Olatunde raises a significant issue in that call for communities to participate in the community village is demoralising if communities dont have the opportunity to attend the event which is suppose to be bringing everyone together.   We have the underlying principle of sharing the sum  of all knowledge, if we dont do it internally then we cant do it successfully externally.

As for the response the process for Wikimania has been changed, in Mexico last year a decision was taken with many communities unaware and excluded from the discussion because they didnt have anyone there. With Wikmania being every 2 years its becomes more significant that all communities have representatives attend every wikimania otherwise it ends up isolating communities for 4 years from the whole of the movement.    The scholarship process is also broken and its needs to be discussed it needs to be reconsidered to allow for the changes. 



On 11 March 2016 at 23:01, <reachout2isaac@gmail.com> wrote:
Nkansah Rexford, I have no idea of why you directed such a non-sequitur comment to me. Regrettably, your tone is condescending with lack of empathy. Everyone have the right to voice their concerns and you're not in the best position to criticize them. That being said, Nobody begged for Wikimania scholarship but we have the right as a community to raise concern on certain issues and that is none of your business. You're neither a chair of the scholarship committee nor the Wikimedia Foundation Events Manager. You are not in the best position to respond to this. It is always a good idea to learn to be reserved.

I don't like to say you're crude and rude but kindly have the decency to be polite when addressing your fellow Wikipedians.

Warmest regards,

Olatunde Isaac.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
From: Nkansah Rexford <nkansahrexford@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 14:30:07 +0000
To: <reachout2isaac@gmail.com>; Wikimania general list (open subscription)<wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Community Village and Meetups at Wikimania 2016

The scholarships are what they are: scholarships, not ticket to heaven.

Many factors go into approving an application for scholarships. Plus, hundreds if not thousands apply for the scholarships every year. NOT everyone can be accepted. Neither will everyone be rejected.

Some will need to go this year. Others will have to wait on the turn (assuming they check all the application requirement boxes) Unfortunately, this year, Nigeria couldn't win a scholarship slot. That's unfortunate but NOT demoralising, I think. It's not as if anyone promised you a scholarship...

To say it's 'demoralising' is a strong word to use here. How is it demoralising? No one has guaranteed anyone of a scholarship should they edit Wikipedia or not.

If because you didn't get the scholarship, and you think that's demoralising and wish to stop contributing to Wikipedia, that's in your hands. However, such an approach will defeat the whole purpose behind contributing to Wikipedia.

We don't contribute to Wikipedia because we want scholarship. Rather, it's primarily for the love of contributing to the freeness and openness of knowledge globally.

Nigeria isn't the only country in the world, nor the country without a representation this year at wikimania. That doesn't mean a country representing is better than Nigeria. It simply means, there're fewer slots than the scholarship grant can handle.

Forget about demoralisation! Help improve knowledge freely and openly. I find that to be of more concern than anything at the moment.

I'll recommend we work on meeting the application criteria from now until next year and hope to be called for scholarship. Even if then we're still not called, keep making the world a better place with free knowledge.

Hi Ginevra,

No scholarship was awarded to any member of the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria. This is worrisome as Nigeria will not be represented at Wikimania. I don't think this is a good idea and I wonder why American and European countries have more representative than Africa. This is demoralizing and the community is not happy about it.

Warmest regards,

Olatunde Isaac,
Manager, Wikipedia Education Program Nigeria
Coordinator, The Wikipedia Library, Yoruba.
Secretary, Wikimedia User Group Nigeria.
Phone: +2348166620737 
Email: reachout2isaac@gmail.com 
User page: Wikicology 
Facebook: Olatunde Olalekan Isaac.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ginevra Sanvitale <ginevra.esse@gmail.com>
Sender: "Wikimania-l" <wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org>Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 10:05:40
To: Wikimedia Mailing List<wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>; Wikimania general list (open subscription)<wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>; <chapters@wikimedia.ch>
Reply-To: "Wikimania general list \(open subscription\)"
 <wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Wikimania-l] Community Village and Meetups at Wikimania 2016

Hi people,
it's finally time to send your applications for the Community Village at
Wikimania 2016:

https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_village

And you can also start planning your meetups:

https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetups

Finally, remember that the calls for discussions, posters and trainings
closes on March 20, so you have 10 days left!

Have a nice weekend,


Ginevra
Wikimania Programme Committee

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