State of the Map 2019/Scholarships
Call for scholarships
Blogpost
Call duration: 2019-02-26 to 2019-03-31
Application form
Language: English (as most of the conference)
Platform: Google / Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
Fields and questions
- Email Address
- Name
- OpenStreetMap User ID
- Affiliation
- City, Country
- Nationality(ies)
- What level of grant/scholarship are you applying for?
- How will attending State of the Map benefit you and OpenStreetMap.
- Please check all that apply and feel free to elaborate in other questions:
- Anything else we should know?
- Have you been supported by a SotM scholarship previously?
- Are you seeking funding for your attendance at SotM from any other sources?
- Are you also interested in attending the HOT Summit with support?
- What process is necessary for you to obtain visa to come to Germany?
- Do you have a valid passport, what is the expiration date?
- Do you have a valid health insurance?
Types of scholarships provided
- Support scholarship (admission and accommodation)
- Full scholarship (admission, accommodation and full travel costs)
- Enhanced scholarship (admission, accommodation, full travel costs and extra support to cover evening meals and supplementary costs)
Processing
Not eligible to apply
Persons who have been awarded a scholarship last year.
Filtered out before scoring
Submissions with:
- no openstreetmap id
- invalid id
- id with no edits
- very short written answers (minimum length 400 characters)
Duplicate entries
Latest application retained.
On anonymisation
The applications that were sent to reviewers had the name and email fields removed. Please note that it would still be possible to associate an application with a name, due to the identifying information included in the rest of the fields.
Access to initial dataset: Scholarships core team members and Dorothea.
On randomisation
Each reviewer was send a list of 80 randomly selected applications to score.
Towards the end of the process, applications that had few reviews were sent to other reviewers, in order to get at least 3 reviews by application.
Applications - some numbers
- 551 responses (including duplicates and not eligible entries), of which
- 523 unique responses, of which
- 260 have an existing OSM account, of which
- 212 have edited OSM
- 189 applications after minimum length filtering and before scoring
Regions: initial and granted applications
| Region | Initial applications | Granted applications |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 371 | 6 |
| Asia-Pacific | 101 | 6 |
| America and Caribbean | 43 | 6 |
| Europe | 25 | 4 |
| Middle East | 11 | 0 |
Countries for initial and applications to be scored
The sortable table below shows the countries, the number of applications i) initially and ii) those that remained to be scored after the first filtering. To expand it click on "expand", on the right.
| Country | Initial applications (551 total) | Applications after filtering, to be scored (189 total) | % of initial applications that remained for scoring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | 82 | 15 | 18.29 |
| Uganda | 49 | 18 | 36.73 |
| Ghana | 46 | 11 | 23.91 |
| Kenya | 36 | 9 | 25.00 |
| Tanzania | 29 | 16 | 55.17 |
| India | 22 | 7 | 31.82 |
| Zambia | 17 | 3 | 17.65 |
| US | 15 | 7 | 46.67 |
| Bangladesh | 12 | 8 | 66.67 |
| Nepal | 12 | 8 | 66.67 |
| Thailand | 12 | 1 | 8.33 |
| Colombia | 11 | 8 | 72.73 |
| Zimbabwe | 11 | 4 | 36.36 |
| Ethiopia | 10 | 2 | 20.00 |
| Indonesia | 9 | 3 | 33.33 |
| Cameroon | 8 | 0 | 0.00 |
| DRC | 8 | 2 | 25.00 |
| Philippines | 8 | 8 | 100.00 |
| South Africa | 8 | 1 | 12.50 |
| Ivory Coast | 7 | 3 | 42.86 |
| Mali | 7 | 7 | 100.00 |
| Rwanda | 7 | 3 | 42.86 |
| Germany | 6 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Niger | 6 | 1 | 16.67 |
| Benin | 5 | 3 | 60.00 |
| Iran | 5 | 2 | 40.00 |
| Jordan | 5 | 1 | 20.00 |
| Bolivia | 4 | 2 | 50.00 |
| Chad | 4 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Italy | 4 | 1 | 25.00 |
| Japan | 4 | 2 | 50.00 |
| Malawi | 4 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Pakistan | 4 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Canada | 3 | 1 | 33.33 |
| Egypt | 3 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ireland | 3 | 2 | 66.67 |
| Sri Lanka | 3 | 2 | 66.67 |
| UK | 3 | 1 | 33.33 |
| Albania | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| Azerbaijan | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Botswana | 2 | 1 | 50.00 |
