Re: Q to Chris: create our own outreach initiative

[Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>]

Dear Lucas,

> > Thirdly, I will create our own outreach initiative. The Outreachy project has
> > been incredibly successful both in involving new developers under-represented
> > in free software but also as a marketing coup for the GNOME project.

I wouldn't want to set in stone nor dictate exactly how a program would work
without further input and consultation but I see no reason why it could not
follow the generally established pattern of matching mentors and candidates
with some modest stipend available for the student.

This would certainly be an area where delegation would be incredibly useful.
Indeed, I've already had private offers of help from both inside and outside
the Debian project on this area.

> One thing I value in Debian is that, when working on Debian, we can mostly
> forget who is the employer of contributors […]  It might kill a lot of fun
> for me if other contributors were Debian employees.

I understand your concern. I, too, would feel a lot of fun disappear from
Debian in such a environment. :/

However, I think such fears are overblown; the number of students would never
be so great to swamp others' work and the scope of the individual projects
would naturally limit any real change in the balance as would the level of
renumeration. The mentor/student relationship would also set the tone of
interactions with the rest of the project. Futhermore, Debian has had years
of experience incorporating GSOC and Outreachy students without it coming
close to feeling like a Dunc Tank 2.

> I'm also a bit surprised that you qualify Outreachy as a "marketing coup for
> the GNOME project". Could you elaborate on that? Surely in OPW times, GNOME was
> prominently mentioned, but they also did a lot of work.

You might actually be raising a good point in my favour without realising
it :) Outreachy is not even affiliated with the GNOME project anymore. As
I understand it, there's no GNOME branding affiliated with it anymore
except for the infrastructure, which Conservancy working to move away
from… yet the general perception IME is that it's "GNOME Outreachy",
showing how being the title/original sponsor is extremely powerful and,
perhaps, worth a slight overlap of efforts.


Best wishes,

-- 
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
     `. `'`      lamby@debian.org / chris-lamb.co.uk
       `-