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 Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
