Re: Call for OPW project ideas

[Karen Sandler <karen gnome org>]

On 2014-09-29 13:13, Germán Poo-Caamaño wrote:
> [only foundation-list]
>
> On Sat, 2014-09-27 at 13:13 -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Germán Poo-Caamaño" <gpoo gnome org>
> > On Sat, 2014-09-27 at 11:45 -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote:
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Germán Poo-Caamaño" <gpoo gnome org>
> > > > To: "Marina Zhurakhinskaya" <marinaz redhat com>
> > > > Cc: "GNOME Foundation" <foundation-list gnome org>, "desktop-devel-list"
> > > > <desktop-devel-list gnome org>
> > > > Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 11:23:34 AM
> > > > Subject: Re: Call for OPW project ideas
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, 2014-09-26 at 23:48 -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote:
> > > > > Dear Foundation,
> > > > >
> > > > > The application process for the new round of Outreach Program for
> > > > > Women internships has recently started, and we are looking for people
> > > > > willing to mentor GNOME projects in this round. Because we only
> > > > > usually have a few participants in OPW, this round we would only like
> > > > > to offer projects that are most strategic for GNOME. These include,
> > > > > but are not limited to, projects in the area of privacy [1], developer
> > > > > experience, GTK+ [2], core experience, core applications [3], and web
> > > > > infrastructure. We would also like people to think ahead of time how
> > > > > they will be able to provide excellent mentorship to the interns
> > > > > before, during, and after the internship, and whether there is a
> > > > > larger project team the intern will be able to receive support from.
> > > > > Matthias Clasen, Allan Day, and Sriram Ramkrishna have kindly agreed
> > > > > to be a part of a cross-team triage committee for proposed project
> > > > > ideas. Please add ideas you are willing to mentor to the wiki page for
> > > > > the round [4] by early next week.
> > > >
> > > > Hi Marina,
> > > >
> > > > Will the mentors still be required to sign a document that makes them
> > > > legally liable?
> > >
> > > Hi Germán,
> > >
> > > Yes. The legal liability is only for gross negligence, recklessness or
> > > intentional wrongdoing. This is covered on
> > > https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen#Contracts
> > >
> > > This is not unique to OPW. GSoC has similar terms mentors have to
> > > agree to, which are much more broad -
> > > http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2014/org_admin_agreement
> > > .
> >
> > The difference is that the GSoC agreement is between the organization
> > and Google, no mentor becomes legally liable (though, IANAL).
>
> By having agreements directly with mentors, we recognize that free
> software organizations that participate might only have a limited
> control over the mentors who participate.
>
> Is there other venues to address a possible issue? For example,
> requiring the organization to look for an alternate mentor in case of
> problem.

That is a mechanism we certainly would use, but it doesn't protect the 
Foundation in the extreme cases that the agreement is written for.

> Making legally liable a volunteer who is giving time and work for free
> is asymmetrical, where the volunteer has nothing to win, but a lot to
> lose.

On the other hand, mentors have a tremendous amount of control over the 
internship. What situations are you worried about? When I read  "gross 
negligence, recklessness or intentional wrongdoing" I think of 
situations like:

* a mentor stalks and harasses an intern
* an intern tells a mentor that she feels like she is in danger of 
imminent harm due to behavior by other contributors and the mentor 
doesn't tell anyone or do anything.
* a mentor physically attacks an intern at a conference

Also I should note that we originally thought to put the legal 
infrastructure in place because a donor asked for it as part of their 
diligence related to reviewing the program.

karen