The rush of the initial application period is over. From August to September, we:
- Reviewed over 1,700 applications
- Approved 607 of them (around 34% of all applications we received)
This is the first time since I joined Outreachy we were able to review all applications: we finished this task last Sunday, two days before the contribution period starts. 🎉
When the initial application period and the contribution period happened at the same time, initial applications submitted too close to the deadline would put us on a awkward position: if we approved that application, that applicant wouldn’t have much time to work on a contribution and would get frustrated. A person who just found out about Outreachy, for instance, would have to wait until the next round to try again.
Our new schedule, on the other hand, allows many last minute applicants to have a chance right now. I received a meaningful amount of queries in the last seven days of our initial application period, and most people asked me if they still could submit an application… It was satisfying to tell them they still had time. I was even able to give a talk at a federal university one day before we closed our application period — and I definitely saw some names I heard that day among the last people who applied.
About that talk — that was the remote talk I mentioned on my last report. I spent a whole afternoon shooting what became a 36 minute video on Outreachy and Google Summer of Code. Organizers and attendees liked it, its quality was appropriate for a remote talk, but I definitely need better sound equipment and a bit more of knowledge on video and sound editing if I want to create videos to promote any future round.
Speaking about promotion, on October 1st I will have another meeting at IEL! I will probably receive some feedback on two last minute brochures about Outreachy I wrote in Portuguese this month. One is about Outreachy as a whole: our history, application process, eligibility criteria, organization. The other is about residents in Brazil who were selected to Outreachy: which projects select them more, in which state they live, etc. Depending on the feedback I get, I plan on making a few changes (like using open tools to make it easy to edit) and publishing them in English and Portuguese on our creative works repository.
The contribution period is about to start. I hope mentors and commmunity coordinators enjoy the new schedule as much as I did!