Praveen,
With respect, in the email chain with Gerard (which arguably was unfair to publish without his permission) you have singled out other Wikimedians that have received scholarships to compare their contributions with your own. This reads like a concern with your application rather than the system itself, though I may be wrong.
In answer to your question, I confirm there is no bias towards applicants who have received scholarships previously. In fact this year it was a factor that counted against them. However, as I said before, some applicants may have demonstrated that attending Wikimania helped improve the conference itself via accepted submissions or volunteering, or that attending Wikimania helped them with a project. And while I can't comment on any particular case, repeat scholarships are going to be the result of demonstrating the above well enough to warrant another scholarship, not anything else.
My understanding (and my hope) is that next year the scholarships will be even more focused on participation and contribution to the event itself. So we can further the idea that a scholarship should be about what you can bring, what you will achieve, and not just be about what you have done, to make the conference have even more tangible outcomes.
Best
Stuart Prior User:Battleofalma
On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 12:21 PM, praveenp me.praveen@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
This is not about me and I am not figuring that why I didn't get the scholarship.
I just want to know why some users were able to achieve scholarship again and again while regular Wikimedians being excluded. For last three or four months, most of the times I communicate with other Wikimedians, they have something similar to say about Wikimania. As anybody can see, even after selecting same persons again and again, there are no progress anywhere at wiki level or community level over these years. Then what did we achieve from repeatedly selecting same persons?
Regards, Praveen user:praveenp
On Friday 31 July 2015 04:01 PM, Stuart Prior wrote:
Praveen,
I was chair of the Scholarship Committee for this year.
It's unfortunate that you didn't get a scholarship, however there were many high quality applications and sometimes the difference between success and failure is very small, and I feel genuinely bad for any Wikimedian with a good application that didn't make it, but it's very competitive.
We do take into account previous scholarship awards, and focus on making sure new people get a chance. But consistently good applications and excellent work can warrant repeat scholarship awards despite this.
In some cases where people have been granted Scholarships previously but have been unable to attend the conference due to visa issues we have considered that when receiving their applications for the current year.
I won't comment on any individual's scholarship, but "regular Wikimedians" certainly make up the bulk of the scholars. Edit count is not the only factor, but it still is a significant (and clearly verifiable) factor when looking at someone's application.
However, we looked for organisers too. Some of our community are better facilitators and community builders than they are editors, and running events, training and building partnerships are things that were marked favourably.
Moreover, two identical applicants can make wildly differing applications. We look for those that comprehensively demonstrate their contributions and qualify their statements.
Please apply again next year. You have just as much opportunity as anyone else.
Hope this helps.
Best
Stuart Prior User:Battleofalma
On 31 July 2015 at 09:16, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Hi Praveen,
I've been a steward, as well as the chair of the FDC for three years, so you may assume I've been somewhat active in Wikimedia movement. I did not receive a global scholarship neither (although I did eventually go, as I got elected to the Board of Trustees).
I think it is clearly an assumption of bad faith to say that there is a bias in scholarship committee. The criteria are explicit, and obviously with limited resources a large number of excellent candidates, even with accepted presentations, will not make it.
I would suggest you focus on Wikimedia activity, prepare a great presentation for the next year as well as a compelling application, and try again.
Best,
DJ "pundit" 31 lip 2015 10:07 "praveenp" me.praveen@gmail.com napisał(a):
Hi,
Please don't derail the actual topic of the thread. I really didnt assume such an interpretation from quoting his words. Whenever I asked about the issue to anybody, I generally got such a reply, which I want to avoid here.
If it is need to start a new thread, I will do that. :-)
But please tell me why some people regularly get scholarships atleast since 2008, active (in Wikimedia projects / outreach programms) users never get a chance to share their experience and problems at Wikimania.
Regards, Praveen. P
On Friday 31 July 2015 12:40 PM, WereSpielChequers wrote:
Praveen,
Whether there was anything personal or confidential in Gerard's private emails to you is for him to say not for you to decide.
Regards
Jonathan
On 31 Jul 2015, at 05:59, praveenp me.praveen@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
Osmar Valdebenito, No offense was intended :-(. For prominent communities that may be true, but could you check list of users who got scholarship from Malayalam community.
Amir Ladsgroup,
- As you can see there is nothing confidential or personal in Gerards
reply. He just gave a summary of "known" practices. 2) Users are not asking for trophies. They also want to participate Wikimania and share and get the experience. 3) Wikimedia projects are community processes. I simply don't understand how granting scholarship to same persons again and again for five or six years help that process. I also dont understand that communication and sharing of multiple viewpoints, ideas and practices is possible in the above scenario. 4) Yes; If clicking tick marks in translatewiki on some 500 string in 5 minutes before applying for scholarship (as reviewing the translation) is a prominent contribution.
In the beginning every body treated equal, we have multiple participants (with understandable reasons) for Wikimania. It started to shrink later and now people plainly believe granting scholarship is an act of favoritism. I also want to prove I am wrong.
Regards, Praveen. P User:Praveenp
PS: Mail striped because mailman held my previous reply claiming " Message body is too big:"
On Friday 31 July 2015 05:03 AM, Amir Ladsgroup wrote:
There are several issues I want to comment: 1-First of all. Do you have permission from Gerard to publish your conversation? Maybe there is something confidential in it, Did you care to check? 2- Scholarship is not award or trophy, bear that in mind. 3- People are expected to come here and learn, communicate, etc. that's why a same person gets scholarship, 4- No one's wife got scholarship because of being wife of someone. They probably are prominent contributors too. 5- Check my first question and answer that. (Emphasizing)
Best
On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 12:05 AM Osmar Valdebenito < b1mbo.wikipedia@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry, but when I read "No regular Wikimedian get any scholarship", I stopped reading. It is not only a lie, but also very unfair to all the extremely great Wikimedians that attended and made great contributions in Wikimania, and also the volunteers that have helped now and in the past reviewing and evaluated thousand of applications in the Scholarship Committee.
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Wikimania-l mailing listWikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.orghttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
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
Wikimania-l mailing listWikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.orghttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l