allegations of sexual harassment were made against the founder and CEO of GitHub and his wife in March 2014, Ehmke joined Betsy Haibel to create a service called the Culture Offset. Culture Offset allowed people who wished to boycott GitHub but were unable to do so because it was necessary for their work to "offset" their use by directing donations to organizations working to help underrepresented people in the technology industry. This project was featured in the ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' and ''Wired'' Magazine. Ehmke is also the author of the Post-Meritocracy Manifesto. Ehmke was a panelist on the ''Ruby Rogues'' podcast from 2014 to 2016, and is a founding panelist on the ''Greater Than Code'' podcast. She serves on the boards of directors for Ruby Together and RailsBridge. In 2016, she joined
GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...
as a senior developer on a team that develops
community management Community management or common-pool resource management is the management of a common resource or issue by a community through the collective action of volunteers and stakeholders. The resource managed can be either material or informational. Exa ...
and anti-harassment features for the software platform. She was fired approximately a year later, and on July 5, 2017 published an article criticizing GitHub's culture and the circumstances surrounding her severance. Her story was featured in a 2017 report on hush clauses and non-disparagement agreements published by
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. In 2018 Ehmke participated in a debate at the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland on the topic of tech companies being a threat to human rights. Ehmke created the "Hippocratic License" (described as "An Ethical License for Open Source Projects") and in 2020 founded the
Organization for Ethical Source The Organization for Ethical Source (OES) is a non-profit organization founded by Coraline Ada Ehmke in December 2020, to support the ethical source movement, which promotes that "software freedom must always be in service of human freedom". The ...
. Ehmke has been the repeated subject of negative reporting by far-right organizations and bloggers including ''
Breitbart News ''Breitbart News Network'' (known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentary ...
'', and has described herself as a "Notorious
Social Justice Warrior ''Social justice warrior'' (SJW) is a pejorative term and internet meme used for an individual who promotes socially progressive, left-wing and liberal views, including feminism, civil rights, gay and transgender rights, identity politics ...
" after being given the moniker in a ''Breitbart'' article about her joining GitHub.


Personal life

Ehmke is transgender, and began her transition in March 2014. She has been public about her transition in hopes of helping others, and has given several interviews about her experiences transitioning and working as a trans woman in technology. She has also given a talk about her experiences titled "He Doesn't Work Here Anymore" at the Keep Ruby Weird, Alterconf, and Madison+ Ruby conferences. Ehmke writes and records music and has released several albums under the name A Little Fire Scarecrow.


See also

*
Sage Sharp Sage Sharp (formerly Sarah Sharp) is a software engineer who has worked on the Linux kernel, including serving on the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board for two years. Sharp began working on the kernel in 2006 as an undergraduate at ...
* Valerie Aurora


References


External links

*
Post-Meritocracy Manifesto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehmke, Coraline Ada Living people American software engineers Open source advocates American computer programmers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century LGBT people