As you all know, the Rust Foundation is here to support the Rust Project and communities in any way that we can. We announced in December that one of the ways that we would do this is through our Community Grants Program.
The Community Grants Program will be a mechanism to provide funds to the Rust development community to support their work. We want this mechanism to be fit for purpose. We want to target funding where it will be impactful. And we want to ensure that the Program is fair, inclusive and accountable.
We are in the process of thinking about how we achieve these goals in the way we structure the Program.
To inform this process, and to ensure we are targeting and prioritizing the right things, we need to hear from the people who it is designed to benefit - you. To that end, today we are opening a consultation survey on how we should shape the Community Grants Program.
The survey comprises 15 questions which are focused on how we can support you, and how we can sustain and grow the language and ecosystem. It should take between 5 - 15 minutes to complete. It will be open for responses for three weeks, until 20th February, and is available in multiple languages. Further information and an FAQ can be accessed within the survey or below.
This is an important process that will directly shape how we structure our awards, and I hope that you will share your thoughts and expertise to enable us to create a fair and impactful funding framework.
You can provide your response to the survey here:
- English
- French
- German
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Portuguese
- Japanese
- Korean
- Spanish
- Russian
I am excited to hear your ideas, and look forward to sharing updates on the Community Grants Program once the survey has closed.
Information about the CGP / FAQ #
In this FAQ we try to answer your questions about the Rust Foundation Community Grants Program Consultation.
What are the goals of the survey? #
This survey seeks to identify how the Rust Foundation can most effectively target funding to support the Rust community. The survey will inform how we structure the Community Grants Program 2022, and will influence how we prioritize funding.
How much time will it take to answer the survey? #
On average, it should take from 5 to 15 minutes.
What kind of questions are included in the survey? #
This survey seeks your opinions on how the Rust Foundation can effectively support the Project and wider communities via its Community Grants Program. The questions range from multiple choice to free-text. Please provide as much detail as you can in your free-text answers - do not assume we will know exactly what you are referencing. No questions are compulsory.
Why are you using this method to consult? Why not a more public/open method? #
We are gathering opinions on the Program in a number of ways, however we want to provide an open and fair opportunity for everyone to contribute, where everyone's voice is heard equally, and in a way that individuals can be free to express opinions anonymously and without prejudice.
How will we use the data from the survey responses? #
The answers from the survey will be anonymized, aggregated, and summarized. A high level writeup will be posted on the Rust Foundation website. The information will then be used to shape how the Rust Foundation Community Grants Program will distribute funds.
How is personally identifiable information handled? #
Nearly every question in the survey is optional. You are welcome to share as much or as little information as you are comfortable with. Only the Rust Foundation will have access to the raw data, and only anonymized aggregate data is shared with others. Personal information will be deleted once anonymization has taken place.
Your responses are subject to the Foundation’s Privacy Policy, accessible here: https://foundation.rust-lang.org/policies/privacy-policy
Where and when will the results report be published? #
We expect to publish results from the survey in mid-March 2022. The survey results will be posted to the Rust Foundation website.
How do you define what counts as a contribution and what does it mean to be an active contributor? #
A contribution is any sort of interaction that benefits the Rust Project. For example, Documentation, Code Review (PRs), Design Review (RFCs/MCPs/FCPs), Issue Triage, Issue Reporting, Moderation, New Features, Bug Fixes, Performance enhancements, Communication (e.g. writing blog posts, release notes, preparing for meetings or taking minutes), supporting/mentoring/guiding other contributors, Rollups/CI/Releases, and Governance all count as contribution, and this list is not by any means exhaustive. Anything that assists discussions, identifies issues, or otherwise benefits the project or the contributors to the project likely counts as a contribution.
"Active contributor" is a flexible classification that is intended to identify individuals who have contributed to the project and plan to continue to contribute to the project, regardless of how long the gap between said contributions is. If you're not sure if you're an active contributor then you're probably an active contributor, but ultimately it comes down to if you feel comfortable identifying yourself as such.
What is the difference between a team, working group, and a project group? How can I tell how my team/group is classified? #
Team, working group, and project group are classifications that the project uses to loosely classify the various groups that make up the rust project. These groups are identified in the team repo, and can be disambiguated by the kind field in their toml entry in the team/teams folder.
- team have no
kindfield (e.g. compiler team) - working groups have
kind = "working-group"(e.g. working group polonius) - project groups have
kind = "project-group"(e.g. project group error handling)
If you're unsure of how the groups you're involved in are classified, check their entry in the team repo.
Have a question that is not covered here? Drop us a line and we will get back to you as soon as possible.