All In marks its first year with a completed student pilot
GitHub launched All In roughly a year ago as an open source community focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in open source. The initiative has grown to include more than 1,000 community members, 17 founding partners, seven partner educational institutions, and survey responses from over 7,000 open source community members. The organization is now aiming for more than 100 partners and 300+ students in its next year.
Student pilot results
The first GitHub All In for Students cohort has completed its 12-month pilot program. More than 90% of the 30 participating students have accepted internship offers, with the remainder in final interview stages. The program was run in partnership with universities that have historically been excluded and under-resourced, working directly with department chairs and professors to support students from a range of lived experiences.
Selection criteria prioritised students who demonstrated resilience: those commuting long distances, providing caregiver support, working full time, serving in active duty military, or maintaining scholarships through year-round athletics. Support included stipends, technology resources, and additional curriculum covering technical education and career development.
The pilot was delivered with the Linux Foundation, Major League Hacking, All Things Open, the CHAOSS project, and employee resource groups from founding corporate partners GitHub, Microsoft, Red Hat, Cisco, Intel, and Fidelity.
Maintainer support groundwork
All In also laid the foundation for the All In for Maintainers program in 2021. The program aims to provide training and technical support to maintainers looking to advance diversity and inclusion in their communities. Initial work included a Maintainer's Listening Tour, comprising focus groups, individual interviews, and an asynchronous feedback process covering what works, what does not, what resources are missing, and what a support program should include.
The listening tour surfaced both longstanding and newly nuanced issues affecting inclusion in open source. Preliminary findings from the tour have been released, highlighting several requested areas of support: a centralised repository of DEI resources and programming, and tools for attracting and retaining contributors from diverse backgrounds. Specific requests covered accessibility audits, community hospitality techniques, code of conduct analysis, and inclusive language scans. The final report and recommendations are scheduled for release during Maintainer Month in June 2022.
Next steps
With the first year concluded, All In moves forward with findings from the student pilot, the Maintainer's Listening Tour, and early results from its Open Source DEI Survey. The organisation is inviting new community members and partners to join at allinopensource.org. GitHub's broader diversity, inclusion, and belonging commitments are documented here.
