threads / discuss / 64288

[Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

Subject: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

## tl;dr

8 messages between Oct 9, 2025 and Oct 14, 2025.

replies: 7people: 4as markdown or json

Agatha· Oct 9, 2025, 22:09 UTC · lore
Hello!

My name is Ágatha Isabelle (pronouns she/her) and I'm (yet another) outreachy applicant for this cohort. I have some experience with C, developing mostly device drivers, a couple of patches in the mainline linux kernel, etc. I also do some assembly (x86/x64 & riscv a little) and C++. My goal at outreachy is to regain experience to work in software development again after some personal setbacks took me out for some years, while also contributing to an interesting open source software project like git.

I'm looking forward to interacting with the git community once again within the next few weeks during the application period.

Currently I'm looking through the documentation to get a better grasp of what is expected of us during this period. The doc says I'm supposed to send an introduction e-mail, so here I am. But I don't want to just do that, I would like to let you know I'm also working on choosing a microproject -- right now I am exploring some intersections between git's object model where objects are immutable and tightly linked to author metadata, and possible privacy concerns. Especially for people who would like to exercise their right to be forgotten and transgender individuals who might fear former name exposure in places where this information is protected by laws, tackling cases where a simple mailmap entry won't be enough and rewriting history would be way too disruptive.

I want to see if I can work on a microproject that helps to tackle those privacy concerns while keeping objects immutable and preserving git's design principles. As it's supposed to be a "micro" project, I plan to explore a small, concrete first step rather than attempting a full solution. Yet I would appreciate any input on that. I have a couple of ideas in mind to check if they are applicable too.

I think this would be of actual significance for several groups of individuals, especially for transgender software developers who face a lot of challenges to get in the tech industry, even when they have years of experience. While in some places linking their current names to their former names might even be dangerous, or at least lead to embarrassment, losing credit for their contributions to avoid exposing deadnames could also be a limiting factor towards obtaining employment in tech.

I’d be happy to discuss whether similar ideas have been explored before, or hear pointers to related prior discussions.

Best, Ágatha Isabelle

Immaculate Atim· Oct 9, 2025, 23:35 UTC · re: Agatha · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

Hello Agatha,

Welcome here. Please feel free to reachout to this mailing list or the mentors in case you get challenges while working on your micro project.

Best regards,
On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 1:15 AM Agatha <code@agatha.dev> wrote:
Show 48 quoted lines
>
> Hello!
>
> My name is Ágatha Isabelle (pronouns she/her) and I'm (yet another)
> outreachy applicant for this cohort. I have some experience with C,
> developing mostly device drivers, a couple of patches in the mainline
> linux kernel, etc. I also do some assembly (x86/x64 & riscv a little)
> and C++. My goal at outreachy is to regain experience to work in
> software development again after some personal setbacks took me out for
> some years, while also contributing to an interesting open source
> software project like git.
>
> I'm looking forward to interacting with the git community once again
> within the next few weeks during the application period.
>
> Currently I'm looking through the documentation to get a better grasp of
> what is expected of us during this period. The doc says I'm supposed to
> send an introduction e-mail, so here I am. But I don't want to just do
> that, I would like to let you know I'm also working on choosing a
> microproject -- right now I am exploring some intersections between
> git's object model where objects are immutable and tightly linked to
> author metadata, and possible privacy concerns. Especially for people
> who would like to exercise their right to be forgotten and transgender
> individuals who might fear former name exposure in places where this
> information is protected by laws, tackling cases where a simple mailmap
> entry won't be enough and rewriting history would be way too disruptive.
>
> I want to see if I can work on a microproject that helps to tackle those
> privacy concerns while keeping objects immutable and preserving git's
> design principles. As it's supposed to be a "micro" project, I plan to
> explore a small, concrete first step rather than attempting a full
> solution. Yet I would appreciate any input on that. I have a couple of
> ideas in mind to check if they are applicable too.
>
> I think this would be of actual significance for several groups of
> individuals, especially for transgender software developers who face a
> lot of challenges to get in the tech industry, even when they have years
> of experience. While in some places linking their current names to their
> former names might even be dangerous, or at least lead to embarrassment,
> losing credit for their contributions to avoid exposing deadnames could
> also be a limiting factor towards obtaining employment in tech.
>
> I’d be happy to discuss whether similar ideas have been explored before,
> or hear pointers to related prior discussions.
>
> Best,
> Ágatha Isabelle
>
-- 
Immaculate!
Agatha Isabelle Chris Moreira Guedes· Oct 9, 2025, 23:59 UTC · re: Immaculate Atim · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

