[Foundation-l] Questions about new Fellow

[Erik Moeller]

Thanks Achal :-)

In addition to what Achal said, it's important to note that this
fellowship was processed as a grant, and is transparently documented
at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_Fellowships/Oral_Citations
consistent with the principles of the grantmaking process. It's a
short-term engagement, and the total budget includes a strong focus on
documentation so that whatever lessons are learned can be easily
accessed by any member of the community. Money not spent will be
returned.

In the same way that the usability videos showing the experiences of
real users editing Wikipedia helped the community to have
conversations about the editing interface, we hope that the film
documentation that Achal will create will help the community have
conversations about citations and sources, and offer practical
approaches to deal with lack of published materials in many of the
languages in which Wikipedia is available. Given our desire to help
foster healthy Wikimedia projects e.g. in the languages spoken in
India, this isn't a theoretical but very practical issue. As always, a
public report will document the deliverables and results.

The fellowship program is intended to leverage great opportunities for
volunteers with a proven track record to help us accomplish
extraordinary things. Whether that volunteerism is in the form of
editing, engineering, event organizing, chapters development, cat
herding, evangelism, etc. shouldn't really matter. They can all be
things that greatly advance the movement's goals. Achal has put
countless hours into efforts to help get Wikimedia India and Wikimedia
South Africa off the ground, and his proven track record through this
and other volunteering was key to our decision to engage him.

With all that said, as we scale up the fellowship program, it would be
good to have more open conversations about the criteria and process
through which fellowships (but also Wikimedia Foundation grants) are
awarded. While WMF will always need to exercise judgment and
discretion when money changes hands, I do think it's important to give
the community more of a voice in both proposing and selecting
individuals and projects, perhaps through some form of review
committee which makes a preliminary recommendation, and which strongly
interfaces with WMF to align the program with our strategic
priorities.
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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