I think you put your finger on a key point here. We have a large community of “totally deserving people” but mostly get little/no recognition of their contribution.

 

Most organisations that rely on volunteers have a range of ways to recognising their efforts. In the world of WMF, other editors can give you a “thanks” or a barnstar/Wikilove but WMF itself does not seem to do much to recognise volunteers.  So when “totally deserving” people apply for a Wikimania scholarship, of course people are going to see this as a chance to  be recognised by WMF for their contributions. As most of the “totally deserving” will be unsuccessful in gaining a Wikimania scholarship, of course they are going to  feel it as “demotivating”, “unfair” and “likely to reduce their contributions” as the surveying suggests. Sure there’s disappointment at not going to Wikimania, but I suspect the bigger issue is that the apparent lack of recognition of their contribution that comes as part and parcel of it. And a standard rejection letter that says “We appreciate your contribution, but alas there aren’t enough scholarships” fall a little short on the “recognition” front!

 

Perhaps if the WMF looked at ways of recognising the “totally deserving” volunteers in other ways, then the Wikimania scholarships would not become as big an issue. One example might be cheaper scholarships to attend a national event (which also avoids visa issues) or funding towards hosting a local event within their community at which their contribution can be recognised among their peers. Announcing an award to them in their local media might be something people might value. Others might like a trophy for their mantelpiece suitably inscribed. I am sure others can think of more ideas and I note that we may need different ideas for different communities as what people value is different. For example,  although the merchandise giveaway is well-intended,

 

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Merchandise_giveaways/Nominations

 

has anyone considered if short-sleeved thin T-shirts are something everyone in the world sees as a recognition? What about the countries were the arms are kept covered for modesty or sun exposure? What about the countries where T-shirts are seen as a “low status clothes”?

 

I also note that a return to partial scholarships would mean more people were recognised wrt to Wikimania. The comment that the administration of partial scholarships was too much work for WMF staff sends an unpleasant signal about how WMF values its staff time relative to the time spent by “totally deserving” volunteers.

 

In summary, I think WMF has a problem with its “totally deserving” volunteers feeling unappreciated which is much larger than Wikimania. Given the cost and effort of running annual Wikimanias for a relatively small number of people, perhaps they should be less frequent with other kinds of events and forms of recognition using the equivalent cost and effort in between in order to spread the “wikilove” a bit more widely?

 

Kerry

 

 

From: wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Osmar Valdebenito
Sent: Friday, 31 July 2015 11:24 PM
To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) <wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Fwd: Wikimania Scholarship

 

The problem is myths and rumours will arise always in a process that is not (and should not) be objective. We can't just give some

It is a subjective process where you evaluate so many people, with different backgrounds and different contributions. What is more important? Founding a chapter or making 100,000 edits on English Wikipedia? 5,000 edits on a smaller Wikipedia or 10,000 images on Wikimedia Commons? How do we make also possible to bring people outside our movement or with very few edits, but that are great promoting free knowledge? And how do we ensure gender balance? Do we prioritize new attendents than can bring new ideas to our movement or do we support experienced members that have a proven record of great presentations and activities?

When you have a very limited number of scholarships and a lot of great applicants, every time you make a decision to give a scholarship to someone, you are taking it from someone else. And usually, that other person totally deserve it. So, even though the committees have tried to have a balance of all these factors, someone will complain and consider it not fair. General numbers will help to reduce these rumours, but they will always come up again.
 

 

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