Hi,

Thanks for taking time to respond, Phoebe. :-)

I had seen this message posted on the list by Cary two days ago, and after reading it I was disappointed. I knew I probably wouldn't have been making it to Wikimania this year, without a scholarship. I took it sportingly. The conference doesn't have enough sponsors. It's nobody's fault. But, I didn't think the other candidates would have been a *better* choice at all, just lucky that they applied before some of us could. All of us have spent a considerable amount of time in taking the project where it is now.

Austin wrote:
>This isn't to say that your applications weren't good, or what you
weren't deserving—the simple fact is that we have an extremely limited
budget, and we chose the people we thought were the best candidates
based on the information available to us.

I am sure it wasn't Austin's intention, but to me it came as a slap on the face. Best candidates? That's like saying that the past three years well spent working for Wikipedia and Wikimedia were a waste of my time. That's like saying appearing on the front page (in the print edition) of the world's largest circulated English daily for your work on Wikipedia was a waste of time. That's like saying that a trip to a city a thousand kilometres away just to understand the non-profit laws so that we could better decide where to set up the Wikimedia India chapter was a waste of time. Probably looking for and finding sponsors who would be willing to support the NGO was a waste of time. My attempt at setting up the chapter failed, but it definitely was not a wasted effort.

>Come on. Show a little good faith towards Austin and Cary, both of whom have been working really hard to get this done.

Cary is a friend of mine. A great guy who's competent. I have full faith in him, and that's one of the reasons why I took the rejection sportingly. Moaning / bitching / crying wouldn't help me.

But when someone says that their decision rewarded the "best candidates". Sorry mate, it's a botched up job.

It's like saying reverting vandalism the night before the final exam was a waste of time. It was not. Wikipedia is my passion. I contribute to the cause because I believe in it.

My best wishes to Alexandria organizing team, and I hope that this Wikimania would be a success. :-)

Best,

--Anirudh

On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 11:01 PM, José Alberto Conrado Flores <fi.mcwan@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you Austin, Cary and Phoebe for your answers and dedication.

Just to clear our minds a little (and that is what I meant by "generally"), could you tell us, at least vaguely, which was the profile that the ones who got sponsored fulfilled? ( Amount requested, PCI, degree of contribution to WMF projects, other criteria)

I'm sorry if I may be pushing this issue, but as you can see, some of us are are a bit upset about the outcome.

About future sponsorship. Well, I must admit I didn't do much to get the wikimania more sponsors. As the upcoming wikimania is going to be held in my continent, I'll try to get my university (which is the largest in Latinamerica) to get involved, and I'll try to get in touch with some IBM reps for the continent. I think I may be able to afford that travel by myself, but count me in if you need volunteers for the scholarship committee.

Thank you all.

Alberto Conrado

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