Scholarships
Introduction
The Wikimedia Foundation, the official organizer of Wikimania 2008 Alexandria, is offering a limited number of scholarships to help attendees defray part of the costs of attending Wikimania 2008.
All applications for the scholarship will be reviewed by the Wikimania 2008 Scholarship Committee. Criteria for selecting recipients are determined by the Committee, in accordance with the goals and focus areas of Wikimania and Wikimedia. It is our goal to make Wikimania 2008 Alexandria successful and productive, and to support the success of Wikimedia projects.
Although every attempt will be made to assist as many people as possible, the number of scholarships is limited. Attendees are therefore strongly encouraged to seek funding from other sources as well.
Timeline
- Scholarship applications must be received by April 21, 2008 at 23:59:59 (UTC). Announcement of scholarships and deadline for scholarships will be sent to the numerous communities shortly.
Eligible Expenses
Eligible expenses
Applicants may request scholarship support on the following expenses to attend Wikimania 2008 Alexandria:
- Air travel (pre-paid economy-class ticket at the lowest fare available, from the nearest international airport)
Generally non-eligible expenses
For simplicity and efficiency of the application and registration processes, requests for support on the following expenses are strongly DISCOURAGED and will be honored only in extreme cases (for example, applicants from low-income locations where GNI per capita was less than US$4000 PPP in 2007 [1]):
- Registration fee for Wikimania 2008 (includes access to all sessions, breakfast and lunches; estimated at US$10-20 per day)
- Accommodation for the conference duration (a shared room is about US$20-30 per night per person; discount may be offered by Wikimania 2008 for the conference duration if budget allows.)
- Daily allowance for the conference duration (a modest living allowance level is estimated at the equivalent of US$5 per day)
- Local transportation (shuttle bus from Airport to conference site will be arranged by the conference organizers and probably offered free to groups of conference participants, otherwise the individual one-way bus/transit fare is ~US$4.)
In all cases individuals will be required to cover the cost of their hotel incidental expenses, meals, visa applications and any optional extra expenses (for example, travel insurance).
Preference for partial support
Please note that the level of support requested may not be the level of support granted. Full scholarships will only be awarded in a limited number of cases. Decisions about whether a full or partial scholarship will be awarded will be decided by the Scholarship Committee. To give more people a chance to get scholarships, applications for partial support are preferred.
Qualifications
- Registered user at a Wikimedia project who has an existing user page created before 2/15/2008.
Application form
Applications are now closed. Thank you to all of those who applied. Please be patient as we review the hundreds of applications.
Contact Information
The Scholarship Committee may be reached by leaving comments on the talk page of this page, or by emailing wikimania-scholarshipswikimedia.org.
Privacy
We require some of your personal information to process your application for the scholarship. This is kept highly confidential by the Coordinator of Wikimania 2008 Scholarship Committee and the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., and will not be used for any other purpose.