Hello, Immaculate!
On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 02:35:42AM +0300, Immaculate Atim wrote:
Show 5 quoted lines
> Hello Agatha,
> 
> Welcome here. Please feel free to reachout to this mailing list or the
> mentors in case you get challenges while working on your micro
> project.
Thanks a lot!
Usman Akinyemi· Oct 10, 2025, 06:31 UTC · re: Immaculate Atim · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 5:05 AM Immaculate Atim <immaculateatim56@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Hi Immaculate,
Show 5 quoted lines
> Hello Agatha,
>
> Welcome here. Please feel free to reachout to this mailing list or the
> mentors in case you get challenges while working on your micro
> project.
Thanks for this.

Importantly and I hope other contributors can see this, We do not "top post" when replying to email in Git. You can find more information about this in [1].

Thank you. [1]: https://git.github.io/General-Microproject-Information/

>
Immaculate Atim· Oct 10, 2025, 09:21 UTC · re: Usman Akinyemi · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 9:31 AM Usman Akinyemi <usmanakinyemi202@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines
>
> On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 5:05 AM Immaculate Atim
> <immaculateatim56@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> Hi Immaculate,
> > Hello Agatha,
> >
> > Welcome here. Please feel free to reachout to this mailing list or the
> > mentors in case you get challenges while working on your micro
> > project.
> Thanks for this.
>
> Importantly and I hope other contributors can see this,
> We do not "top post" when replying to email in Git. You can find more
> information about this in [1].
>
> Thank you.
> [1]: https://git.github.io/General-Microproject-Information/
> >

Thanks for the clarification, Usman! I’ve read through the link you shared and I have learned more. I’ll make sure to follow this format in all my future mailing list messages.

Best,
-- 
Immaculate!
Usman Akinyemi· Oct 10, 2025, 06:26 UTC · re: Agatha · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 3:39 AM Agatha <code@agatha.dev> wrote:
>
> Hello!
Hello Agatha,
Show 9 quoted lines
>
> My name is Ágatha Isabelle (pronouns she/her) and I'm (yet another)
> outreachy applicant for this cohort. I have some experience with C,
> developing mostly device drivers, a couple of patches in the mainline
> linux kernel, etc. I also do some assembly (x86/x64 & riscv a little)
> and C++. My goal at outreachy is to regain experience to work in
> software development again after some personal setbacks took me out for
> some years, while also contributing to an interesting open source
> software project like git.

Nice to hear you are interested in the Git project and hopefully you will regain experience while contributing to the Git project.

Show 23 quoted lines
>
> I'm looking forward to interacting with the git community once again
> within the next few weeks during the application period.
>
> Currently I'm looking through the documentation to get a better grasp of
> what is expected of us during this period. The doc says I'm supposed to
> send an introduction e-mail, so here I am. But I don't want to just do
> that, I would like to let you know I'm also working on choosing a
> microproject -- right now I am exploring some intersections between
> git's object model where objects are immutable and tightly linked to
> author metadata, and possible privacy concerns. Especially for people
> who would like to exercise their right to be forgotten and transgender
> individuals who might fear former name exposure in places where this
> information is protected by laws, tackling cases where a simple mailmap
> entry won't be enough and rewriting history would be way too disruptive.
>
> I want to see if I can work on a microproject that helps to tackle those
> privacy concerns while keeping objects immutable and preserving git's
> design principles. As it's supposed to be a "micro" project, I plan to
> explore a small, concrete first step rather than attempting a full
> solution. Yet I would appreciate any input on that. I have a couple of
> ideas in mind to check if they are applicable too.
>

At Git, you are free to work on anything that interests you. Meanwhile, the Outreachy contribution phase is not that long enough to work on some issues/tasks/projects so, you might want to take that into consideration while picking a microproject to work on.

To iterate, the main purpose of Microproject is to get new contributors acquainted with the Git project workflow. [1] gives a good description of our expectation for microproject. [2] Gives the examples of Microproject done by previous contributors. Other important information can be found in [3] and [4].

Just to iterate, you can always work on anything that interests you as a microproject or after the microproject. Most of the selected past interns whether Outreachy and GSoC finds Git interesting and they do send more patches after their microproject.

