[UbuntuWomen] Outreach Issues? (Jasna Bencic)

[Svetlana Belkin]

On 11/16/2013 12:39 PM, Jasna Benčić wrote:
>[SNIP]
> To work for Canonical those young women don't need Outreach Program for
> Women at all. Many many Ubuntu projects are open. They just have to join
> certain project and ask how to help. <----- Here you can see a problem
> because not many women or men are aware what means to be in the FOSS
> world i.e. what it means to have indomitable will to volunteer and to
> get "Thank you" for a paycheck. Many of them will find that  less
> attractive because they think: "Ah, why would I do this?"  I don't blame
> them, it's their way of life. 

Question: How many people think that though?

> What they don't know is that with volunteering there is maybe a longer
> way to get a job but much safer because when you have indomitable will
> you don't stop working on this. You can have breaks (longer, shorter)
> when you have a struggle in your real life but you are always here. 

Could lack of education or just word on the street be the issues here?
Education as in explaining how useful is to volunteer and what they can
get out of it.

> [SNIP]
> As I said, we could start with small pilot project that doesn't have to
> be OPW related but Ubuntu women related or Ubunu related. Additional
> reason for that is because Canonical is not interested to be involved in
> GNOME OPW. 

I agree here, since it's all Ubuntu here in our team, it should be
focused *ONLY* on Ubuntu and its favours.

> [SNIP]
> This would differ till some point from GNOME OPW because it is  simply
> sad to see when girls who didn't make it in certain round they are on
> that same beginning they were when they joined the contest. This, if you
> will would be where everybody wins and their prize would be: knowledge
> and public announcement that they have successfully finished for example
> 3 month Ubuntu women program and they know: this this and that. They
> could pin this to their CV and would have more chance to get employed
> because many employers today ask: "What can you do?"  They are
> interested if a person is proactive or passive. I don't have to mention
> which looks better. 
> 
> And after first round we can ask those ladies if they are willing to
> participate as mentors in next rounds so this doesn't stay on same backs
> and this Ubuntu women round v.0.0.1. could go to v.0.1.0 etc
> 
> 
> This is a sensitive project because people are in the game, so there is
> a lot of work to be done before even shipping this out. 

I like this idea and I think it would work.

Svetlana Belkin

P.S. I hate to say this but do we have a outreach issue also in the
whole Ubuntu community?  Or is it me?
-- 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/belkinsa