Wikiup:Förderung/Wikimania/English
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Wikimania
Wikimania is the annual main conference of the Wikimedia movement where volunteers from the Wikimedia projects, staff members of Wikimedia organizations and Free Knowledge advocates come together. It takes place every year in another place. Here you can meet colleagues from around the world, learn about their motivations, activities and projects and share your knowledge, and bring new ideas for the Wikimedia projects and adjacent initiatives into the public. The current German-language Wikimania portal can be found on Wikipedia:Wikimania.
The Wikimedia chapters Wikimedia Deutschland (Germany) and Wikimedia Österreich (Austria) allocate a fixed number of general full scholarships per year for their residents which cover registration fees as well as travel expenses. A jury decides for the successful applications in a standardized process. Besides general full scholarships, additional scholarships for special activities are offered. Some of these scholarships might not be limited to German or Austrian residents. The scholarship application form of Wikimedia Deutschland will also be available in English. |
What is covered by a Wikimania scholarship?
A fixed number of (general) full scholarships will be offered each year, depending on the current budget and the expected costs (esp. travel expenses). For each Wikimania conference, at least five scholarships will be offered by each of the Wikimedia chapters. Depending on the circumstances, much higher numbers are possible: E.g., for a Wikimania in Europe about 50 scholarships have once been allocated by one Wikimedia chapter.
A full scholarship always covers the following costs:
- travel and transportation costs
- accommodation costs, usually in double-bed rooms
- registration fees for the main conference
- public transportation fees for on-site travels, round trips to the airport/railway station if required
- visa costs if required
Travel and accommodation for scholarship recipients with residence in the sphere of the Wikimedia chapter is usually managed by the respective Wikimedia chapter itself. Please reach out to your Wikimedia chapter for individual travel plans.
For additional scholarships please have a look below
How do I apply for a Wikimania scholarship?
Applicants must fulfill the following formal requirements:
- submit a fully and truly completed application form
- show activity in the Wikimedia projects
- reside in the sphere of the Wikimedia chapter (exceptions are possible for the additional scholarships)
- have good communication skills in English
- for previous scholarship recipients: have fully submitted scholarship reports for all previous scholarships
- [[:en:age of majority|age of majority] in the country of residence, the country of the Wikimedia chapter in charge, and the country of the upcoming Wikimania conference; resp. permanent escorted by parent/legal guardian
- commit to
- submit a report in the given format
- mark all media data which have been created during Wikimania and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as per specification of the respective Wikimedia chapter ({{Supported by Wikimedia Österreich}} resp. [[Category:Supported by Wikimedia Deutschland|2024]])
Applications have to be submitted by the published deadline through a standardized form of the respective Wikimedia chapters with questions about activity and motivation for the attendance (see next question). Both Wikimedia chapters which offer these scholarships have identical questions. Additional questions for one of the additional scholarship types will be marked separately.
Which questions do I have to expect?
The jury decision will be based on the answers on these two subjects in the application form:
- activity: What are your activities in the Wikimedia projects and around them, with a focus on the last 12 months? A list of notes is sufficient and it’s also fine to provide links for your activities and documentations.
- motivation: What do you expect from your participation on the Wikimania? Do you also intend to participate actively there (e.g., submitting a presentation, organizing a meetup, maybe participating in the hackathon, helping out as a local volunteer)?
For each subject of questions we expect between 1000 and 1500 characters, including spaces.
For submitting your application, the only personal data which you have to transfer are your user name and email address. In case of a successful application, further private data will be needed from you: real name, address, phone number, contact data for your emergency contact and, in case your travel is booked by the Wikimedia chapter, additional information like date of birth or bank account data for reimbursements. For further information, please have a look at the data protection regulations of Wikimedia Deutschland (https://www.wikimedia.de/datenschutz#datacollection) or Wikimedia Österreich (https://www.wikimedia.at/datenschutz).
Who will decide on my application?
Each Wikimedia chapter will have an own jury for the decision on the applications which will be composed of members of the German-language Wikimania community, staff members of functionaries of the Wikimedia chapters and, ideally, international Wikimedia community members. The majority of members will be among the first group. The names of the jury members will be announced every year on the bottom of this page.
The jury receives a collection of all applications from the respective Wikimedia chapter and judges them. The final decisions will be made in a final jury meeting and the results forwarded to the respective Wikimedia chapter. The result of the application process will be communicated by the respective Wikimedia chapter.
What is expected from me after Wikimania?
As one of the requirements for a scholarship, a written report has to be published at the end of the next month after Wikimania. For every Wikimania, a joint place for collecting the reports will be provided.
Each report has to consist of two parts:
- a statement to a single session of 1500 to 2000 characters, including spaces
- an answer to the question How did my attendance pushed me forward and have I been able to share something with others afterwards? of 1500 to 2000 characters, including spaces
Beyond these formal reports, scholarship recipients are encouraged to voluntarily share their experiences and learning on other platforms like writing blog posts for the special edition of the Wikipedia:Kurier, sharing stories at local roundtable discussions or holding workshops back home which can get support from the Wikimedia chapters.
