Wikimedia Fellowships/Process

Attention: These pages are out of date and have been retained for purely historical value. Please see Wikimedia Fellowships for current information.

Application and Submission

Please Note: The deadline to apply for the current round of 2012 Fellowships has passed, and fellowships have been awarded for all open slots. No new fellowships are now being awarded. Feel free to contact us for more information.

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 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 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.

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? Anyone is welcome to submit ideas for new projects that fellows can take on.

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.

Endorse an Idea

The fellowships program encourages endorsement and feedback on open project ideas by volunteers from the Wikimedia community. Endorsement is not a debate, vote, or poll; it is 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, concerns, and other feedback 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

The following ideas are currently open for endorsement, feedback, collaboration, development, and consideration:

Online community engagement

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/A Digital Wiki Coach To Provide Focused Advice

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Badges for Wikipedia Community Engagement

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Project Support - Enabling projects to be bold

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/The Wikipedia Adventure

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Using your languages across the Wikipedias

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Wikiprojects Success, Failure and Impact on Content and Community

Submit your new idea!

Outreach and partnerships

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Convidando o Brasil

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Díselo a wikipedia

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Events and presentation support

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Mejorar entradas en español

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Wikinews syndication fellow

Submit your new idea!

Research

Category Open fellowship project ideas on research not found

Submit your new idea!

Content creation and improvement

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/NARA DOCUMERICA photographs color correction

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/The Wikipedia Library

Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Wikilive

Submit your new idea!

Readership and accessibility

Category Open fellowship project ideas on readership and accessibility not found

Submit your new idea!

Other ideas

Category Other open fellowship project ideas not found

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.