Hey,

Regarding our calculations, we'll be able to cover scholarships for 20 attendees up to 350€, including 160€ for the bedroom and 190€ for transportation.

Cheers.

These are the questions proposed for people requesting travel sponsorship during the registration process: http://goo.gl/forms/MPzx8q7BBz

Feedback welcome.

Can we include a question for people who are attending a Wikimedia Hackathon for the second+ time about willingness to dedicate some time to helpingnew community members? I think our aim this year is to get a larger percentage of first time Wikimedia event attendees. We are also start experimenting with a "new to Wikimedia" or "Don't know what to work on?" or "Meet your MediaWiki Heros" table and see what works well and what does not so that we can copy or make changes to this for Wikimania too. I don't think only WMF staff should be helping with that.

Can we also change "Wikimedia Foundation buddy" to "Wikimedia Foundation, WIkimedia Chapter or or long time contributing volunteer buddy" I think having Manuel, Maarten, Daniel Kinzler, Katie F or the DJ as your buddy is just as valuable as having a WMF staff member. We might also want to email out to wikitech-l with this buddy idea so that people are not surprised about being named as a buddy.

Finally - should we add something about making sure that the buddy you name is planning to be at the event and agrees to be a buddy and maybe allowing them to enter more than one name if they are excited about working with more than one person?

Otherwise, I really like it! Thanks for putting this together, Quim! @AlexCella can you make sure the people at WMFR who are creating the registration form see this as well? We can incorporate this with the logistics information that needs to be asked as well.

Thank you for the quick feedback! I noticed that the this discussion has to do with the whole registration and not only the sponsored participants, so I replied at T88524#1035497

We need to agree on a deadline for requesting travel sponsorship. End of 31 March?

This sounds very reasonable to us.

Ok, let me work a bit on T89084: Main themes of the Wikimedia Hackathon 2015 in order to highlight the main themes, which will be useful to focus a bit our search and selection of sponsored contributors.

Meanwhile, can @Rfarrand and me get access to the list of people requesting sponsorship? The contacts for each funding chapter will need access as well.

@AlexCella, @Rfarrand, we need to announce loud and wide that the deadline for sponsorship requests is the end of 31 March. It should be specificed in the registration for and in the wiki page, and I think a specific announcement about this is useful as well. Can you take care of this?

@Qgil, would a message from Sylvain on the same lists he went though to announce openings of this Hackathon make sense?
Also, would it be possible to have a link so that I can add it to the MediaWiki Hackathon's page? I'll then share it with @Sylvain_WMFr, and he'll add it to the registration form.

It is extremely unclear from the registration form how to apply for travel/accomadation funding.

@Bawolff, the form says

Are you a volunteer developer needing sponsorship?

• No, I don't need a sponsorship
• Yes, travel and accommodation
• Yes, only accommodation
• Yes, only travel

Please tell us why you should be sponsored

That's all. Isn't it clear?

In T88406#1104819, @AlexCella wrote:

@Qgil, would a message from Sylvain on the same lists he went though to announce openings of this Hackathon make sense?

Yes, perfect.

Also, would it be possible to have a link so that I can add it to the MediaWiki Hackathon's page? I'll then share it with @Sylvain_WMFr, and he'll add it to the registration form.

I have added links to the registration and the travelk sponsorship guidelines in the section 0 at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2015

I have also edited https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Volunteer_coordination_and_outreach/Travel_sponsorship merging the content in the description of this task.

In T88406#1095044, @Qgil wrote:

Meanwhile, can @Rfarrand and me get access to the list of people requesting sponsorship? The contacts for each funding chapter will need access as well.

Any news on this? I want to check the current list to see whether we can start approving the very obvious cases. I also want to check candidates from countries implying complex visa processes like India.

In T88406#1106449, @Qgil wrote:

@Bawolff, the form says

Are you a volunteer developer needing sponsorship?

• No, I don't need a sponsorship
• Yes, travel and accommodation
• Yes, only accommodation
• Yes, only travel

Please tell us why you should be sponsored

That's all. Isn't it clear?

Its unclear what to put for:

Payment method:
Bank card (secured by Ogone)
Paypal
My organization will pay directly to Wikimédia France (Wikimedia Foundation and chapter staff only)

Since if one is asking for travel/accommodation sponsorship one is presumably not paying.

There is a similar question on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Hackathon_2015 so I don't think I'm the only one confused.

@Bawolff, you are right that the payment method question is confusing to those requesting sponsorship. @Sylvain_WMFr, any ideas? An extra bullet point "I am requesting travel sponsorship"?

There is a similar question on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Hackathon_2015 so I don't think I'm the only one confused.

You aren't @Bawolff. @Qgil, @Sylvain_WMFr I ran into the same problem (and it's very confusing, what i should do), please fix it as soon as possible, would be great :)

This was discussed at our meeting today and WMFr will be editing the form soon! Hopefully tomorrow. :)

+1, I was confused, too. I checked "bank card" (only because I had to check anything!) and below, wrote why I need sponsorship. And I was thinking whether I filled the form properly, whether it was valid, or maybe not at all...

Hey Quim,

I've proposed to @Rfarrand a new way of giving scholarships, I'm waiting for her opinion.

I need to see with Sylvain regarding occuring problems, especially for payment.

This task was part of ECT-March-2015, and it is still open and assigned. Assuming that it belongs to ECT-April-2015 as well. Otherwise please edit accordingly.

A first wave of approvals was sent... yesterday?

@Qgil: Yap, yesterday :)

In T88523#1212006, @AlexCella wrote:

Hey,

regarding the first round of Scholarship approval sent, and by calculating average flight costs for the 24 attendees, we have:

Travel cost: 11.700,00€
Housing costs= 24*160,00 = 3.840,00€
Total= 15,540,00€

Total amount available= 33.227,00€

We then have 17,7K€ left for scholarships.

@Qgil @Rfarrand What is the strategy now?
So far, I've invited all those who had a majority of green and no red.

I guess we can no invite those who are mainly MAYBE or those who are majority green with one red.

I have gone again through all my MAYBE's, converting some to YES. I have left comments in the cells of my remaining MAYBE's, basically asking you to post in the spreadsheet the information they have submitted in their registration, because the data available in the spreadsheet is imho not enough to make an informed decision.

F. Gediz Aksit says via email that he is waiting for our sponsorship decision, while Andrew Bogott told me on IRC that a volunteer called Vivek is also awaiting our decision. Is it me, or none of both are in our spreadsheet of requests?

After my comment above, Tar Lócesilion has reached me via email asking for his situation and, again, I don't see his name in the spreadsheet.

I hope this situation can be clarified tomorrow.

I'll go and see with Sylvain.

It looks there were problems from the very beggining and this is getting very annoying.

Is there anything I have to do from my end for my sponsorship ?, andrewbogott had sponsored me.

Hi Vivek, I am sorry but I can't find your registration.

If there has been a problem with the registration but...

• the person affected is a confirmed buddy of a well known contributor
• we still have travel budget

then I think we can make an exception, if we decide that the candidate deserves to be sponsored under the same parameters than the rest of candidates evaluated before.

Thanks Quim. Should Vivek re-register, or send a personal email w/His details, or something?

With or without sponsorship, all participants need to be registered (with room confirmed, I guess).

Sylvian, Qgil: I have re-registered now.