- Scholarship for covering the registration fee
- Main conference
- Hackathon
- Specific full scholarships
- Full scholarship technique by Wikimedia Deutschland (for technical contributors for Wikidata, Wikibase or Technical Wishes; additional activity-related questions in application and report)
- Scholarships from other organizations
- International Wikimania scholarships of the Wikimedia Foundation
Scholarship for covering the registration fee
- Main conference
Every resident in the spheres of the respective Wikimedia chapter can request a scholarship for covering the Wikimania registration fee via e-mail. These scholarships will be distributed independently from the full scholarship application process by the respective Wikimedia chapter’s staff members without involvement of the jury. The scholarship will only cover the Wikimania registration fee (and possibly Hackathon); all additional costs have to be covered by the individuals and the journey managed by themselves. The same documentation guidelines as for full scholarship recipients apply for this kind of scholarship.
- Hackathon
- An attendance of the Hackathon can be requested for all kinds of Wikimania scholarship recipients from Wikimedia Deutschland by email after the confirmation of their scholarships. An additional question in the application form is not planned. A scholarship for covering the registration costs only of the Hackathon is not planned.
- The (general) full scholarship by Wikimedia Österreich can also cover the registration fee for the pre-conference Hackathon. For applying for this scholarship, an additional question in the application form on the expectations for participating in the Hackathon must be answered. A scholarship for covering the registration costs only of the Hackathon is not planned.
Specific full scholarships
- Full scholarship technique by Wikimedia Deutschland
In addition to the general full scholarships by Wikimedia Deutschland, each year scholarships are offered for people who contribute to the technical side of Wikidata, Wikibase or Technical Wishes, for example by developing tools, contributing to the software code or improving the technical documentation. In this process, applications from volunteers outside of Germany are also accepted; the country of residence is irrelevant for these scholarships.- For (additionally) applying for this scholarship, a box in the scholarship form must be checked. Additional questions related to your technical engagement should be answered then:
- What are the main projects or tools where you contributed with code or documentation over the past 12 months? For each project, please describe in 1 sentence how it supports the work of editors on the Wikimedia projects.
- Can you please add links to your project(s) on Github or any other place where your contributions are visible?
- How do you plan to work with other people on this/these project(s)? (for example, contributing to other projects, finding co-maintainers, etc.).
- What are the areas where you can support other people working on technical topics?
- How do you plan to work on documentation? (for example, writing a user manual or improving the existing documentation).
- The full scholarships technique are awarded by the same jury as the general full scholarships. For evaluating the answers, the jury will be supported by the Wikimedia Deutschland Software Development Department.
- Applications from applicants with Germany as country of residence will be equally evaluated by the jury, no matter if they also applied for a full scholarship technique or not. That means that within the group of successful applicants for a general full scholarships people can be who also applied for a full scholarship technique. Thereafter the full scholarships technique will be awarded based on this year’s amount of scholarships and the order defined by the jury, irregardlessly of the country of residence.
- The coverage and support of the full scholarships technique is identical to the general full scholarships. Additionally, the following questions must be answered in the report:
- What technical projects (technical documentation, software development) did you work on? Please add links to the results, documentation pages or code if relevant.
- In which ways did you work with other people on technical topics? Did you for example support other participants in their projects or include co-maintainers to your projects?
Scholarships from other organizations
- International Wikimania scholarships of the Wikimedia Foundation
- It’s always possible to apply for an international Wikimania scholarships from the Wikimedia Foundation. For further information on these scholarships, please have a look at this page. There will be no exchange about the allocation of scholarships between the German-language Wikimedia chapters and Wikimedia Foundation. Specialities of the international Wikimania scholarships from the Wikimedia Foundation are as follows:
- Lower number of scholarships: The number of scholarships for residents in the spheres of the Wikimedia chapters is much smaller. For the people in Northern/Western/Southern Europe about 10 scholarships will be allocated in total.
- More applicants: The number of applicants for these low numbers of scholarships is very high. Hundreds of people apply for a WMF Wikimania scholarship. Therefore, the proportion of successful applications is much smaller. The high number of applications also reduces the time for the jury members to thoroughly evaluate the application.
- Drawbacks with the application language: A non-English application makes the judgment of the jury more difficult. Applicants with limited English skills could also face difficulties. Die Kommunikation:
- Limited knowledge about the German-language Wikimedia projects: The international jury can take specialties of the German-language Wikimedia project less into concern for their judgment of the application.
- Individual travel agreements are more difficult: The Wikimedia Foundation’s travel agency does not prohibit individual travel agreements but is less flexible than the respective Wikimedia chapters, especially with changing accommodation.
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