| Burkina Faso | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| China | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Guinea | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| Lesotho | 2 | 1 | 50.00 |
| Madagascar | 2 | 1 | 50.00 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| Nicaragua | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| Sierra Leone | 2 | 1 | 50.00 |
| Sudan | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 2 | 1 | 50.00 |
| Tunisia | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Turkey | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Angola | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Argentina | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Australia | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Belgium | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Brazil | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Burundi | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Chile | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Fiji | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| France | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Gambia | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Georgia | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Kosovo | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Lebanon | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Malaysia | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Mexico | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Morocco | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Mozambique | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Myanmar | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Paraguay | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Peru | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Senegal | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Serbia | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Spain | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Swaziland | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Togo | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Tonga | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Vanuatu | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Vietnam | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
Note: there are minor differences in the numbers of the 2nd column and the last cell of the table below. These could be due to difference between country and nationality or to human error.
Stats on text length and nationalities at different filtering steps
| Applications | Average text length | Median text length | Minimum text length | Maximum text length | Nationalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 737 | 597 | 6 | 1500 | NG: 80 GH: 45 UG: 42 KE: 35 TZ: 28 IN: 25 NP: 15 US: 13 ZM: 12 BD: 12 |
| Removing applicants without OSM account | 812 | 733 | 14 | 1500 | NG: 52 UG: 31 GH: 28 KE: 26 TZ: 25 IN: 18 NP: 13 US: 12 CO: 11 ZM: 11 |
| Removing applications without an existing OSM account | 903 | 955 | 14 | 1500 | NG: 33 UG: 20 TZ: 19 KE: 17 GH: 16 NP: 11 US: 11 IN: 10 CO: 9 PH: 9 |
| Removing applications without OSM edits | 945 | 1017 | 14 | 1500 | TZ: 19 NG: 16 UG: 15 KE: 14 GH: 12 NP: 11 US: 10 CO: 9 PH: 9 BD: 9 |
| Removing applications with text shorter than 400 characters | 1118 | 1224 | 406 | 1500 | NG: 15 TZ: 12 KE: 11 NP: 11 UG: 11 GH: 9 CO: 8 BD: 8 US: 8 PH: 7 |
Filtering by Michael Reichert.
People involved with scholarships
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|---|---|
| Mikel Maron | OSMF board | Overview, initial meetings and scoring |
| Christine Karch | SotM WG lead | Overview and initial meetings |
| Melanie Eckle | SotM local team/HOT | Initial meetings |
| Rachel VanNice | HOT | Initial meetings and arrangements for scholars to attend the HOT summit |
| Sven Lautenbach | SotM local team | Initial meetings, randomisation of applications, assigning applications to reviewers and scoring |
| Christina Ludwig | SotM local team | Arrangement of accommodation and scoring of applications |
| Frederik Ramm | OSMF board | Signed and sent invitation letters, provided reimbursements/per-diems |
| Alexander Zipf | SotM local team | Signed invitation letters |
| Michael Reichert | SotM WG | Initial processing of applications, scoring, train advice to scholars and local transport tickets |
| Dorothea | OSMF administrative assistant | Scholar support |
Please also see the scoring section.
Most of the persons above were also involved with other SotM tasks.
