I strongly believe that learning to operate in a collaborative community is a learned skill.  It’s also #1 career talent that I look for when I screen resumes (Linux experience is #2 and my team is hiring).

That’s why I’m simply humbled when I watch some of the OpenStack leaders work to support our community.  It’s worth supporting these efforts in every way possible.

In this specific case, OpenStack (under Anne Gentle‘s leadership) is actively recruiting both mentors and interns for the Outreach Program for Women. Rackspace is sponsoring one intern, and I’m still seeking funding for additional interns. Support levels start at $5750 for one intern.

Here her comments about the program:

OpenStack provides open source software for building public and private clouds. We are constantly moving and growing and very excited to invite newcomers to our community. For a third round, OpenStack is participating in GNOME Outreach Program for Women. As you may know, representation of women among free and open source participants has been cited at 3% [ref] as contrasted with the percentages of computing degrees earned by women (all at over 10% higher) in the US. Eek! At the October 2012 OpenStack Summit, Anne Gentle led an unconference session about including more women in OpenStack and identified one of the goals as bringing more newcomers to OpenStack. The GNOME Outreach program is an excellent way for OpenStack to meet that inclusion goal, and we specifically want to reach out to women who are interested in open source. The program starts in December 2013, going until March 2014. Also, we have been able to support our interns meeting their mentors at the OpenStack Summit, which would be in April 2014. You can find out all the details about how to apply to an OpenStack spot by going to OpenStack For Women.