Do you have a diverse background? Or are you just like every other middle-class white guy software developer

Here’s a question about diversity from the WordPress.org Community Summit application:

Ideally we’ll have a range of backgrounds and experience represented at the summit. Is there anything that makes your point of view unique, or would make the attendee pool more diverse? *

To be clear, by “diverse” I mean it would be good if not every single participant is a middle-class white guy living in the US who’s only ever worked in software development. This question is about broadening our demographic profile, not a repeat of the previous couple of questions.

I thought this was a funny sort of question, and an even funnier explanation on a conference application.  But here was how I answered it.

My personal history brings a lot of diverse perspectives. I’ve had the opportunity to live in Latin America twice. The first time I studied at El Tec de Monterrey, Mexico for a summer. My program centered around Mexican culture and Latin American cinema. The second time was 6 months in Santiago, Chile, where I studied cinema again, and travelled all around the continent, including Buenos Aires and Easter Island.

After college, I grew a community of 120 startups at a brand new technology incubator called Tech Ranch Austin, in Austin, Texas. I was the face of the incubator’s brand, and hosted global events with the Kauffman Foundation and Startup Chile in order to provide resources to the community of collaborative tech startups.

To share a more personal story, I have chronic rheumatoid arthritis, and spent most of high school in a wheelchair before having my hips replaced in 2003 and learning how to walk again. This has had a profound affect on how I live my life, my values, and who I am at 25.