OuiShare Fellowship: New People get on Board

edited by Bianca Pick It's time to announce the list of lucky winners of the OuiShare fellowship that will join us at OuiShare Fest Barcelona and ColaborAmerica Rio! Fellows will be able to attend the talks, meet the team and experience what OuiShare is all about. This may have easily been the hardest decision we have had to make in the last few months - at least for me. When we launched the OuiShare fellowship we did not know how the community would respond, however the results could not have been better: in 10 days, we received 65 applications, with people from all over the world telling us their stories and why they wish to join. Applicants varied from journalists to researchers, long standing members of the community to newbies, but all of them have something in common: a great deal of motivation and enthusiasm - something we absolutely love.

On their way to Spain & Brazil

Though we would love to take all of the applicants to Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro, unfortunately we have only got a few places. After much deliberation, the jury, which was made up of five OuiShare connectors and two members of the community, even decided to reduce the number of grants to ensure OuiShares ability to cover the full cost, and not just a percentage, of our fellows' trips. The main selection criteria was based on the candidates’ potential to contribute to the event itself as well as our global network. By taking into account the applications of existing members of the OuiShare community, the jury also used the grant as a way to reward those who have demonstrated high and more long term commitment in the past.

As a result, four people will attend OuiShare Fest Barcelonaand six more fellows will go to ColaborAmerica

. Our congratulations go to Sebastián, Rafael, Ieva, Marcela, Juan Pablo, Tassia, Marcus, Alexis, Naiara and Mauricio, who you will meet very soon. They will have the opportunity to attend talks, meet the team, and conduct research, reporting, while drawing and sharing their OuiShare experience from Spain and Brazil.

A big thank you to all the participants

Sadly we can only offer limited spots, however we would like to send a big thank you to ALL the participants and people involved and who helped us spread the word. We are truly amazed at the positive response to the fellowship programme; its launch made us realize just how lucky we are to have such an amazing group of people on board. Therefore, we would like to encourage everyone and anyone to take a chance to get more involved in the community, be it as a connector, member or volunteer at one of our events.

We hope more opportunities like this will arise in the future and in the meantime, it’s time for some people to start packing... First stop, OuiShare Fest Barcelona! We will keep you posted!