I feel like this imbalance is going to correct itself over the coming decades. As people become more connected, and are introduced to computers at a younger age, the diversity of those interested in them to the point of wanting to work with them as a career will increase.
The stereotype of the white pasty male computer nerd is vanishing. With it is the pressure for those who don't fit that stereotype to choose a different field (Fowler mentioned this). I feel like this lack of diversity was almost purely societal and as society changes this will.
You are already seeing the enrollment of women at universities increase from its post-bubble years. It will probably keep going up. I don't think it will ever be on par, but it will get closer.
I find it very interesting that over 400 people expressed interest in writing, but only 13 even made it to the contract signing stage. So only 3% of all interest materialized. And at the end of it all only 1/400 made it to the publishable stage.
As another comment mentioned, the amount of time the editor had probably made some difference. But, I still think it is interesting. It's common sense that people like to back out once actual work materializes, but 3% is really low.
I believe that's 400 people who told Peter that they would be possibly interested in contributing something back when he first floated the idea. I was one of those 400, but when the time came I didn't have a subject lined up that I felt was suitable for the format. I think that's why starting something like this is much harder than sustaining it. In the next year I might come up with two or three things suitable for the journal and put them aside until I have time to develop them into an article, but coming up with something to fit a deadline is much more difficult. Coming up with a topic for an inaugural issue that will presumably set the tone for the publication is even more daunting.
I submitted an article, two actually. Peter gave extensive feedback and went over it in person with me on his own time. He was looking at first for quite long (20k) pieces, which was beyond my ability and depth of knowledge. At the time I wondered if there were enough writers of that caliber available.
I don't think there are. Most of the pieces I publish are in the 2000 word range - some are longer-form series that it takes several months for the authors to put together, so the 'final' series might be 10,000 words or so, but it's done over a long time. Writing and editing that much cohesively is simply too time consuming for most people to do quickly.
The stereotype of the white pasty male computer nerd is vanishing. With it is the pressure for those who don't fit that stereotype to choose a different field (Fowler mentioned this). I feel like this lack of diversity was almost purely societal and as society changes this will.
You are already seeing the enrollment of women at universities increase from its post-bubble years. It will probably keep going up. I don't think it will ever be on par, but it will get closer.