Women's Summer Outreach Program 2006

[Anivar Aravind]

I dont know if thre are any women programmers on this list. but if
there are then this might interest them:
http://www.gnome.org/projects/wsop/

Women's Summer Outreach Program 2006

Following on from GNOME's participation in Google's Summer of Code,
we've decided to sponsor three projects in a similar fashion to the
Summer of Code, but for women only. GNOME had no Summer of Code
applications from women, and we think it's time to do something to
encourage more women to join our development community.
How will it work?

This summer, GNOME will sponsor three female students to hack on
GNOME-related projects from the comfort of their own home. Each
project will last two months, and each participant will each receive a
stipend of 3,000 US$. You can submit your own proposal for how to
improve GNOME, or choose from our list of potential projects. You
don't need to be the world's greatest coder to take part, since
several mentors will be assigned to get you up to speed and help with
any problems. If you're worried about whether you're suitable, feel
free to ask us what we think.
How can I help?

First and foremost, we need you to spread the word! If you know any
women who might be interested, whether they're students of computer
science or another field, please tell them about the program! If
you're near a CS department, we'd be thrilled if you could ask to have
our poster (PNG, PDF, SVG) put up. Do let us know that you've done it
so that we can follow up with the department. Thanks!
When?

We're accepting applications immediately, and will stop accepting them
on July 1st 2006. The projects will then run from July 1st-September
1st.
Where can I read more?

While this project isn't affiliated with Google, Google's Summer of
Code Student FAQ contains many questions and answers that may be
relevant — please e-mail us at gnome-wsop-list at gnome.org if there's
something you aren't clear on.
Isn't this unfair to men? What about people who were rejected from
Google's Summer of Code?

The recent FLOSSPOLS report describes many opportunities that women
miss out on when getting involved with computing and free software,
ranging from being introduced to computers at a later age, being less
encouraged to specialise in computing, having few female role models,
having less free time to spend programming than men do, and being on
the receiving end of sexism when they do try to get involved. We think
it's this imbalance that's unfair, and we're trying to help fix it.

As for whether this is unfair to Summer of Code applicants, we don't
think so – this is GNOME's money to use how it sees fit, and we want
to use it to correct a disturbing lack of participation from women in
the GNOME development community. We're doing this for outreach reasons
as well as for technical ones, and so just adding another three
projects to the twenty Summer of Code projects being sponsored
wouldn't achieve our stated goals. If you'd like to talk about this
with us, feel free to get in touch.
How do I get started?

If you're considering applying, we encourage you to drop us an e-mail
at gnome-wsop-list at gnome.org and let us know what you're planning and
give us an opportunity to give you feedback on the idea and answer any
questions you have.
Application form

We'll have an application form available here shortly; please check
back in a day or two, and e-mail us if you have any questions.
Who's running this?

This project is being run by the GNOME Foundation. The program
coordinators (Chris Ball, Hanna Wallach and Vincent Untz) are happy to
answer any questions you have about the program via e-mail to
gnome-wsop-list at gnome.org.
Press enquiries
Please see our press release for further details.
Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Máirín Duffy for designing our poster and Raphael
Slinckx for his work on the website.