[Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2015 scholarships vision
Hello, today I and Martin have polished the scholarship vision/program for our Wikimania 2015 bid: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Esino_Lario/Scholarships. Considering a background and aiming for a long-term impact on the Wikimedia mission, we propose the following principles: Transparency; Accountability and self-reflection; Grassroot; Efficiency and fairness; Innovation. From those we identify 4 external needs and 8 goals. Please read the proposal and edit boldly or comment on talk page or wherever. Keep in mind it's still a draft, not the official WMIT proposal yet. While the bids warm up and the Wikimania discussion is still quiet, we think it's useful for everyone to focus the discussion on some specific areas in advance. (And if all bids adopt our idea of scholarships, all the better!) Nemo ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2015 scholarships vision
Out of curiosity, why is this bid specific? I think it would be much more valuable if we can have this discussion independent of the bid. These values and goals should be similar independent of the location. Even the members of the committee should be mostly independent of the location I think. Lodewijk 2014/1/12 Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com Hello, today I and Martin have polished the scholarship vision/program for our Wikimania 2015 bid: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Esino_Lario/Scholarships. Considering a background and aiming for a long-term impact on the Wikimedia mission, we propose the following principles: Transparency; Accountability and self-reflection; Grassroot; Efficiency and fairness; Innovation. From those we identify 4 external needs and 8 goals. Please read the proposal and edit boldly or comment on talk page or wherever. Keep in mind it's still a draft, not the official WMIT proposal yet. While the bids warm up and the Wikimania discussion is still quiet, we think it's useful for everyone to focus the discussion on some specific areas in advance. (And if all bids adopt our idea of scholarships, all the better!) Nemo ___ 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
Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2015 scholarships vision
Lodewijk, 12/01/2014 17:53: Out of curiosity, why is this bid specific? It's explained in the crucial for the success of this Wikimania plan passage and in several other places in the bid, where it's pointed out that Wikimania needs to be looked at as a whole. I think it would be much more valuable if we can have this discussion independent of the bid. These values and goals should be similar independent of the location. Even the members of the committee should be mostly independent of the location I think. We don't propose to change the (process of) composition of the committee; the bid only includes a proposed coordinator/point of contact with the local organising team, as per handbook/practice (that is me). We're just telling you one or two years in advance what we plan to do with that. :) Nemo ___ 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] Wikimania 2015 scholarships vision
I like this vision very much. Like Lodewijk, I suggest the scholarships piece should not be bid specific. I've been thinking a great deal about scholarships, travel, and attempts to build community via jet fuel. Some thoughts off the top of my head for the new year: I don't understand why the current scholarship criteria make no mention of need. Are they meant to be for newcomers, or for the same community members each year? I too am concerned that the current scholarship process tends to polarize the community, and too often simply rewards long-time community members, or those who are connected to large movement entities, with free travel: rather than increasing the diversity of new voices and faces at global events. I think we should match every Euro spent on travel support with a Euro spent on infrastructure for great virtual participation: cameras, projectors, and video-screens for communities around the world (physical tools they can keep and use for years); making space to share the faces and voices of people who are unable to travel to the event; live-streaming hubs stationed around the event itself; and support for getting all videos up online within 24 hours. I do remember why we moved away from finding other entities and institutions to provide travel support: it seemed 'easier' to do it ourselves. But as a result we are no longer empowering foundations that care about global dialogue to support Wikimedia in this way; and we are no longer learning from their criteria and understanding of the world. This seems related to why we are funding so much of Wikimania directly from global donations, rather than developing the fundraising and sponsor-finding skills of our international community. This centralization of how Wikimania and scholarships are funded makes the conference less robust. It sets future conference up for failure: or at least an awkward transition if we stop spending so much on them. IIRC, the Fedora community faced this years ago: they initially were thrilled to organize themselves at global events without much travel support. Then RedHat started paying for the travel of most of the core developers and community members. When they later stopped this, the core community members stopped coming: they now felt that a full scholarship was their due. It took a while for the conferences to become as useful again. SJ On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.comwrote: Hello, today I and Martin have polished the scholarship vision/program for our Wikimania 2015 bid: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Esino_Lario/Scholarships. Considering a background and aiming for a long-term impact on the Wikimedia mission, we propose the following principles: Transparency; Accountability and self-reflection; Grassroot; Efficiency and fairness; Innovation. From those we identify 4 external needs and 8 goals. Please read the proposal and edit boldly or comment on talk page or wherever. Keep in mind it's still a draft, not the official WMIT proposal yet. While the bids warm up and the Wikimania discussion is still quiet, we think it's useful for everyone to focus the discussion on some specific areas in advance. (And if all bids adopt our idea of scholarships, all the better!) Nemo ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l -- Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2015 scholarships vision
