Wikimedia Fellowships/Process

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Get yourself involved! Spread the word about endorsement process. Review the evaluation criteria. Participate in the discussion by endorsing open project ideas.

The WMF Community Fellowship Program is currently housed in WMF's Community Department, though any WMF department could potentially host fellows. Final decisions on fellows and fellowship projects are made by WMF staff, but community input, endorsement, and advisement along the way is both expected and welcome. The following is an outline of how the Community Fellowships process works.

Recruitment

WMF staff is actively recruiting potential candidates and sourcing ideas for projects on a rolling basis. We invite everyone to share and endorse project ideas, recommend potential candidates, and apply to be considered for a fellowship.

Application/Submission

Candidates may apply with or without a specific project idea, and ideas can be submitted with or without an application to become a fellow. WMF staff will match fellows to projects based on fit between skills, interests, and strategic priorities.

Before submitting an idea or applying for a fellowship, please read more about the fellowship program.

Please Note: The deadline to apply for the current round of 2012 Fellowships has passed, and we are now reviewing existing applications and project ideas. Although applications and project ideas are welcomed on a rolling basis, we cannot guarantee timely review of new submissions outside of the open call period. The next open call for submissions will begin in July 2012.

Submit a Project Idea

Do you have ideas for projects that require WMF support and could be led by a fellow to accomplish strategic goals?

Evaluation Criteria

A great fellowship project is... Targeted - addresses strategic theme(s) or goals Ask: How does the project fit with WMF goals and current fellowship program theme(s)? Actionable - has concrete deliverables and outcomes Ask: What will the project drivers do, how will they do it, and what will change as a result? Impactful - can have impact on a large group of people, articles, projects Ask: Does it serve the many or the few? Sustainable - builds volunteer-driven continuity over time Ask: After the fellowship is over, how could the initiative continue? Scalable - has the potential to transfer knowledge or approaches to multiple languages or projects Ask: How can the project model solutions to generate movement-wide value? Measurable - can demonstrate impact Ask: How will we know if the outcome is successful?

Project ideas do not need to be a fully-fleshed project plans or proposals at this stage, but should include a description of the basic idea and some rationale about why the project is necessary, great, and a good fit for support from the WMF Community Fellowship Program, as well as some initial thoughts about what type of support may be needed.

Submit

Ready to submit a project idea? Fill in the proposed name of your project and begin editing in the form that appears after you click "Create project idea". Please note that submissions will be added to the public list of open ideas (see below) and may be archived at any time at the discretion of Wikimedia Foundation staff.

Endorse an Idea

The fellowships program encourages endorsement of open project ideas by volunteers from the Wikimedia community. Endorsement is not a debate, vote, or poll, but is rather a space for volunteers and other movement stakeholders to describe why they think a project idea is of value and a good fit with selection criteria. Questions or concerns about a project idea are also helpful, but should be posted on the talk page instead of in the endorsements section.

To endorse

Learn more about the endorsement process and how to endorse a project idea, and then browse the list of open project ideas below to get started.

Open project ideas

Online Community Engagement

• Help pages redesign leader
• Feedback Dashboard analytics fellowship
• Feedback Dashboard response team organizer
• Talk more friendly
• Editor engagement strategies for new or smaller Wikipedias
• InCite
• WikiProject Support - Enabling projects to be bold
• Using your languages across the Wikipedias
• Dispute resolution
• A Digital Wiki Coach To Provide Focused Advice
• Badges for Wikipedia Community Engagement
• Wikiprojects Success, Failure and Impact on Content and Community

Outreach & Partnerships

• Events and presentation support
• Wikinews syndication fellow
• Local Community Fellow
• research institute outreach
• Secondary School Integration
• Wikipedia Photography Club or Wiki Photographer
• Occupedia
• Díselo a wikipedia
• Mejorar entradas en español
• Inviting Brazil

Research

• A study of strategic alignment within the Wikimedia community
• Expert retention - a qualitative study of those, who left
• Identifying barriers to participation from heavy internet users
• The status of collaboration: appropriations of the Web for constructions of collective narratives

Content Creation & Improvement

• NARA DOCUMERICA photographs color correction
• Tools for text synthesis
• WIKILIVE

Readership & Accessibility

• The Accessibility Project
• WikiCast

Others

• WikExperience Open University

Apply for a Fellowship

Do you want to work with WMF on a project to accomplish the goals of this year's theme?

A fellow is... curious about why and how Wikimedia communities work and how they can work even better motivated to experiment with new approaches to solve complex problems bringing a set of unique skills and also interested in developing some new skills along the way an excellent communicator able to prioritize and focus on what's most important first willing to think through both the big ideas and the day-to-day details able to drive their own work and be responsible for the outcomes comfortable engaging with a diverse, distributed and opinionated team happiest working in a highly transparent fashion fluent in English (other languages are a big plus!) an active member of the Wikimedia community, or with significant understanding of how this and other online communities operate able to devote full-time attention to a fellowship project (or significant part-time attention, depending on the project)

Apply

Email your application to fellowswikimedia.org. The following information will remain private unless otherwise specified.

The application should include: Your real name and user name for any applicable Wikimedia projects you participate in A CV containing any combination of on or off-wiki experience that may be relevant A cover email addressing the following points: Why you are interested in a Community Fellowship? What do you hope to gain from participation in the Community Fellowships Program? What are your main areas of interest for fellowship work? Is there a specific project idea you would like to work on? Briefly describe a project you have created, led, or contributed significantly to in the past. What qualities or skills did you bring that contributed to the successful completion of the project?

Nominate someone else

To nominate someone else for fellowship, email fellowswikimedia.org with the name/username of the person and reason for nomination.

Interviews

If your project idea is chosen for further review, you may be asked to interview so that we can gather more information on the idea, or you may be contacted on the talk-page for further discussion. Please note that ideas and people may not be bound together in the fellowships process. You will be credited for the idea even if you aren't chosen (or interesting in being chosen) for a fellowship to enact the idea.

If your application for fellowship is chosen, you will be contacted for a series of interviews which may include an interview with Head of Community Fellowships, request for completion of a small test "task", and interviews with other WMF staff.

Project Planning

WMF will provide assistance growing a project idea into an actionable project plan by pairing the potential fellow to work one-on-one with a WMF staff member and/or leading brainstorming sessions with a group of staff and/or interested community members. The project plan will be made publicly available on meta for input from movement stakeholders.

Questions

If you have further questions or feedback regarding the Community Fellowships Program or process, please contact Siko Bouterse, Head of Community Fellowships, at sboutersewikimedia.org.