Participated in initial online meetings
- Mikel Maron - OSMF board
- Christine Karch - SotM WG lead
- Melanie Eckle - SotM local team/HOT
- Rachel VanNice - HOT
- Sven Lautenbach - SotM local team
- Dorothea - OSMF administrative assistant
Scoring
People involved with scoring
The SotM Working Group asked last year's scholars if they would be interested to help (as they were not eligible to apply).
Three persons who had initially expressed interest in scoring the applications, did not manage to do it. Therefore, the scholarship team asked for help and there were 3 volunteers added (1 SotM team, 1 local team, 1 external).
- Mikel Maron - OSMF board
- Sven Lautenbach - Local team
- Christina Ludwig - Local team
- Michael Reichert - Local team
- Laura Mugeha - 2018 scholar
- Montseng Moeti - 2018 scholar
- Arnalie Faye Vicario - 2018 scholar
- Sebastian Meier - 2018 scholar
- Timofey Subbotin - 2018 scholar
- Geoffrey Kateregga - 2018 scholar
- Samaila Alio Mainassara - 2017 scholar
- Kshitiz Khanal - 2018 scholar
- Nirab Pidasaini
Assigning applications to reviewers
The initial plan was to have 80 reviews per reviewer to get at coverage of at least 5 reviews per applicant. This did not work out as initially planned, as some reviewers did not manage to score their 80 assigned applications. In the end, each of the 189 applications was reviewed by at least 3 persons.
Instructions to reviewers
Each reviewer will review X applications. Each application scored on the following scale:
- -1 (Incomplete or strong no)
- 0 (Neutral opinion)
- 1 (Yes or favourable opinion)
- 2 (Strong yes or very favourable opinion)
For each application, reviewers were instructed to score on two factors:
- Are applicants contributing to OSM in a substantial way? (Not only OpenStreetMap edits, but contributed to wiki and documentation, trainers, developers).
- Will their attendance benefit their local community in some way?
Other factors that reviewers were told keep in mind when they scored:
- Is the applicant part of an under-represented minority group?
- Are they from an under-represented location?
- Have they applied previously and not gotten a scholarship?
- Do they have a unique story or experience to share?
- Are they in a position to share their SotM experience with a larger group?
Graphs
R = reviewer
Graphs created by Sven Lautenbach.
Scholar selection
Meeting scheduled for discussion - all people who scored the applications and the scholarship core team were invited.
Participants: Mikel and Dorothea (one of the reviewers tried to connect but kept being disconnected).
Process:
- Dorothea mentioned that she was uncomfortable being involved in the selection process and offered feedback on the ease of getting Visas in a few countries.
- Mikel went through 1/3 of the list and marked applications as pass, not pass and maybe. It was mentioned that the following steps were taken afterwards:
- Ranked and reviewed everything with mean of both scores at 1 or above, and also one applicant which ranked below 1 but was selected as a speaker by program committee. This left about 80.
- Filtered out anyone with difficult visa issues, previous scholars (some 1 year, others 2 years ago), and high school students (we can't be responsible for someone who is not an adult travelling).
- Then from within individual countries, compared the candidates against each other and selected 1-2 strongest from each.
- This left 25 applications. Mikel mentioned that he went through the list multiple times in order to get a balance of continents, gender and speakers. Also decided within this stage and removed those who's primary position in the OSM community is through a fairly established employer.
- A final list of suggested full and enhanced scholars was sent to the SotM WG after the meeting, and Melanie, Rachel and Sven were asked for feedback. There was no objection and just one question. For support scholarships, there were a few applications which had merit, and since the cost is relatively low, there was a proposal to grant them.
- Christine gave the financial ok.
Overview of 22 granted scholarships
Some numbers
22 scholarships granted:
- 6 support scholarships (admission and accommodation)
- 2 Europe and Central Asia, America and Caribbean, 2 Asia-Pacific
- 13 full scholarships (admission, accommodation and full travel costs)
- 4 Africa, 4 America and Caribbean, 3 Asia-Pacific, 2 Europe and Central Asia
- 3 enhanced scholarships (admission, accommodation, full travel costs and extra support to cover evening meals and supplementary costs)
- 2 Africa, 1 Asia-Pacific
Of these:
- 13 required Visa support.
