2010/7/15 Keegan Peterzell keegan.wiki@gmail.com:
Okay, this thread has intrigued me and I thought the answers would pan out and it seems to have gone in various directions, but it was initiated by Milos so I'll focus on what I perceive to be his problem: Corruption (through careerism, nepotism, political functions) and the have versus have nots.
My reading between the lines is that this has to do with how scholarships and other financial assistance allowed some to attend Wikimania and "live it up" as the slang goes, versus those that attended on their own dime and didn't have the resources to take part in the social, after hours functions that are the lifeblood of networking. If this is the case, the issue that is had is allegations of personal rather than professional reasons that some got to attend and had the resources, based on financing, to party.
Just about the scholarship. As far as I know there were two scholarships - one provided by WMF and the one combined, provided by Polish and Russian chapters. The WMF scholarship committee was quite international, and at least what I heard from one Polish Wikipedian, who was a member of that committee there were clear and resonable conditions of choosing the best candidates.
In case of Polish-Russian scholarship we in fact accepted all candidates who applied and fullfiled basic requirements (language skills and proved commitement to Wikimedia projects). Polish-Russian scholarship was open to all, and except Russians and Polish Wikimedians several Ukrainians and one from Czech Republic took advatange of them.