DebConf 17 lunch notes
A group of us had lunch at DC17 recently. I'm pasting notes from that
here, below.
I think it would be great to create a page for such things on the wiki.
If I don't hear any objections, I'm going to do that later this week.
-M.
---
Summary of notes from Debian Women lunch time conversation at DebConf
17, taking place in Montréal, QC, CA.
Positive experiences people have had in Debian:
- participation in mentorship programs (specifically outreachy)
- people being friendly
Debian participants in Outreachy (who were present) were drawn to the
program not because of the $5k, but because they were interested in the
opportunity for mentorship and a more narrow space to become involved in
free software. Rather than approaching Debian as a general new
contributor, they were guided through a list of smaller sized
contributions during the application, and clear options for projects
during the length of their internship.
It was meaningful for people to have, at the start of their internships,
a clearly identified mentor who they could talk with outside the main
channels, or tag knowing they would get an answer. That being said, it
can be hard to make the transition into asking these questions in more
public mediums--but it is a useful transition to make, especially for
ongoing contributions after the end of the internship.
People would like to see more of this outside of Outreachy.
Previously, Debian Women has hosted mini-debconfs. Go DW! There was
IRC-based tool trainings. There is interest in bringing back tool trainings.
There is also an interest in finding more opportunities for women and
non-binary focused mentorship, and providing spaces to ask questions.
---Is #debian-women the place for this?
People are excited. They want to see Debian successful. They're
interested in a broad range of perspectives and methods of contribution.
A number of participants in the conversation are "just users,"
interested people, and had a range of skills including coding, design,
languages, mentoring, organizing, packaging, and writing.
---They're totally not -just- users! They're here!
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