DRAFT: this is not official policy of the Outreach team, it is currently a draft for community discussion
Google's policies
- these vary from year to year
- all evaluations must be completed or Debian doesn't get places at the summit
- mentors who want to go to the summit must have Google accounts and be linked to a student or registered as organization admins
Principles
- all mentors put effort into the program so no matter how the mentors are selected, every mentor should have some chance to be selected for the summit
- ideally, the criteria should be decided and mentors should be informed about the criteria from the beginning of the year (before putting any effort in to the program)
Ideas for selection criteria
- Some of these ideas are contradictory but it may be possible to select two different candidates who are opposites in some sense so that all objectives are fulfilled.
- prioritize people who never attended the summit before
- event experience: somebody who hasn't been to any other major events recently/ever
- first time mentoring: somebody who never mentored in any program like this with any organization before
- experienced mentor: somebody who has strong mentoring experience/skills to share
- representing Debian: somebody who represents Debian well, having a thorough understanding of Debian's values and philosophy
- wider Debian experience: somebody who has done other things in Debian
- new to Debian: somebody who is new to Debian
- diversity: somebody who is not a (white) male from a wealthy country or privileged background
- publicity: somebody who makes regular use of blogging or other communications platforms and will report back to the rest of the Debian community
Not a factor in the decision process
- US visa policies, as these often lead to a racist bias
- financial means
Process
- can the decision be made publicly?
- or do the admins need to make a final decision?
- any admin with a conflict of interest (wanting to attend the summit) may need to be excluded from the decision by setting up a sub-group or selection committee
- decisions need to be made a lot sooner than Google's official deadline to allow people to get leave approval, visa applications and best travel prices
References
procedure used in 2016 was random selection, with priority to mentors who never attended the summit before