From Fedora Project Wiki

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If your question was not covered by the above information, or if your email was an application submission, you will receive an email response shortly (within 3 business days).
If your question was not covered by the above information, or if your email was an application submission, you will receive an email response shortly (within 3 business days).
==== Incomplete application letter ====
Thanks for your application to the Fedora Scholarship. We are missing the following pieces of your application:
* Name
* Age
* Fedora Account System username
* Personal statement (in acceptable format, see below)
* References from within the Fedora project
* Resume in .txt, .pdf, or Open Office format; documents in other formats will not be considered. In particular, we do not accept documents in the proprietary .docx and .doc formats.
Please see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#How_to_apply for more details.
==== Application receipt confirmation ====
Thanks for your application to the Fedora Scholarship - your application has been received and is complete. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Timeline for the remainder of the dates in this Scholarship cycle (the next date is April 5, the date by which the scholarship recipient will be privately notified).
Best of luck with the remainder of your studies this year, and we'll see you in Fedora-land!


==== Recruiting the selection committee ====
==== Recruiting the selection committee ====

Revision as of 14:57, 13 January 2010

This page is intended to provide insight as to how we manage the Fedora Scholarship.

For administrators

Administrative timeline

Before applications open

  1. Make sure the scholarship AT fedoraproject DOT org alias points to you. This can be done by asking the prior administrator to file a Fedora Infrastructure ticket.
  2. Update this page to reflect any changes in procedure you wish to implement for this round of the scholarship.
  3. Update the Scholarship terms to reflect any changes in procedure you wish to implement, along with relevant dates (in particular, the open/close dates for application submissions). In case of any substantive changes, be sure to run them by Red Hat legal.
  4. Update the Scholarship page to reflect the dates for the new cycle along with any procedural changes that affect the content on that page.
  5. Publicize via Fedora channels to encourage people to apply. See #Marketing for ideas.

When applications open

  1. Edit the Scholarship page to reflect that the application period is open.
  2. Publicize via Fedora channels to encourage people to apply. See #Marketing for ideas.
  3. Nominate people for the selection committee and ask if they would be willing to serve.

Once applications close

  1. Edit the Scholarship wiki page to reflect that the application period for this cycle is over.
  2. Select the final selection committee from among the eligible nominees (selection committee nominees serving as references for an application cycle are not eligible to serve on the committee for that cycle).
  3. Guide the selection committee through the process of selecting a winner.

Once a winner is selected

  1. Publicize the results via Fedora channels. See #Marketing for ideas.
  2. Take care of the financial logistics behind transferring scholarship funds to the school the winner will be attending.
  3. Convene a follow-up meeting with the selection committee and any other interested attendees from the Fedora community in order to think about ways to improve the scholarship program for the next cycle.
  4. Edit this page to reset the instructions for the administrator of the next cycle. If you will not be administering the next cycle, find your successor and hold a handoff meeting.

Marketing

The marketing of the Fedora Scholarship has taken several forms in the past, including:

Press release

The Fedora Project, a Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration, announces the 2010 opening of the Fedora Scholarship program recognizing college and university-bound students across the globe for their contributions to free software and the Fedora Project.

The Fedora Scholarship program furthers Red Hat and the Fedora Project's commitment to helping develop and foster up and coming talent in the open source software field. Applicants will be evaluated on criteria including the quality of contributions made to Fedora and other free software projects, references provided by Fedora community members, the amount of time the applicant has been contributing to Fedora and the overall quality of the application. Recipients will receive a scholarship to be applied toward tuition for the student's college or university education. In addition, the recipient will receive funding for travel and lodging at the Fedora User and Developer Conference (FUDCon) nearest to their location for each year of the scholarship.

"Free and open source software is a major disruptive technology, and provides boundless possibilities for developing technology skills. The Fedora community recognizes the importance of exposing technology enthusiasts at an early age to the possibilities of free and open source software, and working in an innovative community effort like Fedora is the best way to develop and hone these skills," said Paul Frields, Fedora Project leader at Red Hat. "We hope the Fedora Scholarship serves as a catalyst for younger generations to become involved in open source projects, and continue the positive momentum behind not only Fedora, but all free and open source software."

The 2010 application window opens December 15, 2009 and will close Feb. 19, 2010. For more information on the Fedora Scholarship or to apply, visit https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.

For more news about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for four consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com. Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's Web site at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT® and JBOSS® are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries.

Template letters

General informational inquiry response

Thank you for inquiring about the Fedora scholarship.

Some frequently asked questions:

Q: Where can I find out more about the scholarship?

A: For general information about the scholarship, please see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.

Q: How are recipients selected?

A: For selection criteria, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Selection_Criteria.

Q: Can you send me an application?

A: For information on how to apply, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#How_to_apply. Our application process is entirely digital, and all the materials needed are available on the website.

If your question was not covered by the above information, or if your email was an application submission, you will receive an email response shortly (within 3 business days).

