https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_Program_for_Women
I've signed us up to participate in the Outreach Program for Women
(administered by the GNOME Foundation), which provides paid internships
to women to work on our open source projects, January through March
2013. Wikimedia Foundation is willing to pay the internship stipend for
three to four participants. More details:
https://live.gnome.org/GnomeWomen/FOSSOutreachProgram
Some reasons I think this is a good idea:
* We'll make strong connections with a few talented people who will
stick around
** We have enough mentors to do this well
* We can encourage people to work on testing, design, documentation,
marketing, and other areas as well as code
* It's a proven method for increasing the number and proportion of women
in an open source community
** GNOME started this effort a few years ago and attendance at their
yearly technical conference has improved from 4% women to 17% women
* Interns don't need to be students, so we're more accepting of age
diversity
* Instead of making newbies write fixed proposals with schedules,
internships can follow broader charters and flex to accommodate
students' interests and abilities
This week I'm taking care of the paperwork, lining up mentors (you can
sign up at [[Outreach Program for Women]]), and adding tiny tasks to
that page (in order to apply, participants have to make a small
contribution, like fixing or reproducing a bug). Applications will open
this month.
I'll be sending out more information about this as soon as I create it. :-)
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Engineering Community Manager
Wikimedia Foundation