Fedora Women’s Day (FWD) is a day to celebrate and bring visibility to female contributors in open source projects including Fedora. The initiative is led by Fedora’s Diversity and Inclusion team. The call for proposals for event organizers is now open until Thursday, 16 August 2018!

During September, in collaboration with other members of different open source communities including Fedora, women in tech groups or hacker spaces, we plan to organize talks, workshops and meetups around the world. These events highlight and celebrate the women in open source communities like Fedora and their invaluable contributions to their projects and community. They also give a good opportunity for women to learn about free and open source software and jump-start their journey in open source as a user or a contributor. They also give a platform for women to connect, learn and be inspired by other women in open source communities and beyond.

This year yet again, we are looking forward to organizing FWD across different locations around the world. We are looking to collaborate with members of different open source communities including Fedora, women in tech groups or hacker spaces to organize Fedora Women’s Day!

Here are our top 5 reasons on why you should attend a Fedora Women’s Day!

• Curious about open source software? Get an introduction to open source with an idea of what projects you could take part in and get more involved with their local communities.
•  Want to meet inspiring and talented people from across the world?  Open source projects run on the power of a talented community. At FWD. you will have a platform to meet supportive, inspiring and talented open source community members and connect with them.
• Looking to build skills or resume ? Contributing to open source is a great way to build skills and practice teamwork and planning.  Learn from experienced open source contributors about getting started in the open source project.
• Have some free time and want to make a real impact on a global project? Open source is more than technology. It involves documentation, finding and reporting bugs, writing blogs, marketing, financing, and design.  Open source lets you get involved in anything that interests you, regardless of your background or experience.
• Want to connect with other women involved in similar areas? If you are someone who gains inspiration from other talented women, then FWD is the right place for you. You will have a platform to grow at whatever you feel inclined to and meet supportive mentors.

Why should you organize a Fedora Women’s Day in your community?

If you are an individual,

• Do you want to share your knowledge and experience in open source with others and spread the message of open source?
• Do you want to  help grow and build your local community?
• Do you want to find interested users or contributors for your project?
• Do you want to get more involved with Fedora community ?
• Do you want to develop your leadership and creative skills?
• Do you want to empower women in your local community through open source tools and help them learn and build their skills ?

If you answered YES to any of these,  we encourage you to organize a Fedora Women’s Day(FWD) event in your local community. We especially encourage applications from Fedora community members and encourage them to apply irrespective of their gender, background or experience.  We are also very excited to connect with members of local open source or tech communities, hacker spaces and women in tech groups and support them to host a FWD event in their community.  

If you are a community or a hacker space,

• Share information about benefits of open source and different open source tools and alternatives.
• Connect with developers, designers and people from diverse backgrounds and grow your community!
• Empower the women in your local community through open source tools and enable them to learn and build their skills while contributing to a global project.

If you cannot organize a Fedora Women’s Day this year but know an individual or a community (e.g. PyLadies, Women Who Code, etc.) who might be interested in organizing a  FWD event, feel free to let us know through our mailing list!

Steps to organize FWD event

Cannot find a FWD in your region? Organize one! It’s simple with these steps.

Identify your goals

• Find out the motivations and interests of your local community.
• Do they know about Fedora and open source? If not, use your event to create awareness about Fedora and open source.
• Are they interested in contributing to Fedora or open source? Make your content specific to their interests, if possible.
• Are they interested in networking? We can help you find local open source contributors from your region.
• Brainstorm and share ideas with the Diversity & Inclusion Team that you feel make an impact to your audience and help them learn to contribute to Fedora and open source.

Tell us about it

• Use this wiki to read more about the proposal process
• Submit a proposal ticket by Thursday, 16 August 2018 to the fedora-womens-day repository on Pagure using the ticket template
  • See this example proposal
  • You can also request budget for your event to be reimbursed after writing an event report

Spread the word

Start early! Spread the word before and after the event. Gather as many participants as you can for your event to maximize the impact of efforts you put in. You can also invite fellow Fedora contributors based in your area to collaborate with you.

It is important to estimate your audience in advance to plan and ask for a suitable budget.

Get your proposal accepted

Review the Diversity & Inclusion Team goals for Fedora Women’s Day while planning your event. Connect with other hacker-spaces and tech communities to enhance your proposal by involving other communities. Understand the need of your audience and make a personalized proposal that fits the best. Identify any resources you might need to conduct a Fedora Women’s Day event and let us know if you need any help. We accept proposals on a rolling basis till the deadline however, we encourage early submissions to better support organizers in planning their event. (write about swag delivery etc reasons? better phrase it)

Once your proposal is accepted, work together with Diversity and Inclusion team to organize a successful event!

Diversity and Inclusion team can provide organizers with support, guidelines and resources to organize a successful event. After you are done with the event, let others have an idea of fun you had, by clicking some interesting group pictures and writing an event report.

Important dates

• Submission deadline: Thursday, 16 August 2018
• Acceptance deadline: Friday, 24 August 2018
  • This is the latest date you hear from the D&I Team if your proposal is accepted
• Suggested FWD dates: 22-23 September 2018

Note: There is flexibility on dates for organizing FWD. Thus, an event can be organized on any dates throughout September if the suggested dates are inconvenient for you. Proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis, so the earlier you send a proposal, the better the chances are of getting feedback and support early.