Inspiring the next generation of contributors to open infrastructure

Open source is fueled by the ongoing arrival of new contributors who offer fresh talent and diverse perspectives. Mentorship programs are critical in inspiring this next generation of contributors, and they enable those more experienced within a community to give back. The number and variety of mentorship programs that serve the OpenStack community is impressive, designed to fit a vast range of time and resource commitments and address the needs of newcomers, regardless of their entry point into the community.

Participants at the mentoring session of the Vancouver Summit.

One of these programs—the Speed Mentoring Workshop—was kicked off by the Women of OpenStack at the Austin Summit, and has since become a mainstay at the summits. Usually held towards the beginning of each conference, it’s a great way for newcomers to kick off the week, and it gives mentors a way to ‘pay it forward’ without an extensive time commitment. Featuring multiple 15-minute rotational rounds across career, community and technical tracks, these workshops are designed to address a wide range of needs and interests among those new to the community, or perhaps new to different teams and groups within the larger OpenStack community.

How to get involved

As we look forward to the OpenStack Summit in Berlin, we’re excited about hosting another workshop there to bring mentors and mentees together. These speed mentoring workshops would not be possible without a wealth of top-notch mentors who are generous of their time, knowledge and expertise, nor eager mentees willing to dive in, roll up their sleeves and contribute to the vibrant OpenStack community. Please join us and participate—we look forward to seeing you there!

OpenStack Summit Berlin

Speed Mentoring Lunch

Tuesday, November 13, 12:30-1:40 pm

Hall 7, Level 1, Room 7.1b / London 1

Click here for more details!

What people are saying about these programs

These speed mentoring sessions allow attendees to make contact with individuals willing to answer their questions long past the end of the session,” Ell Marquez, mentee.

“A healthy community survives through its members, which is why the speed mentoring sessions actively prepare go-getting team plays and future leaders. It also reminds me of my responsibilities towards others; how to build a healthy community,” Armstrong Foundjem, open source advocate.

“Passing on the wisdom learned from years of experience is an important element of this speed mentoring event. And both the mentor and mentee benefit from continuing and sustaining open source knowledge,” Nithya Ruff, senior director, Comcast Open Source Practice & Board Director, Linux Foundation.

“The breadth of people participating as mentors reflects the interest of our fellow stackers to help the next generation of stackers feel part of the community. The mentoring process offered during the OpenStack Summit is a user-friendly means to present fellow stackers with the tools, technologies and human connections to ease their growth in the community, find the right project, SIG or community to best use the talents they are offering,” Martial Michel, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Data Machines Corp., OpenStack Scientific Special Interest Group co-chair.

“Last year, Nalee Jang, a previous Korea user group leader guided me to attend a Women-of-OpenStack event during Boston Summit 2017. Thanks to her, I am now a successful leader in Korea user group. It has been great to share how diversity has affected my community career, and how to get more involved in OpenStack projects like Internationalization team (another diversity part),” Ian Y. Choi, mentor.

About the author
Nicole Huesman is a community & developer advocate at Intel. In the role, she works to ncrease awareness and strengthen impact of Intel’s role in open source across cloud, containers, IoT, robotics, and web, through solid marketing strategies and cohesive storytelling.

Tags: open source community