Show 10 quoted lines
> I think this would be of actual significance for several groups of
> individuals, especially for transgender software developers who face a
> lot of challenges to get in the tech industry, even when they have years
> of experience. While in some places linking their current names to their
> former names might even be dangerous, or at least lead to embarrassment,
> losing credit for their contributions to avoid exposing deadnames could
> also be a limiting factor towards obtaining employment in tech.
>
> I’d be happy to discuss whether similar ideas have been explored before,
> or hear pointers to related prior discussions.

While I do might not have much information about this, I will allow other contributors to answer it.

>
> Best,
> Ágatha Isabelle

[1]: https://git.github.io/General-Microproject-Information/ [2]: https://git.github.io/SoC-2025-Microprojects/ [3]: https://git-scm.com/docs/MyFirstContribution [4]: https://git.github.io/Hacking-Git/

Agatha Isabelle Chris Moreira Guedes· Oct 10, 2025, 13:38 UTC · re: Usman Akinyemi · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 11:56:14AM +0530, Usman Akinyemi wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 3:39 AM Agatha <code@agatha.dev> wrote:
> >
> > Hello!
> Hello Agatha,
Thanks for replying, Usman!
Show 28 quoted lines
> >
> > I'm looking forward to interacting with the git community once again
> > within the next few weeks during the application period.
> >
> > Currently I'm looking through the documentation to get a better grasp of
> > what is expected of us during this period. The doc says I'm supposed to
> > send an introduction e-mail, so here I am. But I don't want to just do
> > that, I would like to let you know I'm also working on choosing a
> > microproject -- right now I am exploring some intersections between
> > git's object model where objects are immutable and tightly linked to
> > author metadata, and possible privacy concerns. Especially for people
> > who would like to exercise their right to be forgotten and transgender
> > individuals who might fear former name exposure in places where this
> > information is protected by laws, tackling cases where a simple mailmap
> > entry won't be enough and rewriting history would be way too disruptive.
> >
> > I want to see if I can work on a microproject that helps to tackle those
> > privacy concerns while keeping objects immutable and preserving git's
> > design principles. As it's supposed to be a "micro" project, I plan to
> > explore a small, concrete first step rather than attempting a full
> > solution. Yet I would appreciate any input on that. I have a couple of
> > ideas in mind to check if they are applicable too.
> >
> At Git, you are free to work on anything that interests you. Meanwhile,
> the Outreachy contribution phase is not that long enough to work on
> some issues/tasks/projects so, you might want to take that into consideration
> while picking a microproject to work on.
> 

Alright then, while I would like a lot to work on that I'll hold on for now.

Show 13 quoted lines
> To iterate, the main purpose of Microproject is to get new
> contributors acquainted
> with the Git project workflow. [1] gives a good description of our
> expectation for microproject. [2] Gives the examples of Microproject
> done by previous contributors.
> Other important information can be found in [3] and [4].
> 
> Just to iterate, you can always work on anything that interests you as
> a microproject or
> after the microproject. Most of the selected past interns whether
> Outreachy and GSoC
> finds Git interesting and they do send more patches after their microproject.
> 

I will. First will do a microproject from the list, then, and later will try to work on that.

I thought the list from GSoC was possibly outdated so didn't give a look, but I see now that the suggestions are generic enough and likely apply to several cases.

Best, Ágatha Isabelle

Christian Couder· Oct 14, 2025, 09:14 UTC · re: Agatha · lore

Re: [Outreachy] Introduction (Ágatha)

Hi Agatha,
On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 12:09 AM Agatha <code@agatha.dev> wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
> I think this would be of actual significance for several groups of
> individuals, especially for transgender software developers who face a
> lot of challenges to get in the tech industry, even when they have years
> of experience. While in some places linking their current names to their
> former names might even be dangerous, or at least lead to embarrassment,
> losing credit for their contributions to avoid exposing deadnames could
> also be a limiting factor towards obtaining employment in tech.
>
> I’d be happy to discuss whether similar ideas have been explored before,
> or hear pointers to related prior discussions.
One recent related discussion was about the following commit:
1f0fed312a (SubmittingPatches: allow non-real name contributions, 2025-07-16)
(See https://lore.kernel.org/git/20250706163009.335780-1-sandals@crustytoothpaste.net/#r)

I think there were previous related discussions about the mailmap file, but I don't remember about any specific one.

Thanks for your interest in contributing to Git.

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