Open Stack

> > The OPW (or Outreachy as it's now known) is not in my experience short of
> > applicants. In order to increase its scope, it's more likely to need
> > sponsor
> > companies donating the stipend cost, and more mentors to contribute their
> > time, energy, and ideas.
> 
> Just to be super-clear on this: We're not running out of money for
> Outreachy

No suggestion intended that the foundation is short of money, I'm sure
their cup runneth over.

However, I seem to remember a scramble in previous cycles to line up
sponsor companies in time to cover the cost of OPW internship spots.  

> the *mentors* is the scarce resource.

Yes, this.

So, the key question that I was posing previously, was how to increase
supply so as to address this scarcity.

One approach would be to encourage member companies to fund this effort
(via donations of their employees' time). Another potential idea would be
to give some public recognition to the mentors, say at summit. A third
would be smooth the path to taking on the mentorship role with practical
and legal advice on how to make it work.

> > This is were the foundation could potentially step in and make a
> > difference,
> > say by encouraging member companies to sponsor internship spots, or by
> > indemnifying potential mentors (currently mentors must personally indemnify
> > GNOME).
> 
> Developing a serious mentorship program has been on my todo list for a
> while but time is scarce too. All I could come up with was asking
> volunteer mentors to sign up on https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Mentors
> and get ready to consolidate the material related to
> internships/mentoring opportunites on the wiki
> https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Category:Internship
> 
> I and Anne have toyed with the idea of a mentoring program since... San
> Diego, IIRC, explored a couple of paths. If you think the time is ripe
> to invest more resources let's do it: anybody wants to take the lead?

FWIW I'd be happy to provide my $0.02 of input to help whoever ends up
leading such an effort.

Cheers,
Eoghan