Research question: Mentorship mechanisms

[jwflory]

I was reviewing the research questions for this work, and I was intrigued by Q3:

"What human rights centred design mechanisms and resources could support collaborative HOSS for communities of practice engaged in data-based activism and social justice?"

I'm not sure of the tie-in to a human-centered approach, but lately I am thinking a lot about the role of mentorship. I think the humanitarian sector thrives on collaboration and working together, but taking that to an Open Source / technology perspective is new. This is where mentorship can play a significant role to reduce the time to get others up to speed and understand community norms and best practices.

I don't have a particular purpose or question, but I am curious to better understand how other organizations approach mentorship, perhaps outside of a technology context. Are there common themes we could apply from other mentorship models to an Open Source one? How can experienced but often overburdened folks better prioritize or make space for mentorship of junior colleagues or co-workers?

[Erioldoesdesign]

I think the questions you have towards the end of your statement around mentorship models, above could be asked of 'well established' or 'successful' (criteria of established and successful TBC) design organisations and programs and then theoretically mapped to humanitarian open-source spaces through open conversations with the 'hosts' of humanitarian OSS projects or, if there was an appetite to, test these models within these HOSS projects and observe/record data.

I think there's already a few organisations I'd likely reach out to if this became a feature of the research but just off the top of my head:
https://adplist.org/
https://ixda.org/community/
https://www.designbuddies.community/

And there are loads more mentorship programs that escape my brain. I also think the notes from Simply Secure's fellowship underexposed could be studied more deeply and mapped as well as what open source design may plan for if the decision to spend our funds lands on the option to run a Intership/fellowship program is decided on.

There's likely a lot that can be learned from generally engaging with designers that have roles where they 'manage' others around mentorship too - though for these folks (and the orgs above) the concept of 'open' might be unfamiliar and the 'piece' that may need to come from other common OSS mentoring processes.