Talk:Wikimedia LGBT+/Grants/Wikimania 2012

Some questions

How many potential participants have already been given scholarships, or are otherwise planning on attending (are the measures of success attainable)? Were potential candidates discriminated against during the standard scholarship process? Why are specifically 5 additional scholarships needed - do those 5 scholarships match up to 5 specified people (the grant applicants?), or are there 5 sets of useful types of participants (e.g. with specific background knowledge), or was it a random number? If they are the 5 specified people, then did they apply for a scholarship via the standard process?

(I'm asking questions with the aim of highlighting issues/weaknesses with the proposal so that they can be improved. I'm rather tired right now, so apologies if there are any slips in my phrasing of the questions.) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 13:50, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

Mike - those are all worthwhile questions - thank you.  :)

1. We hope to get a sense of the LGBT participation at Wikimania during the meet-up. However, since we don't explicitly ask that question (nor should we) during the scholarship or application process, it's hard to measure that currently. There are LGBT participants registered for Wikimania and active in this outreach project that are recipients of scholarships.
2. I do not personally have any reason to believe people were discriminated against during the scholarship process. However, that is not the cause of this proposal. As many have noted, not nearly as many applicants for scholarships received them. This is one of a few attempts to enable more Wikimedians interested in specific projects or efforts to be present at Wikimania, which I and others believe improves the overall quality of those projects, Wikimania and Wikimedia projects.
3. Five was a number selected based on how many additional volunteers would be helpful to have engaged in LGBT outreach efforts at Wikimania. There were other considerations, such as the overall amount being requested, input from folks involved, etc. In general it seemed like the best number to fit the proposal's overall purpose and objectives.
4. While some folks not involved with this proposal's development have shown an interest in applying should it be approved, there are not pre-determined candidates in mind. The folks involved are already attending Wikimania via other means to avoid any COI. Some of the folks that have shown an interest applied to the scholarship process and others felt they didn't stand much of a chance and didn't apply.

I hope that helps answer any questions and helps you in developing feedback - which is, of course, welcome.  :) --Varnent (talk) 01:03, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

Many thanks for the answers. :-) Here's some follow-up points/answers:

1. Actually, yes, that should be asked and measured as part of a standard equal opportunities survey. Of course, the answer should be kept completely separate from the scholarship questions, and only utilized anonymously and statistically. But the point of doing an equal opportunities survey is to be able to answer exactly this sort of question. ;-)
2. OK, then the question becomes, is LGBT outreach something that needs to be developed further at Wikimania? Is there a need for positive discrimination? I'm not sure you make the case for this at the moment...
3. & 4 OK - I'd recommend adding some of that rationale/info onto the grants page, as it's good background information. In general with all grant applications (not Wikimedia-specific), there's always the question "could you do the same with less money?" - and there always needs to be a justified answer as to why that isn't the case...

Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 15:10, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

Wikimania scholarships are over

Although this is still a draft, I figured I might say this sooner rather than later, to spare you further effort: we have allocated a certain budget for Wikimania scholarships, and those scholarships have been handed out (technically, are still being handed out), and we do not intend to allocate additional funds for further Wikimania scholarships.

An LGBT meetup during Wikimania would be great, and those printing needs can most probably be adequately met within the general Wikimania budget. If the organizing team cannot accommodate you in this, do let us know and we'll work something out. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 22:48, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

That said, it may be a good idea to pursue a more concrete organization of people interested in LGBT issues (and/or are LGBT), perhaps using one of the new models the Board of Trustees has recently announced. Details are still getting worked out by the Chapter Committee, but it's not too soon to start working on it. Such an organization may well be in a position to seek and receive support from the Foundation (potentially including grants) for mission-aligned work it would do. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 01:51, 12 May 2012 (UTC)