The applicant needs to fulfill all three of the following requirements:
a) be an active editor of at least one Wikimedia project;
b) be a Polish citizen, have permanent resident status in Poland or be a citizen of a country with national income per capita lower than Poland's (based on World Bank's 2010 data in this table);
c) be at least 18 years old (or at least 16 years old and have written permission to attend the conference from a parent or legal guardian)
The maximum number of scholarships that will be granted is 10 for applicants from Poland and 6 for applicants from other countries (as specified in section 1b).
The scholarship can cover only the following Wikimania 2012 expenses: travel, accommodation, conference fee.
Wikimedia Polska reserves the right to buy all the abovementioned services in a group package for all scholarship recipients. If that is the case, recipients will be required to meet the rest of the group in a designated time and place within the territory of Poland, and then follow the instructions given by the group leader, who will be designated by the Wikimedia Polska Board.
If Wikimedia Polska decides not to buy the group package as described above, the recipients will be required to cover all the expenses on their own and then present the documentation of those expenses to the Wikimedia Polska Treasurer (who is also chair of Scholarships Commission) in order to qualify for the refund.
The recipients are required to take care of all the legal aspects of their trip to the United States on their own, in particular to obtain a valid visa and purchase apropriate travel insurance.
If the visa application is turned down or if the recipient is not able to attend the conference for any other reason, he/she is required to notify Wikimedia Polska Board immediately.
The application should be submitted by e-mail (attachments are allowed) sent to the Secretary of the Commission (at powerek38@gazeta.pl). The application needs to be in Polish or English, applications in other languages will not be considered. The deadline for applications is March 9th, 2012, at 23:59:59 Warsaw time.
The application should include:
a) a short description of activities within the Wikimedia movement: username of the global account for all Wikimedia projects or local account names for specific projects; activities outside the on-line projects (such as real-life pro-Wikimedia initiatives, work in Wikimedia Foundation's local chapters etc.); prior attendance at Wikimedia conferences, especially at Wikimania;
b) information on applicant's planned personal input at Wikimania 2012, such as lecture submission or other forms of input as agreed with conference organisers (input in events that accompany Wikimania 2012 is also taken into consideration);
c) declaration of knowledge of English at a level sufficient to take part in the conference;
d) information on the airport nearest to the applicant's place of residence, from which flights to the United States are available;
e) declaration that applicant's age is at least 18 years. People aged 16 and 17 are allowed to apply as well, but they need to provide scan of a written letter of consent to their journey from their parent or legal guardian;
f) declaration of applicant's citizenship(s);
g) declaration of consent to provide the necessary personal information to Wikimedia Polska and to allow the processing of that data if the scholarship is awarded. The information will include full name, adress, bank account and passport numbers. Please do not include this data in the application - only the scholarship recipients will be asked to provide it later.
Secretary of the Commission will confirm that the application was received by a return e-mail sent within two days. The e-mail address from which the application is sent will be considered the contact address of the applicant.
All personal details included in the applications will be treated as confidential and will be stored in a way which ensures no unauthorised access.
In case of reasonable doubt regarding the authenticity of the details provided, the Commission may ask the applicant to present the documents confirming those details. This may include a scan of national ID card, passport or other ID document.
The Commission will start evaluating the applications immediately after the final deadline for submissions. The meetings of the Commission will be closed to the public and they will employ means of communication agreed by the Commission members.
Commission will submit a list of recommended scholarship recipients to Wikimedia Polska Board as soon as possible. After the list is approved by Wikimedia Polska Board, each recipient will be notified by e-mail. The notifications will be sent to unsuccessful applicants as well.
The latest closing date for the entire scholarships awarding process is March 18, 2012.
