WikiConference India 2016/Scholarships/ar

Hashtag: #WCI2016

WikiConference India 2016 (WCI 2016) is being held on 5,6,7 August 2016 in Landran (Mohali), Chandigarh, India. WCI 2016 Scholarships Program is offering a limited number of scholarships to cover the cost of selected individuals' travel, conference registration fee and accommodation.

Important dates

The anticipated timeline for the WCI 2016 Scholarship Program is as follows:

Scholarship applications open: 11 May 2016 Done
Deadline for applying for scholarships: 31 May 2016 23:59 UTC Done
Applicants are notified about final decisions: by first week of July 2016 Done
The final list of recipients will be announced: 16 July 2016 Done

الأهداف

To make WCI 2016 a successful and productive conference, by promoting experience sharing among participants on both on-wiki and off-wiki topics
To enrich the conference by enabling a diverse group of participants from across the Wikimedia movement to attend
To facilitate the broader enrichment of Wikimedia communities, by having contributors share their WCI experiences and lessons learned with their home communities
To enable new collaborations, creations, and improvements

Scholarship details

The scholarship for WWCI 2016 will cover the following expenses:

Round trip travel
Shared accommodation
Conference registration fee

We expect to support at least 103 individuals.

Eligibility to apply

Any active contributor to a Wikimedia project, or Wikimedia volunteer in any other capacity, from the South Asian subcontinent, is considered eligible for a scholarship. As the program supports volunteer participation, individuals whose participation is tied only to paid work do not qualify for a scholarship.

Activity within the Wikimedia movement will be the main criteria for evaluation. Participation in non-Wikimedia free knowledge, free software, collaborative or educational initiatives is a plus but is no longer a requirement; individuals who solely contribute to such areas are no longer encouraged to apply.

Selection process

Phase 1 – Eligibility assessment: All application will be reviewed by the Scholarship Committee, with a score of zero (fail) or one (pass) awarded on an application-by-application basis.
Phase 2 – In-depth evaluation: All applications that pass Phase 1 will be reviewed in more detail by the Scholarship Committee, with a minimum of two reviewers per application. Each reviewer will independently examine and score each application against the Phase 2 selection criteria, to reach a final score for each application.
Phase 3 – Final approval for scholarships: There will be an average final score generated for each applicant based on the Phase 2 reviews. The final awarding of the scholarships will be to ensure diversity regarding gender, region, language and Wikimedia projects.
- Scholarships will be allocated based on these subcategories -
  - Communities and Projects - Each language and Wikimedia project irrespective of its size will have three scholarships awarded. For technical involvement, six seats are assigned. 20 different language communities and five Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikisource, Commons and Tech) had these allocations.
  - General - This category will be open to all applicants after above community allocations are assigned.
  - Female Participation - To ensure diversity in gender, about one in three scholarships in both categories above will be awarded to female applicants.

Selection Criteria

Phase 1 - Eligiblity assessment

Applications will fail Phase 1 if any of the following failing criteria apply:

The application entirely or primarily consists of content which is off-topic or abusive.
The applicant has failed to make a reasonable effort to answer the questions on the application form.
The candidate has been permanently blocked or globally banned in any Wikimedia projects and does not have significant contributions to other projects.
The applicant has failed to demonstrate any significant Wikimedia contributions or activities which may merit the awarding of a scholarship.
- Examples of "significant Wikimedia contribution or activities" are as follows:
  - Active contributor to a Wikimedia project (e.g. Wikipedia, Commons or Wikisource), with at least 100 contributions (edits)
  - Mediawiki code contributor, gadget or other tool-builder for Wikimedia projects
  - Wikimedia CheckUser, Admin, Bureaucrat, Steward or OTRS volunteer (current or former)
  - Wikimedia Foundation Grantee or Researcher
  - Organizer of Wikimedia events (e.g. WLM, edit-a-thons)
  - A very solid history of contributions to other Open Source or Free Knowledge organizations that would warrant an exception to the above

