July 12, 2020

DAKAR’S NEW ALLY, ASWF DIVERSITY & INCLUSION SPECIAL OPS

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ASWF D&I Working Group – Draft External Goals

 

External-Facing Goals – focus areas for improving diversity & inclusion outside of the AWSF and it’s member companies

  1. Encourage high school and college students to pursue a career or participate in open source projects by educating them about how the motion picture and media industries use it for visual effects, animation, and more.
  1. Develop a mentorship program targeted at High School and College students, partnering with ASWF projects.
    1. Spend a day with an open source professional
    2. Long term mentorship
  • Active open source coding opportunities
  1. Partner with external organizations that promote coding in underrepresented populations
    • Improve Open Source Involvement
  1. Think global, act local
  2. Each community globally has different underrepresented populations.  Partnering with a range of organizations that span our communities will allow for interaction with many different people.
    1. Partner with universities and high schools to influence teaching curriculum and provide materials that schools can use to increase knowledge of open source, vfx, and animation among students

  1. Pilot this with a university and high school in SF/LA, London, and Sydney?
  2. Potential for-credit mentorships/internships
  1. Webinars
    • “What is open-source?”
  1. “How does OpenVDB help make movies?”
  2. “What is the ASWF?”
  1. Create open source project tutorials for all of the ASWF projects
  2. Through all external outreach, showcase diverse talent
    • Everyone should have a seat at the table
  1. “You look like me”
  2. Provide role models

ASWF D&I Working Group – Draft Internal Goals

Internal-Facing Goals – focus areas for improving diversity and inclusion within the ASWF and its member projects.

  1. Ensure that the ASWF has a diverse leadership across the Foundation and projects.
  1. Establish D&I goals for ASWF leadership working with the TAC and Board. Including but not limited to:
    1. Inclusive language in charters, documentation, and code
    2. Diverse representation on the TAC, Board, and all member project TSCs
  2. Work with project TSCs to make it easier for diverse communities to get involved in open source communities by lowering the barrier to entry and providing a clear path for participation.
    • Ensure that projects have easy getting started guides, how-tos, first issues for newcomers
  1. Identify opportunities for mentorship within the projects – technical and non-technical – along with potential mentors.
  2. Work with projects to identify:
    1. What are your current stats (so we can start to track metrics, not meant to be a reprimand or anything negative)
    2. What are your roadblocks to better D&I?
    3. How can the D&I help your project expand in the area of D&I?
  • In-reach – better enable ASWF members to educate their colleagues internally about open source, especially among junior engineers and internal D&I organizations.
    1. Work with ASWF members to identify:
      1. What are the barriers to entry
      2. What is the current path to involvement
  • Can we help with internal messaging/marketing to encourage participation (especially as a way to grow junior engineers?)
  1. Is there a path towards recognition/internship/employment opportunities based on involvement with ASWF projects relevant to their respective companies?
  1. Develop Thought Leadership and Educational Content (this could also be outreach-oriented as well, so some overlap)
    • D&I / Unconscious Bias / Allyship Training
  1. Blogs from ASWF members on relevant topics?
  2. Info sessions / highlights / office hours for member projects for curious/curated individuals to learn more
  3. External Blogs