It's been almost a week since Wiki Loves Monuments started and we're
about to reach 17,000 uploads. Germany, the first country with more than
2,000 submitted pictures, is now keeping a steady second place behind
France. Among the most active uploaders is a user called Hippie Bug93 (
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Hippie_Bug93)
who despite being new to the Wikimedia projects has already contributed
almost 130 pictures.
Hippie Bug93, in the real world a 17-year-old named Daniel, became
aware of the contest through local press coverage and his hometown's
Facebook account. In a partnership with Wikimedia Germany, Bergheim, a small
city near Cologne, calls upon its citizens (link those four words to the
"old" article about Bergheim) to photograph the monuments in their
neighbourhood and upload them to Wikimedia Commons.
As a member of the local heritage club, Daniel has been interested in
the region's history and old buildings for a long time. "I had thought about
contributing to Wikipedia before," he explains, "but I never actually did."
For the contest, Daniel is taking his hometown village by village, with the
printed lists from Wikipedia as a guide.
With the first pictures uploaded, Daniel started to add them to the
lists on Wikipedia as well. "It took some time to figure out the editing,"
Daniel says. He has already set up his User page and started to edit regular
articles as well. So asked for his future plans, he states: "If I see the
opportunity to contribute to Wikipedia after Wiki Loves Monuments has ended,
I will certainly do so."