Git Inclusion Summit

Hello Git community,

There's been some conversation about holding a virtual contributor summit focused on inclusion [1]. I've volunteered to work with Jonathan Nieder’s team on organizing this event.

The purpose of this inclusion summit is to engage core Git contributors as active participants in diversity and inclusion initiatives for the Git project. As mentioned [2] "to align and coordinate, to set out goals that we want to agree on." This is part of a broader goal to make the Git version control system better support inclusive open source projects. The summit will give contributors the opportunity to learn about and share perspectives on inclusive culture, product inclusion, and career development.

This can be run unconference style like previous contributor summits: we'll use a spreadsheet to choose and vote on topics. This event will be a success if we walk away with specific recommendations on where and how Git will make changes to improve the experiences of underrepresented users in the Git project, and how to make the Git project better represent the needs of current and potential users.

It was mentioned in [1] that we should have conversations about equity and inclusion with more diverse voices present. But we also don’t want to put a burden on individuals coming to educate us about things that we should be researching for ourselves. To that end, we are meeting with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) experts for guidance and will have recommendations to incorporate into the summit. Prior to the summit, we will send out some resources to look through ahead of time.

Who all are invited?

Git core contributors on https://lore.kernel.org/git/., anyone interested in teaching OSS projects about DEI.

If your network includes any groups or individuals who focus on educating others about DEI, you're welcome to invite them or contact summit organizers to learn more. We prefer groups and individuals who are in the business of educating on inclusion, or if they are volunteers, already explicitly expressed their interest in volunteering rather than being asked, as we want to be very mindful of free emotional labor. A bonus for knowledge of inclusion in open source. We can widen our understanding by asking non-Git contributors to come share their perspectives for some or all of the summit.

When? Anytime between mid August - mid September. To get consensus on preferred dates [3], including summit duration and times, please vote at the whenisgood link below by Thursday, July 30th. Please specify in comments if you prefer a .5 day, 1 day, 1.5 days or other for the event duration.

Next Steps: Once a reasonable consensus has been reached, we’ll set the date and time, ask for RSVPs via email, and send a planning spreadsheet to start proposing topics and crowdsourcing the agenda.

I have questions, who should I contact?

For questions or concerns, please reach out to git-inclusion@googlegroups.com

Interested in helping to plan this event? Email git-inclusion@googlegroups.com to join

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/20200610222719.GE148632@google.com [2]https://lore.kernel.org/git/nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.2006121525140.56@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet/ [3] http://whenisgood.net/9z2diyy

Thanks, Carmen Andoh Open Source Programs Office, Google