Hi Tito,
Thank you for your email. I hope I can clarify some of your questions.
* What is the accepted conference scale? - *The recent updates to the
Conference Grants program page were to clarify and provide more information
on the kind of events we are welcoming in general - and not specifically
referring to the new guidance or tools related to the Covid-19 Risk
Assessment work. In general - we do accept national, global, large or small
scale events, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria. Specifically
for events during the pandemic- we will publish the full guidance and tools
in September
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2020-August/095404.html> and
they will address events of all sizes.
* Is this globally applicable for all countries and all regions? *- The
guidance will include a host of assessment criteria that will allow
community members to evaluate the specific characteristics of their
proposed event/activity, including location.
* Round 2 timeline *-For this round we allowed submitting proposals for
events starting from January to allow communities that are already eager to
convene, to do it earlier than usual, probably for smaller scale events
that need less planning. That does not change anything for larger scale
events and the funding round timeline remained the same, other than the
fact we postponed it in 3 weeks.
*The Meta page *- the first notice is a general one we published across all
grants programs to inform on the changes we applied In late March
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/COVID-19_Update_on_Wikimedia_conference_grants>.
The second one was to inform that we lifted restrictions we had last year
regarding eligible events (that is why the 2019 reference. It's actually
not a mistake). But I just removed it so it would be less confusing. Thank
you for your attention!
We are looking forward to sharing the new updates later this month and I'm
sure those will answer most of the questions remaining.
Best,
Chen
On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 1:00 PM Tito Dutta <trulytito(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
I begin with my greetings. I hope this email finds everyone reading this
email safe and healthy.
I have some questions and observations. I have spent quite some time
trying to understand the changes and newly (re)opened-up avenues. However,
I feel there is a lack of information, and inconsistency. I'd be sincerely
grateful for your kind attention.
a(i). Conference scale: What is the accepted conference scale? Is it
national-conference, global conference, small regional conference? The
example conferences mentioned at the grant page are mostly large-scale and
gives the impression
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/EventCategories#Thematic_…
The conference/event date of round 2 is between January and June 2021 (we
are just four months away from January).
a(ii) What are the guidelines related to the maximum number of participants
in such a conference?
b. Effective region: Is this effective globally? There are several
countries where COVID-19 is in very serious and damaging condition, and yet
to reach its highest damaging time/peak. My question is, is this globally
applicable for all countries and all regions?
c. The last date of application for round 2 conferences is 28 September. As
far as I know, a large-scale (or any) conference requires a lot of
brainstorming, community consultation etc. This time other than these steps
to be completed in less than a month, one needs to attempt her/his best to
foresee the future (country's
COVID-condition/national-health/restrictions/status of transports etc in
Jan–June).
d) There are some inconsistencies in the grants page:
i) Opening paragraph (Template:Conference banner
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Conference_banner&…
) mentions: "Now, we are extending these cancellations. We are suspending
the application process for all in-person Wikimedia conferences until
further notice. When the WHO declares that the pandemic is over, and it is
once again safe to gather in-person, we will commit to offering support for
smaller community events through a rapid grants process." then right after
a couple of sections all restrictions are lifted.
ii) There are a few minor typos which I'll ignore such as 1) "The new
deadline for submissions will be 7 September 2020", however it is 28
September 2020, 2) Please note that starting September 9, 2019 all recent
temporary restrictions for Conference & Events grants have been lifted, and
all grant proposals will be welcomed and considered. (it is September 9.
2020, not 2019) etc.
User:Titodutta
(Volunteer editor, Wikipedia)
শনি, ২৯ আগস্ট, ২০২০ তারিখে ২:০৭ AM টায় এ Chen Almog <calmog(a)wikimedia.org>
লিখেছেন:
Hello everyone!
Following our last update
<
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2020-August/095404.html
regarding in-person gatherings, we wanted to share another update on the
new dates for the upcoming Conference Grants program funding round.
As we want to allow more time for potential grantees to review and
utilize
the forthcoming September release of guidance for
in-person gatherings,
we
have extended the upcoming deadline for new
Conference Grants proposals
until September 28, 2020. Please see all the specific dates on the
conference grants meta page
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference#Event_categories_and_dates
.
We will be accepting applications in September for events occurring
between
January - June 2021.
For this round we will also include Growth events
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/EventCategories#Growth_Ev…
and innovative ideas that will welcome more contributors to our movements
and projects; and on gatherings that will support the implementation of
the
Wikimedia 2030 strategy recommendations.
We also wanted to take the opportunity to officially welcome the new
member
of our team, Rachel Farrand
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rfarrand_%28WMF%29>, who probably
many of you already know from managing our past Technical Events
Ecosystem
and who has been working at the Wikimedia
Foundation on community events
since 2011. She is now a Senior Program Officer and will be joining me in
managing our Conference grants program.Rachel will be overseeing our
Thematic
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/EventCategories#Thematic_…
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/EventCategories#Growth_Ev…
events,
and I will continue focusing on our Regional
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/EventCategories#Regional_…
events.
We will also continue to support other projects related to Community
Events.
If you have any questions as for the upcoming funding round, potential
proposals or need feedback on draft proposals - please reach out to us at
conferencegrants(a)wikimedia.org .
All the best,
Chen
--
Chen Almog (she/her)
Senior Program Officer, Conference Grants
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>