Rebooting the OpenStack Mentorship program

In the recently published gender diversity analysis in the OpenStack Community, Intel’s Imad Sousou says: “One characteristic of a strong and thriving open source community is an active effort to attract new talent, diverse skill sets and fresh perspectives. Mentorship programs are especially important to help newcomers — as well as those working in new areas — to engage and contribute successfully.”

We saw the response to this call to action play a significant part at the Vancouver Summit. From a panel discussion on mentorship to speed mentoring sessions, our community had shown its willingness to invest their time. During these events, we also began to see a change from our traditional view of one-on-one long term mentorship to a group mentorship mindset.

Having been on both sides of the one-on-one mentorship relationship, I’ve learned that these relationships don’t always live up to their fullest potential. Often this occurs due to mismatches between assigned mentors and mentees; other times unexpected circumstances arise in the participant’s personal lives, or careers that make it difficult for either party to continue investing time in the relationship.

The OpenStack Community recognizes the difficulties and stresses that these situations can cause and has worked to find a solution. During the past few Summits, we’ve held speed mentoring workshops, bringing together experienced contributors with newcomers who are interested in growing their careers, their technical skills or looking for how to become involved in the community. These speed mentoring sessions allow attendees to make contact with individuals willing to answer their questions long past the end of the session.

How to get involved

To expand this important opportunity further, we’re happy to announce the relaunch of the OpenStack Mentoring program. Our new mentoring program will focus on providing mentorship through goal-focused cohorts of mentors. This change will allow mentoring responsibilities to be shared among each group’s mentors. Mentoring cohorts allow for mentees to access a broader knowledge base while enabling them to form connections and help other members of the group.

We hope that this change can help drive a diverse group of experienced OpenStack users and developers in assisting newcomers to the OpenStack Community.

The initial cohorts will be: