Re: [Wikimania-l] Question for the WM 2014 London team
Well, besides the tangents this conversation went into, did anyone reach for the UK government to get their official position? Some people are waiting on that to decide whether or not to apply for scholarships... On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Ellie Young eyo...@wikimedia.org wrote: Ellie Young eyo...@wikimedia.org On Jan 19, 2014, at 8:49 AM, Tobias church.of.emacs...@googlemail.com wrote: On 01/13/2014 02:13 AM, Ellie Young wrote: And while we are on this subject, I want to reiterate that we expect individuals to cover their own visa expenses as well as contacting the British Consulate on their own or through a visa service in their home country. The UK accepts applications for visas 90 days prior to the expected date of entering the UK (applying before doesn't do any good.) Incidentally, why do Wikimedia scholarships not cover or at least assist with the expenses of getting a visa? We in fact do handle requests for financial assistance for VISA application fees on a case by case basis. We are still expecitng people to cover, but if circumstances are so dire financially we will assist. It seems that the people affected by this are (on average) the ones who need the support of a scholarship the most in order to be able to attend Wikimania. If the UK is discriminating against our contributors' nationalities, we might not be able to do much about it (although we definitely should try to). But at the very least we can help with the financial discrepancy. -- Tobias ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Question for the WM 2014 London team
Hi Chris, I just got a reply: Several people who applied for a visa from Iran last year got these 'verbal' requirements from the UAE/Turkey embassies. These are based on the information here http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/visiting/general/documents/ They were told that these requirements are designed to satisfy the following clause from the same website: The person who is 'sponsoring' your visit cannot give a guarantee that you will comply with the terms of your visa, or *that you will leave the UK at the end of your visit*. They can help you with your application and provide you with the relevant supporting documents listed in our guidance, but you must provide these documents to us yourself. On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 2:45 PM, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.comwrote: Hey Chris, That was the information relayed to me, I will ask the person who asked the question for the source. It maybe be at the UAE/Turkey embassy website. On Monday, January 13, 2014, Chris Keating wrote: Hi Muhammad, I was just looking on the UK Border Agency website and could not see any mention of 10,000 USD requirements or property ownership. Do you have any further info? (I appreciate that it will still be difficult for Iranians to get a visa even if that isn't the case...) On 12 Jan 2014 22:08, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I received this question about visas for Iranian citizens and am passing it along: As it stands now, UK visa requirements for Iranian citizens is to have a bank account with (on average) 1 USD or equivalent in the last six months, plus proof of ownership of a property in Iran, the documents have to be translated and notarized. Most of the volunteers interested in getting scholarship for WM or trying to arrange travel on their own are mostly young people who do not satisfy either conditions, is there something that the UK team can do about that? can they get confirmation that if they apply these requirements will be waived or something similar? Thanks! -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Question for the WM 2014 London team
Hey Chris,
That was the information relayed to me, I will ask the person who asked the
question for the source. It maybe be at the UAE/Turkey embassy website.
On Monday, January 13, 2014, Chris Keating wrote:
Hi Muhammad,
I was just looking on the UK Border Agency website and could not see any
mention of 10,000 USD requirements or property ownership. Do you have any
further info?
(I appreciate that it will still be difficult for Iranians to get a visa
even if that isn't the case...)
On 12 Jan 2014 22:08, Muhammad Yahia
shipmas...@gmail.comjavascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'shipmas...@gmail.com');
wrote:
Hi all,
I received this question about visas for Iranian citizens and am passing
it along:
As it stands now, UK visa requirements for Iranian citizens is to have a
bank account with (on average) 1 USD or equivalent in the last six
months, plus proof of ownership of a property in Iran, the documents have
to be translated and notarized.
Most of the volunteers interested in getting scholarship for WM or trying
to arrange travel on their own are mostly young people who do not satisfy
either conditions, is there something that the UK team can do about that?
can they get confirmation that if they apply these requirements will be
waived or something similar?
Thanks!
--
Best Regards,
Muhammad Yahia
___
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
'Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org');
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
--
Best Regards,
Muhammad Yahia
___
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Question for the WM 2014 London team
If this is similar to US visa process, I would think an invitation from WM UK would be enough to waive those requirements, that of course has to be arranged with the British government. On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Ellie Young eyo...@wikimedia.org wrote: I have already brought this up with them and waiting to hear back (first response didn't sound like there was much we can do frankly...) My comment about the spring is that is when we will have a guide for our attendees who need visas. They said it would be ready in the next couple of months. We won't be notifying people about their scholarships until April. And while we are on this subject, I want to reiterate that we expect individuals to cover their own visa expenses as well as contacting the British Consulate on their own or through a visa service in their home country. The UK accepts applications for visas 90 days prior to the expected date of entering the UK (applying before doesn't do any good.) Ellie On Jan 12, 2014, at 3:42 PM, aude aude.w...@gmail.com wrote: On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 5:31 PM, Ellie Young eyo...@wikimedia.org wrote: I will be sure to take this up when we are putting together instructions this Spring. UK Immigation has agreed to put together a how to apply guide for our event. I will be sure this issue get put to them. I wouldn't wait until spring to bring this up with UK immigration. It's not too soon to start now. The process for folks in Iran can take quite a while (if similar to the process for Wikimania 2012 in the US) but I think can be successful. People in Iran will need to travel (at least once) to a UK consulate in Turkey or UAE to apply. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/countries/iran/applying/?langname=UK%20English Cheers, Katie Ellie WMF Conference Coordinator On Jan 12, 2014, at 2:08 PM, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I received this question about visas for Iranian citizens and am passing it along: As it stands now, UK visa requirements for Iranian citizens is to have a bank account with (on average) 1 USD or equivalent in the last six months, plus proof of ownership of a property in Iran, the documents have to be translated and notarized. Most of the volunteers interested in getting scholarship for WM or trying to arrange travel on their own are mostly young people who do not satisfy either conditions, is there something that the UK team can do about that? can they get confirmation that if they apply these requirements will be waived or something similar? Thanks! -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- @wikimediadc / @wikidata ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
Just for the record, in WM08, there were around 10 people from Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, Syria, Alegria and a speaker from Lebanon in addition to 3 Israelis... I don't think that was bad for a usually under-represented region. On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Harel Cain harel.c...@gmail.com wrote: Most of them are in the archive of wikimania-l, some in the archive of foundation-l, and even fewer in the archive of wikimania-planning-l. The first two are publicly available. Simple Ctrl-Fing of the threads since about June 2010 will find most of the stuff if not all of it. Harel Cain Wikimania 2011 local team On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 17:29, Kim Bruning k...@bruning.xs4all.nl wrote: On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 10:39:59PM +0300, Harel Cain wrote: I think those numbers will be teaching, and will put this discussion in the true perspective it deserves. Speaking of putting things in perspective, I've been told off-channel that there have been several previous debates on this topic. For the record, could someone link me to (some of) these old debates? It's probably more efficient for me to RTFArchive and come back with any remaining questions. sincerely, Kim Bruning -- [Non-pgp mail clients may show pgp-signature as attachment] gpg (www.gnupg.org) Fingerprint for key FEF9DD72 5ED6 E215 73EE AD84 E03A 01C5 94AC 7B0E FEF9 DD72 ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
Given the fact that we're less than a month away, and we're late enough if not too late, wouldn't a phone call be faster than a letter? On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 12:10 AM, Harel Cain harel.c...@gmail.com wrote: Following up on my latest mail, I'm glad to let you know that we drafted a letter to Sari Nusseibeh and after final proofreading we hope to send it out, hopefully today. I'll let you know if something comes out of this. Harel Cain Wikimania 2011 local team On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 08:41, Harel Cain harel.c...