Debian participation in Outreach Program for Women
Hi,
As you probably noticed[1,2,3], Debian is participating in the GNOME
foundation's Outreach Program for Women. A targeted fundraising
campaign[4] has been running, with the informal agreement that, if it was
"quite" successful but not successful enough to fund one slot ($5750),
the rest would be covered with Debian funds.
However, we are in the situation that the fundraising campaign has been
very successful. Despite quite late announcement, $2240 have been raised
at this point, which are matched by one of Debian's sponsors[5], turning
this into $4480. Which means that the share paid from Debian funds would
be rather limited.
I am now considering using Debian funds to cover for up to two slots.
The maximum cost for Debian would be $7020 (2*$5750 - $4480), but
could be reduced as the fundraising campaign is not over yet, and the
GNOME foundation could agree to waive some fees.
The Outreach Program for Women aims at building a more diverse Free
Software community, and I think that this is something we care about a
lot in the Debian project. Even if it's only marginally improving Debian
on a technical level, it's clearly a way to improve Debian as a project
and as a community.
This is the first time we participate, and we are doing that mostly as
an experiment. Having two data points instead of one is clearly useful,
and I also think that it is important not to put too much pressure on
the mentor and the intern.
>From a financial point of view, Debian could afford that (thanks to the
fantastic work of the DC13 fundraising team) without restricting other
standard expenses. I've informally consulted some people involved with
fundraising, and they see it as an adequate use of Debian funds (= our
regular donators are unlikely to read this as an insane way to spend
their donations, that would jeopardize future donations).
If you feel strongly about this, one way or another, please voice your
opinion.
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/10/msg00002.html
[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/11/msg00000.html
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/11/msg00001.html
[4] http://debian.ch/opw2013/
[5] http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/#opwmatch
Lucas
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