Comments on: Managing the Scholarship Dilemma of well-funded communities http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/sj/2012/04/21/managing-the-scholarship-dilemma-of-funded-communities/ Mulching the present to feed the future Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:40:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: sumana h. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/sj/2012/04/21/managing-the-scholarship-dilemma-of-funded-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-118839 sumana h. Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:07:53 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/sj/?p=2302#comment-118839 This is so great. Thank you for writing it. When we run the next big funded hackathon (I'm currently working on sponsorships for the <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Berlin_Hackathon_2012" rel="nofollow">Berlin hackathon in June</a>) I'll keep a lot of this in mind. This year I did a bunch of outreach and specifically reached out to nontraditional attendees (people who work on gadgets, templates, and bots) to ask them to come to the event, and we are spending a big chunk of WMF's volunteer development budget for the current fiscal year to encourage and sponsor such people. Next year, I think it would be good to follow your guidelines, to help avoid turning subsidies for travel to the Berlin hackathon into a default expectation. Thanks again. <a href="http://mediawiki.org/wiki/user:sumanah" rel="nofollow">Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Volunteer Development Coordinator</a> This is so great. Thank you for writing it. When we run the next big funded hackathon (I’m currently working on sponsorships for the Berlin hackathon in June) I’ll keep a lot of this in mind. This year I did a bunch of outreach and specifically reached out to nontraditional attendees (people who work on gadgets, templates, and bots) to ask them to come to the event, and we are spending a big chunk of WMF’s volunteer development budget for the current fiscal year to encourage and sponsor such people. Next year, I think it would be good to follow your guidelines, to help avoid turning subsidies for travel to the Berlin hackathon into a default expectation.

Thanks again. Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Volunteer Development Coordinator

]]> By: Nemo http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/sj/2012/04/21/managing-the-scholarship-dilemma-of-funded-communities/comment-page-1/#comment-118766 Nemo Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:37:06 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/sj/?p=2302#comment-118766 There are no easy solutions, but I consider the definition of the aim very simple: scholarships must be an added value for the society, not for the recipients. When an event is considered useful without doubt, as in the case of Wikimania, it would be easy to reduce costs by saying that you should ask a scholarship only if your (family?) income is below a certain amount. This would easily convey the concept and hopefully community members won't cheat. Reimbursement of travel costs to give a presentation or organize something new, on the other hand, are justified only if nobody could do the same thing locally and the thing is very important (both aspects are quitge difficult to judge centrally, and grants given by the WMF to individuals for specific purposes are quite worrying). Small personal experience. In 2010 Wikimania was near enough and I attended to reinstate an Italian presence after many years of absence, convincing a few other WMIT members. In 2011, the chapter helped with some scholarships. In 2012, the participation of Italians to Wikimania is considered obvious, and I won't go again, but the chapter felt the need to fund it again a bit. There are no easy solutions, but I consider the definition of the aim very simple: scholarships must be an added value for the society, not for the recipients.

When an event is considered useful without doubt, as in the case of Wikimania, it would be easy to reduce costs by saying that you should ask a scholarship only if your (family?) income is below a certain amount. This would easily convey the concept and hopefully community members won’t cheat.
Reimbursement of travel costs to give a presentation or organize something new, on the other hand, are justified only if nobody could do the same thing locally and the thing is very important (both aspects are quitge difficult to judge centrally, and grants given by the WMF to individuals for specific purposes are quite worrying).

Small personal experience. In 2010 Wikimania was near enough and I attended to reinstate an Italian presence after many years of absence, convincing a few other WMIT members. In 2011, the chapter helped with some scholarships. In 2012, the participation of Italians to Wikimania is considered obvious, and I won’t go again, but the chapter felt the need to fund it again a bit.

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