@gmail.com wrote: Again, I'm not sure everyone out there in the world is aware of and familiar with all the political intricacies of the local situation between Israelis and Palestinians and can judge what could easily workout and what would not. Specifically, as I wrote, Sari Nusseibeh was both a kind of embarrassing oversight on our part (his name came up in some single thread of discussion a year ago, and was forgotten about), but also, in our view, not a very good suggestion either, for the reasons I explained (in short: he's a politician). I hope Dror Kamir, who speaks fluent Arabic, will try to engage him in the few weeks we have left, though I don't have very high expectations from this - his name was merely a suggestion, not based on any real promise. Let's see. I'm happy to say we have a couple of young Arab Israeli attendees/volunteers, I hope this small number will expand. We also made our utmost to try to accommodate the very few seemingly-authentic requests for participation we got from the Middle East - from Saudi Arabia and from the Gaza Strip, but these people simply never got back to us after a certain point in time, despite repeated attempts to contact them. I must say, again, that there's just so much we can do to increase participation from among a group of people whose size is totally unknown (apparently, there just aren't many active Wikimedians in the Middle East who would consider going to Wikimania - *any* Wikimania, and very few of them are Palestinian) and their willingness to participate is a mystery. We also have a great confernece to prepare for those ~500 people out there who are going to attend, and we've been working very hard this past year to make sure that's exactly what we'll have. I hope we made a good job at that. Actually, I'm sure we did. Harel Cain Wikimania 2011 local team On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 02:48, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.comwrote: Harel, this Wikimania is anyway highly influenced by politics, no matter what we want; which includes this thread. If Sari Nusseibeh is willing to help, you should take that help. I am sure that he is a reasonable person, who would try to avoid making possible problems to us. Small Disclaimer here: I don't know the guy personally, I got his name from contacts of contacts. Thus I can't vouch for his willingness to help. I think there is a big chance he will be though. -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. -- Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
Any updates on this? did you guys manage to contact him? On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.comwrote: This is a contact I sent to this list almost a year ago. When I was asked to reach out to anyone and see if there is someone interested in coordinating with the WM11 team. I was told by my Palestinian-American friends that this university and its dean have campuses in East Jerusalem and the WB, making it easy for Israelis to contact. The dean's cv has his phone and email. It would be good if he is contacted to see if he is willing to help. http://sari.alquds.edu/cv_sari.htm http://www.alquds.edu/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Quds_University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_Nusseibeh On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 7:34 AM, Asaf Bartov abar...@wikimedia.org wrote: On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Kim Bruning k...@bruning.xs4all.nlwrote: The problem is that BDS (and others?) are explicitly acting against wikimania. I'd love to hear more reports on this. I think having a wikimania in haifa is actually going to be beneficial to all parties. :-) Strictly speaking, we don't actually know this to be a problem. There is no proof of the BDS campaign having dissuaded large numbers of potential attendees, especially from Arab countries. Any such potential attendees would have been dissuaded by other reasons, already discussed extensively on this and other lists, -- political climate in their countries, personal perception of attendance as implicit support of the Israeli government policy, etc.. By all means go on publicizing WM2011 among Arabic speakers. Once again, the local team has made it clear it is committed to helping anyone who would like to attend. But perhaps it's time to stop pretending it is entirely up to us whether Arabic speakers would be well-represented in this Wikimania or not? Asaf -- Asaf Bartov (personal opinion) ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
I seem to be missing the point here. I thought you guys were going to contact him in his capacity as the dean of the Al-Quds university, exploring how to cooperate with him on spreading the news about Wikimania among students and helping those who want to attend. Something which you guys have said repeatedly you are open to only if someone can find you a contact? I don't see how his political affiliations factor into the equation here. It is disappointing to me that you guys repeatedly said you were willing to do outreach into the palestinian territory but you lack contacts. And then when contacts are available, as hard as it was to get them, you don't consider even talking to them because of their political views. I doubt I can find you any contacts that are 'apolitical' given the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And I am not even asking you to talk to someone with extreme views that might offend you, You yourself said he was a moderate. I am sad to say that at this point I am inclined to think that the whole outreach into under-privileged territories effort was not genuinely considered. On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Harel Cain harel.c...