GitHub's Social Impact, Tech for Social Good team has announced Activating Developers, an initiative whose long-term goal is to empower 50,000 more GitHub users to contribute to social good projects. New programs and projects are planned over the coming year, starting with the Open Source (OS) Community Manager Program.
The program supports seven digital public goods (DPGs)—open source projects that align with the Sustainable Development Goals and have taken steps to do no harm. Some participating projects are currently DPGs; others are planning to become DPGs.
Participating projects
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| Uli Website | GitHub Browser extension and tech tools for relief and collective response against online gender-based violence on social media in India. | Open Terms Archive Website | GitHub Empower users and regulators by recording, publicly archiving, and making readable every change to the terms of digital services. | Chayn Website | GitHub Supports survivors of gender-based violence with free, multilingual, online resources, such as video courses, step-by-step guides, and webchat. | OpenFisca Website | GitHub Write Rules as Code: model legislation, build apps to help citizens and businesses understand it, assess regulations, and design reforms. |
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| Uwazi Website | GitHub A flexible open source database application to organize information, with a focus on document management. Supporting dozens of human rights organizations globally. | if-me.org Website | GitHub A free, open source mental health communication platform for marginalized communities, including refugee and immigrant communities of color. The app is translated into 13+ languages. | Social Income Website | GitHub A radically simple solution in the fight against poverty. The global initiative turns 1% of everyone’s salary into an unconditional basic income for people living in poverty–sent directly to their mobile phones. |
The OS community manager role
An OS community manager's overall goal is to reduce barriers to external GitHub contributions to a DPG. The role can involve growing and supporting the project's online communities, managing GitHub issues, discussions and project boards, supporting project management, and helping onboard new contributors. Specific applicant criteria vary by DPG and are listed on the program page.
Why the role exists
Creating, growing and maintaining external contributor communities is critical to DPG sustainability, but maintainers face considerable challenges: finding, vetting and onboarding potential contributors takes too much time. The program is intended to supply the capacity needed to grow these contributor communities and their long-term sustainability and positive impact.
Applying
Applications are open until April 10, 2023 (close of business day, U.S. ET). The program page covers how the program will run, the benefits of applying, the timeline and eligibility requirements.