Incomplete application letter

Thanks for your application to the Fedora Scholarship. We are missing the following pieces of your application:

  • Name
  • Age
  • Fedora Account System username
  • Personal statement (in acceptable format, see below)
  • References from within the Fedora project
  • Resume in .txt, .pdf, or Open Office format; documents in other formats will not be considered. In particular, we do not accept documents in the proprietary .docx and .doc formats.

Please see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#How_to_apply for more details.

Application receipt confirmation

Thanks for your application to the Fedora Scholarship - your application has been received and is complete. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Timeline for the remainder of the dates in this Scholarship cycle (the next date is April 5, the date by which the scholarship recipient will be privately notified).

Best of luck with the remainder of your studies this year, and we'll see you in Fedora-land!

Recruiting the selection committee

Greetings,

You are receiving this email because we would like to ask you to be part of the selection committee candidate pool for this year's Fedora Scholarship. More information on the scholarship is available on the Scholarship page (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship). This year's selection timeline with the committee's responsibilities can be found on the main Scholarship page, https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Timeline.

Those of you who've participated in the scholarship committee process in the past will notice a difference between this year and last year - we're designating a committee candidate *pool* instead of a committee before the application deadline, and once the application deadline has passed the final committee will be chosen from the members of that pool who are not serving as references to the applicants under consideration. Basically, what this means is that for any given year, you can be a selection committee member, or you can be an applicant's reference, but you can't be both.

The responsibilities are pretty lightweight (read and comment on applications), and there's no obligation to participate - if you don't respond to this email, we'll assume you're not interested and plan accordingly - if you are interested, just add your name to the list at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship_administration_SOP#Selection_committee_candidate_pool. If you know someone else who you think would be a good selection committee member, please let me know.

Giving applications to the selection committee

This template is under construction.

Greetings,

You are receiving this email because you have confirmed your membership acceptance for the selection committee for this year's Fedora Scholarship.

The application window for this year closed on DATE. The applications and references for each candidate are attached. As you read these applications, please keep the selection criteria in mind.

For the selection committee

This section is under construction.

Selection committee timeline

  • February 19, 2010 -- final committee membership is determined.
  • by March 12, 2010 -- Each member of the selection committee reviews the applications, weighs the merits of each along with the criteria, and writes a few paragraphs to the rest of the committee indicating their thinking.
  • by March 19, 2010 -- discussion continues, and if we have not reached a consensus by email, a conference call will be set up in order to make a final decision.
  • April 5, 2010 -- according to the Terms and Conditions, the recipient will be notified by the Scholarship administrator by this date (no action needed by committee members).
  • May 5, 2010 -- by this date, a postmortem will be conducted with ideas on improvements to this program for the next year, including marketing, selection criteria, the selection process itself, etc.

Selection committee membership

  • Selected by the Scholarship administrator.
  • Entirely composed of Fedora community members.
  • In the past, each committee has had at least one community member with ties to academia (professor, etc).
  • All previous recipients of the Fedora Scholarship have the option to serve on the selection committee.
  • May not be serving as a reference for any of the scholarship candidates the same year they are members of the selection committee.

Selection committee candidate pool

If you have been invited to be in the selection committee candidate pool and wish to accept, place your name in the list below.

Ideas for next round

If you have an idea, please add it here.

  • One thing I'm thinking about is starting a mailing list for discussion/questions on the scholarship, because there's no place for people to talk about it right now (well... the talk page, but we don't really use that in Fedoraland). Mel Chua 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Another thing I'm thinking about - not for this round, though - is having contributors submit their applications via git checkin, which I think is a perfectly reasonable barrier to entry if we want Fedora contributors anyway (if you're an active participant in Fedora, you should at least know what git is and be able to find someone to walk you through how to use it, regardless of what type of contributor you are). Mel Chua 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Things to fix for this round

We may not be able to do everything on this list, but we'll try.

Students from conscription countries not eligible

  • The way the Terms and Conditions are worded at the moment disqualifies most contributors from countries that have conscription. Usually these mandatory services (army, community service) take place between high school and university so there currently is no way for contributors that are affected to fulfill 2 (i) and 2 (iii) of the Scholarship terms at the same time. Also see the Map of countries that are affected (all the red ones). --Heffer 10:54, 16 December 2009 (UTC)
Fixed; the Terms and Conditions now allow students "enrolled as a high school or secondary school student (or home-schooled student) during the Program Application Term, or [who] have graduated with a high school or secondary school diploma within two (2) years of the start of the Program Application Term." Thanks for calling out this bug! Mel Chua 05:55, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
Further explanation: The new T&C allows students from transcription countries to apply during their year of service. You still apply the year immediately before you go to university, but you don't have to be enrolled in secondary school when you apply so long as you've graduated from it within the last 2 years. Mel Chua 05:58, 17 December 2009 (UTC)