On 13/01/2014 03:35, Samuel Klein wrote: I don't understand why the current scholarship criteria make no mention of need. Are they meant to be for newcomers, or for the same community members each year? Per my reply on [[wm2014:Talk:Scholarships]], there's simply no way for the reviewers or the WMF to verify someone actual needs. Unless we are comfortable and want to move down the road of asking for and checking each applicants personal financial circumstances before awarding a scholarship, there's no fair and accurate way of taking needs into account. I too am concerned that the current scholarship process tends to polarize the community, and too often simply rewards long-time community members, or those who are connected to large movement entities, with free travel: rather than increasing the diversity of new voices and faces at global events. This is a discussion the community should have. However, I can say now that I know of many people who not only disagree with the above, but think the exact opposite is actually taking place. Namely, that dedicated and long term contributors are missing out in the name of balance and diversity to those who have barely contributed to our projects and unlikely to do much in the future either. Personally, I think a balance need to be struck between the two. KTC -- Katie Chan Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by. Experience is a good school but the fees are high. - Heinrich Heine --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2015 scholarships vision
On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 10:59 PM, Katie Chan k...@ktchan.info wrote: On 13/01/2014 03:35, Samuel Klein wrote: I don't understand why the current scholarship criteria make no mention of need. Are they meant to be for newcomers, or for the same community members each year? Per my reply on [[wm2014:Talk:Scholarships]], there's simply no way for the reviewers or the WMF to verify someone actual needs. Unless we are comfortable and want to move down the road of asking for and checking each applicants personal financial circumstances before awarding a scholarship, there's no fair and accurate way of taking needs into account. Thank you, Katie. I think it would be enough to state whether the scholarships are meant for those who cannot afford to attend, or whether they are meant to reward active participants. These are totally different goals. Our community is generally good-hearted: those who might apply under one circumstance would not under the other. Nemo's proposal seems to provide a more nuanced way forward without checking financial circumstances. It also offers partial scholarships (which I think are a good idea, for just this reason). I too am concerned that the current scholarship process tends to polarize the community, and too often simply rewards long-time community members, or those who are connected to large movement entities, with free travel: rather than increasing the diversity of new voices and faces at global events. This is a discussion the community should have. However, I can say now that I know of many people who not only disagree with the above, but think the exact opposite is actually taking place. Namely, that dedicated and long term contributors are missing out in the name of balance and diversity to those who have barely contributed to our projects and unlikely to do much in the future either. Those are not opposites, exactly. We have had people who barely contribute getting scholarships. That is not healthy. We have also had people who regularly get scholarships, and come to feel that this is deserved as a result of their contributions (and feel rejected when they don't get one). That feels to me like the situation Fedora was in; also unhealthy. Perhaps we can change our notion of 'balance and diversity' so that it draws from our community of thousands of enormously active contributors who would benefit from sharing experiences and learning from other parts of our shared community, but have never yet done so. Most of those contributors do not apply for scholarships; barely know they exist; and do not think of coming to international events. Personally, I think a balance need to be struck between the two. Yes. SJ ___ 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
Do the invitation letter really change a thing? I will be surprised to see a consular waive all those requirements because of a 1-paged white paper with black in on, signed by an organization called Wikimedia UK. For instance, in Ghana, consulate don't care who or what is inviting you, nor even take delight in reading the letter. If the requirements say get a certain amount and or fulfil certain requirements, please get that with you. Consular even reject visa from applicants invited by United Nations, so I'm still wondering how much impact a letter can do. Get your documents right. Its not easy, but it'll save you from disappointments. Rexford | Africa Center | wikiafrica.net | sent from Tab On Jan 13, 2014 3:31 AM, Muhammad Yahia shipmas...@gmail.com wrote: 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 ___ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