- 1 support scholar dropped out during the process, as he was counting on his pre-acquired Visa to be extended and this did not happen.
- 1 support scholar was granted a full scholarship two years ago.
Gender
7 women / 15 men
- Enhanced scholarships: 3 women
- Full scholarships: 3 women / 10 men
- Support scholarships: 1 woman / 5 men
Countries / Regions
- 6 Africa (Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Lesotho)
- 6 Asia-Pacific (2 Nepal, 2 Philippines, Bangladesh, India)
- 6 America and Caribbean (2 USA, Canada, Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua)
- 4 Europe (Albania, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands) of which 2 support
Names, write-ups, talk descriptions and videos
Please see: State_of_the_Map_2019/Scholars
Requests to scholars
Scholars were:
- encouraged to give lightning or normal talks.
- encouraged to publish a post about their SotM experiences. The post could be as short or long they wanted, in any language and preferably posted on the diaries, but could be posted elsewhere as well.
Collaboration with HOT
The 2019 HOT summit took place in Heidelberg just before SotM.
19 scholars that were interested in attending it were granted free admission by HOT.
Administrative help
Difference from last year: This year Rob Nickerson focused on OSM-UK and was not involved with the scholarship process. As there was no other volunteer, the tasts he was involved in were taken up by Dorothea (OSMF Administrative Assistant), which resulted in an increase of the hours spent on scholarships and hence the administrative cost. It would be nice if the scholarship process can be run exclusively by volunteers, so please see the section below to find out if you can help the SotM Working Group.
Approximate cost
These numbers will be superseded by any amounts on the treasurer's report during the 2019 Annual General Meeting.
| Cost (EUR) | % of total scholarships cost | Description | Note | 2018 cost in EUR (16 successful scholars) | Difference 2019-2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,243.8 | 66.49% | Travel for scholars (flight tickets, train tickets) | 12,571 | 6,673 | |
| 4,998.96 | 17.27% | Administrative help just for scholarships | Not including hours for sponsors and other tasks | 2,088 | 2,911 |
| 3,368 | 11.64% | Hostel shared accommodation for scholars | Does not include rooms for VOC team | 7,107 * | -3,739 |
| 660 | 2.28% | Visa fees | 10 scholars (refunded at SotM) | 740 | -80 |
| 540 | 1.87% | Daily allowance / per diem | 3 scholars (EUR 45 per day) | 390 | 150 |
| 115 | 0.40% | Health insurance | 3 scholars | 264 | -149 |
| 18 | 0.06% | VFS reimbursement | 1 scholar | 46 | -28 |
| EUR 28,943 | 100 % | EUR 23,206 | EUR 5,737 |
* Please note that the 2018 cost might include accommodation for others (video team etc).
How you can help
Some of the tasks are below:
- Initial filtering of applications.
- Randomisation of applications.
- Review and scoring of applications.
- Marking applications that can't be accepted if they were granted last year as well.
- Informing applicants with unsuccessful applications.
- Informing scholars about the Visa application process in their country.
- Answering scholars' questions.
- Collecting information needed for Visa process.
- Checking whether passports are admissible.
- Preparing Visa supporting documents (invitation letters, tickets, itinerary).
- Contacting embassies (if needed).
- Collecting receipts and Visa scans.
- Communicating with travel agency for flight reservations and final bookings.
- Checking flight restrictions for stop-over countries and need for vaccinations.
- Arranging accommodation together with the local team.
- Arranging transportation from airport to hostel (if needed).
- Generation of codes for SotM tickets.
- Preparing travel guide.
- Calculating and arranging reimbursements and per-diems (provided by the Treasurer).
If you are interested, please email sotm@openstreetmap.org