8:01 a.m.
Background
Outreach Program for Women (OPW) - http://gnome.org/opw/ - has been organized by the GNOME
Foundation since 2010. It offers remote, mentored, paid internships to women with Free and
Open Source Software (FOSS) projects twice a year. The last round of internships had 40
interns with 16 FOSS organizations sponsored by 20 organizations and companies. Linux
kernel, OpenStack, Wikimedia, and Mozilla are some of the organizations that offer
internships as part of the program. Red Hat, Google, Intel, HP, and the Linux Foundation
are some of the sponsors of the program.
Any FOSS organization that has a public community of contributors and is not too tightly
tied to any one company can offer internships as part of the program. As one such
community, oVirt is very interested in participating in OPW. We are seeking sponsorship
from companies towards OPW participation and project ideas from community members willing
to be mentors.
Proposal
Sponsorship for one OPW intern is $6,250-6,500 (USD), depending on the overall level of
sponsorship from your company. The next several rounds of OPW are December 2014 - March
2015, May - August 2015, December 2015 - March 2016. The sponsorship for each round must
be received by the GNOME Foundation in the beginning of the month for the corresponding
internship round, after which the GNOME Foundation will take care of sending the stipend
to the interns in three installments.
Please consider helping us getting your company to sponsor an oVirt OPW internship. If you
are willing to help put this proposal forward at your company or can fund an internship,
please e-mail Marina Zhurakhinskaya (marinaz(a)redhat.com) and Karen Sandler
(karen(a)sfconservancy.org), who co-organize OPW, as well as include Brian Proffitt
(bproffit(a)redhat.com). Many of the companies represented on oVirt board already provide
sponsorship for other FOSS organizations participating in OPW, and Marina and Karen can
help coordinate oVirt sponsorship request with other OPW sponsorship requests at your
company.
For its overall sponsorship of OPW, your company can choose one of these game-changing
levels:
* Ceiling Smasher - $52,000 - 8 interns
* Equalizer - $32,000 - 5 interns
* Promoter - $19,000 - 3 interns
* Includer - $6,250 - 1 intern
Motivation
Only 11% of respondents in the 2013 FOSS survey and 10% of Google Summer of Code
participants are women. OPW provides women with a focused opportunity to gain experience
in contributing to FOSS, which they might have felt discouraged from pursuing before. It
is an effective way to help both women who have CS education and women interested in
switching to technology at a later point in their career or without going to college
become FOSS contributors.
By supporting OPW internships, participating companies are working upstream and improving
the diversity of the FOSS community. In total, of 170 past OPW participants, 21 had
full-session talks at FOSS conferences, 18 found employment or contract work with
organizations sponsoring OPW, and 14 went on to participate in Google Summer of Code or
Hacker School. Three past participants have organized local technology initiatives:
Chicagoans Hacking on GNOME, the Nairobi Dev School, and Women in Free Software - India.
Many find the program life-changing, as it introduces them to something they become
passionate about and opens the door to new opportunities.
The program is very competitive, and applicants are required to make a contribution to the
project they are interested in during the application process. For the last round, in
which 40 participants were accepted, 120 applicants worked with a mentor to complete a
contribution. All these applicants become FOSS contributors in the process of applying for
the program, and many stick around to apply for the next round or pursue other FOSS
opportunities.
Geographical Considerations
Because the internships are run by a non-profit organization with the main goal of
promoting participation in the greater FOSS community, they are open to applicants from
around the world. To avoid internships appearing as company internships, the participants
should not be regularly working from a company office. Only non-profit organizations can
seek interns to work from an office at a specific location with the help of the program.
Companies are welcome to host some or all OPW interns in their geographical area in their
office once a week.
OPW asks organizations to give equal consideration to all applicants, regardless of their
geographical location. However, companies can encourage applicants from a specific
geographical location by making additional efforts to advertise the program in that
location.
Sponsorship Amount Details
The sponsorship per intern includes $5,500 stipend, $500 travel allowance, and a $250-500
administrative fee for the program. Providing $500 of travel funding per intern helps
bring participants to conferences to meet their mentors and build on the relationships
they have with their organizations. The administrative fee is used to cover intern
payments transfer fees and to support the resources of the GNOME Foundation needed for
administering and growing the program.
We hope that you will review this proposal and give it serious consideration! oVirt has
one OPW internship sponsored by Red Hat this round, and we are hoping to continue our
participation in this great program!
Peace,
Brian Proffitt
Community Liason
oVirt
Open Source and Standards, Red Hat - http://community.redhat.com
Phone: +1 574 383 9BKP
IRC: bkp @ OFTC