Outreachy provides paid, remote, mentored internships to work in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to anyone who faces under-representation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the technology industry of their country. Outreachy was founded in response to the underrepresentation of women in FOSS development, as reinforced by the already low number of women studying Computer Science in colleges around the world. A 2017 study by GitHub showed that participation of women in FOSS is still extremely low at 3%. In addition, research in 2016 by North Carolina State University showed that although open source software code written by women was in fact more likely to be approved by their peers than code written by men, this only held true as long as those peers didn’t realise the code had been written by a woman. Outreachy aims to change these and other problematic trends by actively welcoming and encouraging people who are subject to under-representation or discrimination to participate (and lead) in open source projects by offering dedicated, paid internships where interns can demonstrate their skills & talents, and receive the direct welcome and endorsement of project leaders. Twice a year, Outreachy provides a introduction to FOSS for a diverse set of intern candidates of all ages, not just students. Each term, Outreachy organizers work to get the word out via universities, women in tech organizations, open source communities, and the media. Applicants then review the organizations available for a given term and those organizations' project ideas. Applicants then contact mentors who quickly orient them to the open source community and guide them through making their first open source contribution -- from coding to documentation to marketing to graphic design. Mentors get to know applicants and their unique skills & talents, and finally select the intern that will work on a given project during each term of the program. Those selected interns work remotely with that same mentor during the three month internship.

https://digitalimpactalliance.org/

• United States of America

• Youth
• Women
• The unemployed

Since its founding, Outreachy has sucessfully scaled in terms of size, scope, and impact. The program grew from just the GNOME open source project to serve all free & open source software, now hosting as many as 40 to 50 projects twice yearly. A true demonstration of intersectionality, the program has expanded from its initial mission of recruting women to include other gender non-conforming and racially diverse communities and now offers internships to anyone facing systemic bias. Similarly, other organizations have adopted similar programs such as Rails Girls Summer of Code, which serves multiple FOSS software projects. Individual software projects also occasionally use the Outreachy internship model for onboarding newcomers, even if they don't have funding for those interns. Private sector corportations sponsor the program to increase participation of under-represented people in open source, and non-profit organizations like the Digital Impact Alliance often sponsor Outreachy to encourage participation by software projects that serve its international development & humanitarian mission. As of 2018, 36 interns have gone on to become mentors for the Outreachy and Google Summer of Code internship programs, creating a continual cycle of intern-mentor leadership for FOSS projects.

Well over 100 interns have obtained full-time employment as a result of this program and others have gone on to become mentors themselves. Because mentors are seen as leaders in open source software communities, this means that more people from underrepresented groups end up serving in leadership roles, and it becomes increasingly commonplace for other people from those same backgrounds to not only contribute but be seen as trusted senior advisors among their peers. Additionally, Outreachy is unique in that it taps into the connections and relationships of the worldwide network of open source software projects to gain financial support for the program. Participating open source communities are asked to find sponsorship funds for at least one intern during their first term of participation. These sponsors very often increase their fincancial support over time, providing funds for multiple interns across multiple software projects. This helps broaden the base of financial support for stipends and increases the overall sustainability of the program. This "network effect" also allows sponsoring organizations to learn about other open source communities to which they may provide support beyond the Outreachy program, increasing the sustainability of those software communities as well.

Each person should have the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in order to understand, participate actively in, and benefit fully from, the Information Society and the knowledge economy. Literacy and universal primary education are key factors for building a fully inclusive information society, paying particular attention to the special needs of girls and women. Given the wide range of ICT and information specialists required at all levels, building institutional capacity deserves special attention.