On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 10:46 PM, Milos Rancic <millosh(a)gmail.com> wrote: I think what now? I just want hypothetical (or non-hypothetical) example of alarming chapter corruption. I'm having a hard time picturing what you're worried about. Something concerns you and I don't understand what it is. Please explain. Frank

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. Being that glib about it may seem like I am making light of the issue, rest assured I am not. Feelings of being an outsider when one is surrounded by like minded people is not very constructive to say the least, and it causes factions. Now, I've never been able to attend Wikimania, and am unlikely ever to be able to. If you'd like factionalization and saying that the has countries have it better than the have nots, it's much more feasible for someone to attend something on their continent no matter the pocket change when you get there. Having attended many, many conferences it sounds like business as usual. Personally, I always found it practical to hang out at the hotel bar instead of going into town for productivity. Without going into details, Milos, am I off base with this as at least part of your concern at Wikimania? -- ~Keegan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan

Tomasz Ganicz, 15/07/2010 10:11: I think that nobody doubts about it. Still, I know some people who were not granted the scholarship and didn't actually understand why (and don't complain about that). Can the Scholarships review committee share the chosen criteria? The review process can't be ideal due to the huge number of application (2500!!), and I suppose that editcounts or even user groups had to be used: it's completely fair, but I would like to know some details. It could also be useful for future Wikimania organizers, if the process is currently not documented even in private wikis. That's interesting. Nemo

Sara Crouse, 15/07/2010 17:24: Thank you. Great! Nemo

On 7/15/10 6:23 PM, Oliver Keyes wrote: This year, Wikimedia France voted to approve scholarships to go to Wikimania for a total budget of 5000 euros. This decision was approved on the 24th of may and was advertised in various (french speaking) venues. The scholarship only proposed two different types of packages: 250 euros or 500 euros. There was no requirement of nationality or location, though we would probably have focused on French participants. A commission was receiving the scholarship requests and approving them. Scholars had two main obligations : - actually being at the conference :) - report after the conference In spite of sufficient time, not all scholarships were distributed, which is quite unfortunate. However, the number of French participants had never been as high in a Wikimania. ------------ One could certainly state that we are from a rich country and that our scholarships are further digging the divide between rich and poor countries. I would refute that argument. On the 27th of april, Wikimedia France also approved financial participation to help several chapters participate to the chapter meeting in Berlin. The total amount approved was 10 000 euros. Original chapters chosen to be supported were * Wikimedia Argentina * Wikimedia Australia * Wikimedia Hong Kong * Wikimedia Macedonia * Wikimedia UK * Wikimedia Serbia (yes dear) These chapters were chosen in a list of chapters-to-be-supported, with the names of the people expected as well as the amount required for each to come. The choice was made taking into account: 1) the total budget 2) the price of each plane ticket (we picked up on purpose first of all the most expensive tickets) 3) pick up on every continent available 4) and last, when final choice had to be made, indeed, according to the person-to-come (disclaimer: due to the ash mess and a flood mess, some travels were cancelled, so some of the support might have gone to a chapter different than the one originally planned). But bottom line.... 1) whether people came from rich or poor countries was irrelevant. What was relevant was what they would bring to the table 2) our choice was made in a master table handled by Wikimedia Deutschland... and that made sense to do it this way. ------------- Lessons for next year Wikimania scholarship. 1) I think the French chapter was happy to have made that decision of offering scholarships for Wikimania this year. It came from the statement made at previous Wikimanias that hardly any French speaking person was attending. We meant to increase attendance and it was a success. 2) Whilst it was not discussed yet, postmortem should be made on that and we should check whether it will be relevant to do it again next year. Intuitively, I feel confortable saying that we will do it again. 3) I do not think being French should be a requirement. I however think being French speaking would please us (and the good news is that there are many French speaking countries) 4) We should however clarify our decision making process and include criteria, whatever those might be 5) And yes, though private data would be an issue to take into account, it would be nice to have a sort of "common" list of scholarship requests or at least one way to have those overlap so that the ones making request and being rejected are informed that other options might be feasible, or chapters are given the contact names of those rejected, and.... also to check that no one get dual funding (*) I guess having Wikimania website listing all organizations providing scholarships would be a start :) Ant (*) jeee, finally found a way to get rich !

On 21 July 2010 10:00, Noein <pronoein(a)gmail.com> wrote: We advertised it on the french Wikipedia of course, and on every french wikimedia project iirc. As long as on our blog and through social media. Christophe

On 7/21/10 1:37 PM, Oliver Keyes wrote: It would also help if budget was approved at the beginning of the year so that it would be "visible" as early as January that money is left aside for such a use later in the year (it could also be mentionned during general assembly for example). Alas... Well, every year brings new improvements ;) Ant

yes, as long as it is next year budget ;) ant On 7/21/10 4:28 PM, Oliver Keyes wrote: