Hi all,

I guess it is time for a small update! Some work has been done already, but mainly behind the screens and as a follow up of what was discussed in Amsterdam in December. You can find already some start of documentation on what Wiki Loves Monuments is/will be like on http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Documentation (some things to be decided) and you will find an initial timeline for the international organization on http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Timeline (thank you Tomasz!). An advised timeline for local organizing will follow at the same page, but it might be helpful to just scroll through it and appreciate the work ahead :) 

If you want to get started with organizing Wiki Loves Monuments in your country, please don't hesitate to start making preperations! September 2012 is closer than you think. Past experiences teach that especially getting the infrastructure on the wiki (including getting the official lists) is the most time consuming task which has to happen ahead of time. For now, please add your country to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012 if you didn't do so yet. 

I am also happy to be able to say that four volunteers with a lot of 2011 experience have been found to form a core coordination team for 2012 - Maarten (Multichill), Elke (Elya), Tomasz (Odder) and myself will be trying to coordinate efforts. Of course the main workload will still lay with the national teams and also internationally any help will be appreciated. We will do extra our best to create good documentation and I hope that you all will ask your questions here and on the wiki in a timely manner - that way we can avoid last minute discussions, misunderstanding and other issues. Communication is always a challange, so I hope you will help with that. 

Also, the board of Wikimedia Nederland has indicated to be willing to be the budget holder for WLM 2012, and be the official organizer for the international contest - you shouldn't notice a lot of that as long as things go well, but we simply need an organization to be able to sign off on things (such as a world record attempt ;-) ). If there are no major objections, I'll ask the WMNL board to make that official soon. Also, we're trying to find the best way possible to ensure there is a good communication and task management on an international level. Last year we found in the evaluation that this was a bottle neck which caused several other things to go imperfect, so we're trying to find a way to give some professional support to the international coordination - that way we can make sure holes are being filled and there is a backbone present. I hope that will help make things run more smoothly that way. 

I hope that 2012 will be an even greater contest - seeing all the interested countries from over the world I am both enthusiastic and a little intimidated - I hope we can set off a wonderful international event. 

With kind regards,

Lodewijk

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