Outreach programs/Lessons learned

We compiled these lessons learned after our first participation at FOSS Outreach Program form Women, in April 2013. Then we updated them in October 2013, after running simultaneously Google Summer of Code 2013 and OPW Round 6. The new lessons are marked with a star.


 * We cannot assume technical people don't need a basic introduction.
 * Our community is complex, and we use several tools and channels of communication.
 * Many people are not used to open source transparency, and we push it to the extreme.
 * Many people are not used to the wiki way, and for us this is a given.


 * Proposals must go through public community review.
 * They must be considered relevant by the related project maintainers.
 * Mentors' judgments are good! But not enough if they come alone.


 * Proposals must consist in one project only.
 * The term is too short for changing projects and/or mentors efficiently.


 * Proposals must specify a clear and measurable outcome.
 * Vague goals are difficult to assess; they are unacceptable.


 * Proposals shouldn't depend on Wikimedia Foundation's short term priorities.
 * Interns shouldn't be bothered by WMF teams' sudden changes of plans.


 * The first contribution must be related with the type of project proposed.
 * A main purpose of this contribution is to assess the skills of the candidate in relation to his/her proposal.


 * Two mentors are required for each intern.
 * It is a lot less work for each.
 * The second mentor can be really secondary, but must be following the activity just in case.
 * If one mentor drops there is still another one to push until the end.
 * All the better if mentors are also in different locations, forcing good remote collaboration.


 * Teams staying in touch on a daily basis via IRC have more chances to succeed.
 * It really makes a difference, even if they only share a regular time frame idling in the same channel.


 * Monthly reports must be required and plugged to Wikimedia's monthly reports routine.
 * Difficulties coming up with a decent report or delays delivering it are a good symptom of deeper problems.
 * Learning to explain your work is sometimes as important as the work itself.


 * Interns must send a summary of their project at wikitech-l at the end of the program.
 * A blog post is good, but as a complement or "web version" of the mail sent to our main community channel.