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Muhammad, The short answer is that we never contacted Sari Nusseibeh, and we're not very satisfied with this situation. This is for a mixture of reasons, some of them mundane (nobody really picked up this specific suggestion; we were all busy; we forgot about it; we all assumed someone else will do it) and some of them more to the point - first and foremost because he is perceived, at least in the Israeli public, as a downright political figure, having held formal positions positions on the Palestinian side. Clearly he's perceived as a moderate political figure, but that is totally beside the point - we never meant to make Wikimania political (such as for example inviting politicians to speak before us), and Sari Nusseibeh is very much about politics. Even his affiliation with moderate/leftist organizations on the Israeli side of the political spectrum make this a political move in the inner Israeli political perspective of the conference, and we don't want to make Wikimania political even in this narrow sense. We are not opposed to people trying to contact him, and I hope someone like Dror Kamir on our part might still do it, but we are somewhat reserved about his specific suitability here, because of unmistakeable political involvement. Harel Cain Wikimania 2011 local team On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 10:11, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.com wrote: This is a contact I sent to this list almost a year ago. When I was asked to reach out to anyone and see if there is someone interested in coordinating with the WM11 team. I was told by my Palestinian-American friends that this university and its dean have campuses in East Jerusalem and the WB, making it easy for Israelis to contact. The dean's cv has his phone and email. It would be good if he is contacted to see if he is willing to help. http://sari.alquds.edu/cv_sari.htm http://www.alquds.edu/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Quds_University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_Nusseibeh On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 7:34 AM, Asaf Bartov abar...@wikimedia.orgwrote: On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Kim Bruning k...@bruning.xs4all.nlwrote: The problem is that BDS (and others?) are explicitly acting against wikimania. I'd love to hear more reports on this. I think having a wikimania in haifa is actually going to be beneficial to all parties. :-) Strictly speaking, we don't actually know this to be a problem. There is no proof of the BDS campaign having dissuaded large numbers of potential attendees, especially from Arab countries. Any such potential attendees would have been dissuaded by other reasons, already discussed extensively on this and other lists, -- political climate in their countries, personal perception of attendance as implicit support of the Israeli government policy, etc.. By all means go on publicizing WM2011 among Arabic speakers. Once again, the local team has made it clear it is committed to helping anyone who would like to attend. But perhaps it's time to stop pretending it is entirely up to us whether Arabic speakers would be well-represented in this Wikimania or not? Asaf -- Asaf Bartov (personal opinion) ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
Harel, this Wikimania is anyway highly influenced by politics, no matter what we want; which includes this thread. If Sari Nusseibeh is willing to help, you should take that help. I am sure that he is a reasonable person, who would try to avoid making possible problems to us. Small Disclaimer here: I don't know the guy personally, I got his name from contacts of contacts. Thus I can't vouch for his willingness to help. I think there is a big chance he will be though. -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Claims by BDS / Palestinian outreach
This is a contact I sent to this list almost a year ago. When I was asked to reach out to anyone and see if there is someone interested in coordinating with the WM11 team. I was told by my Palestinian-American friends that this university and its dean have campuses in East Jerusalem and the WB, making it easy for Israelis to contact. The dean's cv has his phone and email. It would be good if he is contacted to see if he is willing to help. http://sari.alquds.edu/cv_sari.htm http://www.alquds.edu/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Quds_University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_Nusseibeh On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 7:34 AM, Asaf Bartov abar...@wikimedia.org wrote: On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Kim Bruning k...@bruning.xs4all.nl wrote: The problem is that BDS (and others?) are explicitly acting against wikimania. I'd love to hear more reports on this. I think having a wikimania in haifa is actually going to be beneficial to all parties. :-) Strictly speaking, we don't actually know this to be a problem. There is no proof of the BDS campaign having dissuaded large numbers of potential attendees, especially from Arab countries. Any such potential attendees would have been dissuaded by other reasons, already discussed extensively on this and other lists, -- political climate in their countries, personal perception of attendance as implicit support of the Israeli government policy, etc.. By all means go on publicizing WM2011 among Arabic speakers. Once again, the local team has made it clear it is committed to helping anyone who would like to attend. But perhaps it's time to stop pretending it is entirely up to us whether Arabic speakers would be well-represented in this Wikimania or not? Asaf -- Asaf Bartov (personal opinion) ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Boycott Wikimania 2011
I don't want to get into this useless debate, but I have minor corrections: there were Israelis among the bid team and the sponsors. There were no Israelis on the bidding team. The question of the Arab-Israeli conflict was never raised and it was deemed totally irrelevant. That's not true, there were questions raised about the safety of Israelis in Egypt and Egypt's attitude towards Jews, and in the greater context of the same problem (politicizing Wikimania), there was a huge storm raised about Human rights record of Egypt, Dictatorship rule in Egypt, treatment of women, LGBTs rights in Egypt, etc, etc.. The discussion spanned meta, irc and mailing lists. So, if you are getting only a couple of boycott canvass messages every now and then, you're lucky :) -- Best Regards, Muhammad Yahia ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
