| date | accepted | updates | status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
June 2020 |
true |
|
active |
- Proposed by Oli Makhasoeva, former rep of 47 Degrees, March 27, 2020.
- Re-submitted by 47 Degrees via Maureen Elsberry, June 29, 2020.
There is a continuous and growing need to create a tangible plan of action that will set the groundwork for improving diversity initiatives and make the Scala ecosystem more welcoming to underrepresented groups in tech.
The following proposal is a list of suggested actions based on research of communities handling this well, how current actions in the Scala community could be improved, as well as marketing initiatives, and suggestions from the 47 Degrees marketing team and Diversity Board. This is not, by any means, a complete list of possible actions, and has the possibility to grow and be enhanced.
We propose creating a comprehensive plan for the Scala Center to execute that covers a variety of diversity initiatives. For our purposes, we will refer to this group of actions as the Scala Center Diversity Initiative (SCDI). This will be located under the Scala Center brand and overseen by the Scala Center and Advisory Board.
Any SCDI information may be located on the Scala-Lang website which will serve as a home for all diversity initiatives, materials for mentors/mentees, sponsorship opportunities, partnerships, and associated resources.
The following includes some suggestions of SCDIs:
Create a series of programming, both talks and workshops, designed to be led by mentors or reputable companies in the field to facilitate this approved content locally.
These can be presented in two formats:
- Virtually (Using a platform for example as Zoom Webinars)
- In-Person
Some examples include:
Geared towards beginners:
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Scala Bridge workshops: Continue to help enhance Scala Bridge learning resources in addition to the current recommended Creative Scala programming. Help facilitate and encourage these programs to be hosted globally both in-person and virtually. Help provide and curate mentors.
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School presentations: partner with schools of all levels to give presentations or workshops to their students to encourage folks to disregard tech stereotypes, encourage careers in programming, and provide resources to teachers to help students.
Geared towards intermediate
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Special hackathons and/or group challenges: Similar to Scala Sprees, organize special events to work together, along with a few advanced mentors, to work on special OSS projects that are geared towards positive change or causes.
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Workshops: Intermediate to advanced workshops that can be offered free, or at a special rate with grants available for those who are unemployed/students.
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Additional mentorship towards becoming conference speakers. This is an important need in our community, and encouraging people to become speakers by providing speaking in public mentorships, advice, and guidance will go a long way in changing the face of the community.
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Create Summer Programs - perhaps similar in structure to Google’s Summer of Code.
Geared towards All levels:
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One-on-one mentorship programs: Find community leaders who are willing to join a mentorship program and connect them with mentees for peer-programming, encouragement, and other learning opportunities.
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Interview training: Help prepare those new to tech for interviewing with companies for internships, jobs, or other opportunities and encourage confidence.
All of these programs should have guidelines, suggested content/programming, and resources created by The Scala Center.
Contributing to open-source libraries is a great way for people to learn, contribute, and grow within the Scala (and programming in general) communities. The goal is to find a way to offer guidance to interested libraries to make them more welcoming and inclusive.
Outside of OSS outside of the Scala Center and Advisory Board's umbrella, we cannot control what other people do. What can we do to improve in this area?
- Create a suggested guideline for library maintainers to use if interested and include inclusive wording, steps on how to get started/guidelines on contributing, Code of Conduct, labeling "good first issues," and encourage library maintainers to offer mentorships to those who need some help and encouragement. A list of friendly resources and tools that can help people get started on the right foot.
Reach out to organizations like Women Who Code, Black Girls Code, Code 2040, Global Diversity CFP Day etc. and discuss possible partnerships and/or working together to offer educational resources and workshops as discussed above.
Partner with companies focused on Scala for internship programs and help with placement programs.
In addition, look to partner with conferences (both in-person and digital) for offering grants to conferences, speaker opportunities, and work to include diversity-oriented programming or events. For conference grants, a program that has a proven track record of driving significant volumes of high quality, diverse applicants through their grant program is Project Alloy and they are always open to discussing partnerships. Additionally, they help with setting up community experiences for recipients of the grants at various events.
Offer a resource program for Diversity media sponsorships of conferences that provide tickets/grants for the Scala Center to distribute.
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SCDI home: Create a page/s on the Scala-Lang site and link on the Scala Center site specifically for compiling diversity initiatives. This will serve as a home for all initiatives, materials for mentors/mentees, sponsorship opportunities, partnerships, and special resources for the program.
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Video Promotion: Create a variety of video promotional pieces to highlight diversity initiatives for different scenarios. Some initial ideas include:
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Scala Bridge ad with interviews of both mentors and mentees on the program, their experiences, the benefits, etc. Other pieces aimed at encouraging businesses to host/sponsor these events. CTA pieces for mentors, attendees.
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Promotional videos geared toward younger students.
- Example: What does a Programmer look like? Interview small children on their thoughts, then have quick shots of people from all backgrounds saying, "I'm a Scala Developer" or FP, etc.
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Soften marketing materials and make them more light-hearted. A great example of this that currently exists within the Functional Programming community is Impure Pics work. Another standout is the Gopher mascot from the Go programming language. These tend to be icons that are often shared, stuck on laptops, and easy to use with promoting.
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Scala Center Diversity newsletters featuring tips, small training videos or learning resources, job listings, conferences offering grants, CFPs, and other relevant resources for underrepresented groups.
As this is a long-term, ongoing project that will have a variety of variables regarding costs, we’ve put together the following MVP to get started:
Initial launch costs:
Set up initial goals by quarter with three initiatives selected by the board Designate a person in charge to oversee initiative (whether this is Darja or someone else): find sponsors, curate mentors, grow a diverse community database, outreach to organizations, schools, etc.
Some variables affecting cost:
- Amount of money the Scala Center wants to invest in programs versus rely on sponsorships.
- Whether mentors are willing to volunteer their time or request some fees.
- Whether companies come forward to sponsor programs.
- Cost of employee time to create programs.
To launch this initiative, at the very least, we estimate the following timescale: Creating an online presence as discussed above on Scala-Lang Appointing a person to oversee the initiative
We have not analyzed the time or cost for each suggested program because they are uncertain and depend on a variety of variables including constructing workshop and training criteria and content.