In 2021, we launched All In to provide the open source community with an opportunity to work together to create a powerful movement for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). From supporting over 300 students through our All in for Students program, to capturing 7,000+ voices in the 2021 Open Source DEI Survey and hosting 300 community members in the Maintainers Listening Tour, we have listened, we have learned, and now we are ready to build the next initiative for All In.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of our All In for Maintainers initiative and its first program—the All In for Maintainers DEI Resource Hub. All In for Maintainers is a comprehensive initiative that seeks to provide maintainers with the training and technical support they need to advance diversity and inclusion within their communities. The newly launched DEI Resource Hub has been built by maintainers, for maintainers. We invite you to learn more about the importance of this resource and take a peek into what the new DEI Resource Hub has to offer.
Supporting maintainers in building more inclusive communities
A maintainer is to an open source community what a manager is to a team within an organization. Maintainers and community leaders have direct influence on what takes place in the community; they set the tone for inclusion, and whether someone feels welcome, or unwelcome, in an open source project.
With this in mind, we’ve focused our efforts to open source diversity and inclusion by honing in on the experience of the maintainer. In 2021, we conducted the Maintainers Listening Tour, which helped us to identify critical challenges maintainers face when advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within their communities.
Inclusion happens at the community level.
One of the most common challenges we hear from maintainers is not knowing where to start, or who to turn to for support when seeking to make advancements in DEI for their community or project. We found that maintainers are overwhelmed by the number of DEI resources available and want a website or repository where they can find a starting point for DEI resources in one place.
So, we built one! Well, we all did, together as a community of open source practitioners and DEI thought leaders. Below are a few examples of the type of content you can find on the hub:
- Inclusive leadership:
- Accessibility:
- Burnout and well-being:
Contributing to open sourcing diversity, equity, and inclusion
In this process of co-creation and resource sharing, we intend to ensure that this hub remains updated and aligned to what maintainers need to create and support an inclusive community. We want to continue expanding the conversations and providing research, tools, and data that will be necessary as open source communities and the demographics of software developers evolve. And that’s where you come in! Do you have DEI content that has been helpful to you and your community and want to share? Please submit resources for inclusion in the DEI Resource Hub by filling out the DEI Content Submission form.
By working together, we can ensure everyone has access to the tools needed to champion inclusive and diverse spaces in open source. By doing so, we hope to build upon the initial tenets of open source by fostering collaboration and transparency and creating a more diverse and inclusive community together.
What’s next for the DEI Resource Hub
Today’s launch of the DEI Resource Hub is just the start of All In for Maintainers. It honors the time and voices of the maintainers we have connected with over the past two years to share their experiences and aspirations for the future state of open source communities. We hope the DEI Resource Hub will provide an on-ramp for maintainers to gain access to the resources they need to ensure their communities are inclusive and welcoming to all.
Continue to check our website and repository for updates on iterations to the DEI Resource Hub and announcements on the next launch for the All In for Maintainers program.
