Introduction

University Outreach program is a new initiative that aims to create a bond between educational institutions and the GNOME community. We will focus on reaching out to universities to help them adopt GNOME technologies and start to contribute to the project, benefiting students, institutions, faculties, and free software communities.

Goals and Actions

1. Increase awareness of our technologies:
   • Present a case for GNOME technologies to university decision makers in order to encourage adoption of these technologies in their computer labs and classrooms, e.g. Provide materials to show how GNOME technologies are used in day-to-day desktops stations, phones, education, science, and more.
   • Provide basic documentation for how to introduce these technologies, e.g. A curated list of existing introductory tutorials and materials.
   • Provide workshops on these technologies and appreciation certificates, e.g. Courses on app creation with GTK and distribution with flatpak.
2. Increase awareness of our community and the opportunities to participate:
   • Present the GNOME newcomers guide and other related projects like Outreachy, Google Summer of Code, and the GNOME internship program [1,2,3].
   • Sponsor outstanding students travels to GNOME events or to represent GNOME at events [4].
3. Establish a network of GNOME students:
   • Provide students with communication channels to share experiences and knowledge [5,6].
   • Empower students to create their own GNOME events by providing support and documentation on running events.
   • Provide funding for students exchange between their own GNOME events.

Benefits for GNOME Students

• Learn the technologies behind one of the most popular Linux desktops.
• Learn from talented contributors who have professional backgrounds in top tech companies.
• Expand your professional network and experience within the FLOSS community.
• Train communication, leadership and other important skills.

How to Participate

If you are interested in hosting an event in your school, university or in the local community:

1. Make sure you have permission from the institution or the venue. A written agreement, email or contract works too.

2. Send us an email to <universityoutreach AT SPAMFREE gnome DOT org> and let us know about your plans, e.g. How many people you think might join, dates, time and venue.

3. Provide us with an approximate amount of funding you will need in order to get some swags as stickers, key chains etc. Depending on your location, GNOME team may send you the stickers via mail or the stickers might be printed locally. You can use the following form to request budget for your the event, https://wiki.gnome.org/Engagement/Requests/Funding.

4. Create your event at https://events.gnome.org/category/5/

Send out the link to all attendees to register, you can also use this to add all the information and schedule for the event.

We will help you with the application and through all the steps.

Notes Regarding COVID-19

Many countries around the world are experiencing this outbreak and citizens have been asked to remain at home. If you would like to have an online meetup, please do. We can assist you with the platform for the call and find online GNOME speakers to join you.

Contact

Anyone interested in supporting this initiative can contact us via:

• <universityoutreach AT SPAMFREE gnome DOT org>

• Rocket.Chat

• Discourse

Links

1. https://wiki.gnome.org/Newcomers

2. https://www.outreachy.org/

3. https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/

4. https://wiki.gnome.org/Events

5. http://chat.gnome.org/

6. https://discourse.gnome.org/