Phase 2 - In-depth evaluation

Each reviewer will grade the applicants on a scale of 0-10 based on value addition regarding Collaboration, Leadership, Impact, and Potential. These will cover many aspects of one's activity as seen below:

Contribution to Wikimedia projects
Demonstrated collaborated activities online and offline on Wikimedia projects.
Role within most active Wikimedia community (editor, sysop, bureaucrat, etc.,)
Offline work related to Wikimedia projects, including contests, weekly collaborations, etc.
Demonstration of blogs, reports, etc. that show valuable contribution back to the community.
Role in organizing WCI 2016 and participation in WCI 2016 (paper, talk, workshop, hackathon, panel, discussion, etc.,)

The review team closely followed the universal best practices adopted in Wikimania Scholarships.

Decision

Scholarship decision for WCI 2016 participation has been finalized.

We received 450+ applications among which 209 were shortlisted. Now, we have offered 103 scholarships covering 20 language communities and five different Wikimedia projects. Among them, 25 recipients have identified themselves as women. Each community and project was allocated at least three seats to ensure that we abide by our Code of Conduct guidelines for diversity and inclusion.

The recipients have been informed about the decision through email. Please check your email inbox (or even spam folder). It is likely that we may be able to offer some more scholarships when there is a vacancy, or additional funds are available. We will publish a final list of scholarship recipients here on 16th July 2016.

We wish that we could send every applicant to WikiConference India 2016, but we are only able to support a small percentage of those who applied. Given the high quality of applicants overall and the diversity and inclusion policy, sometimes even a strong application will not make it through, so please don’t let this discourage you from applying for future scholarships.

If you can make other arrangements to attend WikiConference India 2016, we strongly encourage you to do so! Conference registration and program details will be available soon. We also strongly encourage you to present a paper, workshop, poster, lightning talk or participate in any manner. Call for Participation is open now here.

We value your participation on Wikimedia's projects and encourage your future participation. If you need help finding out what you can do to contribute, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your interest in WCI 2016 and for your involvement in the Wikimedia movement.

Scholarship Team

Biplab Anand (Nepali Wikimedia Community)
Dineshkumar Ponnusamy (Tamil Wikimedia Community)
Jim Carter (English Wikimedia Community)
Parveer Grewal (Punjabi Wikimedia Community)
Ravishankar A. (Tamil Wikimedia Community)
Sailesh Patnaik (Odia Wikimedia Community)
Satdeep Gill (Punjabi Wikimedia Community)
Soni (English Wikimedia Community)
Tito Dutta (English Wikimedia Community)
Viswa Prabha (Malayalam Wikimedia Community)
Yohannvt (Wikimedia India EC member)

Recipients

List of scholarship recipients who have accepted the offer (sorted by alphabetical order).

We have offered a total of 103 scholarships. We will add the remaining recipients once they confirm their acceptance of scholarship.

Scholar responsibilities

Like other Travel and Participation Support grantees, WikiConference India scholars are asked to share something that results from their participation at the conference with the Wikimedia movement after the conference has ended. This brief report is typically due 21 days after the end of the conference, and includes the scholar's choice of one of 3 options:

Option 1: Shared Experience: What is one way you shared something from your experience with your community (either locally or globally)?

Add a link here to a blog post or newsletter you wrote about your participation, or to a meet-up you organized to share your experience with your local community.

Option 2: Learning Pattern: What is one useful learning pattern you can share with the Wikimedia movement?

Add a link to a learning pattern - either a new pattern you created with insights from your participation, or an existing pattern to which you added your endorsement and some significant new "considerations" or “examples” from your experience.

Option 3: New Creation: What was one useful outcome of the event for the Wikimedia movement?

Add a link to something new that was created as a result of your participation in this event (for example, you might link to new articles, tools, or collaborations).

Ready to create your report? Use the input box below to name your page and click the button to get started.