GLAM/Newsletter/August 2012/Contents/Wiki Loves Monuments report
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Wiki Loves Monuments worldwide: started!
The beginning: 2010 & 2011
Wiki Loves Monuments was organized for the first time in the Netherlands in September 2010. It is the successor to Wiki Loves Art in the Netherlands organized in 2009. With Wiki Loves Monuments in 2010, participants were encouraged to photograph some of the more than 50,000 national monuments (so-called "Rijksmonumenten") throughout the Netherlands as part of a photo competition. In total 12,501 photographs were made of the national monuments in the Netherlands. It resulted in many monuments having pictures on Wikipedia shown in lists of monuments and in articles. See the top-10 at Wiki Loves Monuments 2010 and the uploaded pictures at Images from Wiki Loves Monuments 2010.
In 2011 we up-scaled the project to a European level wherein 18 countries participated. This was mostly organized by the chapters in co-operation with users of Wikipedia, or by users of Wikipedia alone. In total 169.150 pictures of European monuments were uploaded. In each country winners were selected. The best 10 pictures of each country also participated in the European Contest. See for the uploaded pictures: Images from Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 and for the winning pictures of each country: Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 winners.
Wiki Loves Monuments worldwide
In 2012 we up-scaled the project to a worldwide level wherein 30 countries participate. It wasn't easy to receive the information to create lists of monuments on Wikipedia's, but in many countries it went successfully. Our goal is again to get as much pictures as possible of monuments worldwide to make our heritage visible to the public. The pictures are uploaded on Wikimedia Commons, and used in lists of monuments and articles in Wikipedia.
The contest started on September 1 and we got in about two days time already more than 15.000 pictures spread over the countries. These are uploaded by more than 1200 participants. In 2011 we noticed that in the last few days the number of uploads was peaking, we are curious how it will be this year.
This year we also have an app for on location, so that users can use their mobile phone. The app works on an Android phone and needs a good camera. It shows on a map where there are monuments and if they already have a picture or not. Then with the app a picture can be taken and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
In each country a jury decides what are the best pictures and the winners receive a prize which is arranged by this country. The best ten pictures of each country go to the international contest. The winner of the international contest will go to Hong Kong as first prize.
Nice to know: Wiki Loves Monuments is the largest photo contest in the world, based on the number of participating pictures of 2011. Let's make it larger!
For more information: see at Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 and http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/.
