See below! -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Lessons learned that we could learn from, and outreach help request (pls fwd to gendergap) Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:43:12 -0500 From: Sumana Harihareswara <sumanah(a)wikimedia.org> Organization: Wikimedia Foundation To: Sarah Stierch <sarah.stierch(a)gmail.com> Sarah, could you forward this to the gendergap list? Thanks. I am interested in improving the quality of our outreach events, especially those focused on women. I thought you might therefore find it useful to see these lessons learned from another outreach/training project: https://openhatch.org/blog/2011/lessons-learned-from-the-boston-python-work… I found these lessons helpful in guiding me as I worked on training materials and structure for Wikimedia's technical events. Also, I would love some help reaching out to technical women to tell them about participating in Google Summer of Code, which is a pipeline for our open source community. I want the tools we build to serve all our audiences, so I want the population that makes those tools to reflect the users we want to reach. Thus I have created this list http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_academic_organizations_intereste… and would love help in contacting more of those organizations. There's a template below that you could send and refine. If you reach out to one of the schools or groups on that list, could you edit the "Contacted?" column to mention your name and the date you did so? Thanks. -- Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation sumanah(a)wikimedia.org Hi! I'm writing to help you and your grad and undergrad students prepare for Google Summer of Code. Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers students stipends to write code for open source projects. Participants work remotely from home, while getting guidance from an assigned mentor and collaborating within their project’s community. The application deadline for Google Summer of Code this year is April 6 and the program dates are May 21 to August 20. The stipend for the program is $5,000 (USD). http://code.google.com/soc Open source software development is a rewarding and educational way for students to learn real-world software engineering skills, build portfolios, and network with industry and academe. Women especially find GSoC a great entry point because they can work from anywhere (including home) with flexible hours, they get guaranteed personal mentorship, and the stipend lets them focus on their project for three solid months. The organizations that will participate in Google Summer of Code this year will be announced on March 16, but the best way for a student to prepare to apply is to become a contributor of the project that interests her early on. There are people in many organizations who are happy to help newcomers fix their first bug. Here is a list of some organizations where you can find mentors who will help your students along the way: http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/Mentors Please consider encouraging students of all genders to apply. You can help spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to university Computer Science departments and student groups. Sumana Harihareswara of the Wikimedia Foundation (sumanah(a)wikimedia.org) will personally help guide students who are interested in working with MediaWiki, the open source project that powers Wikipedia. And if you'd like to get a speaker to speak about GSoC to your school, she'll help! https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2012 Thank you.