Hi Taweetham,

There were indeed a few people that volunteered. However, after that nobody stood up and took responsibility to make things happen. Also, please note that in the past year the international team had 6 people and the feeling was there was too much work already. 

The tasks for an international team, to make an international competition possible, are quite wide. You will find an overview on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013/Timeline (the lower part). Please note that this timeline starts in January/February. It is June now. 

I'm glad to hear that you feel that Romaine is doing a good job, but please note that what he's doing is normally not considered technical support. When we mention technical, it is usually referring to making sure the tools are up and running (the map tools, evaluation tools, websites, monuments database etc). Romaine is mostly making sure everybody has access to the upload forms and centralnotice - which is of critical importance too. 

If you set up an international competition, in my humble opinion you will have to make sure the quality is good. People have a set of expectations with an international competition, and while WLM has always been a bit messy, that should definitely include proper international prizes, a good and balanced jury, a proper jury report, some international coordination, a proper website and documentation. If you are confident you can manage that, please be my guest. But my request is to do it well, if you do it. Wiki Loves Monuments has a good name to uphold and if we want to use it again in the future as a major competition, a very messy last minute competition in the year before would not help. 

I'm sorry we didn't have this discussion half a year ago when the question was first raised - then there would have been plenty of time for a proper knowledge transfer and organization. Right now, I personally don't feel too confident about that. 

But like I said: if countries want to set up national competitions, great! As long as the technical infrastructure is there, that should be OK. If the infrastructure is actually there, I don't know to be honest :)

I hope this elaborates a bit where my assumptions come from. 

Best,
Lodewijk


2014-06-30 2:15 GMT+02:00 <KaewWiki@gmail.com>:
What kind of prize do we want?  My understanding is that prizes come
from other sponsors too.

Monetary value of the prizes are not very high. I believe that we can
raise the fund for it.

On 30 June 2014 07:09, Saqib Qayyum <saqib.qayyum@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The sad thing is that one major thing that won't be available this year is
> international prizes. Even if we get international team, I doubt they will
> apply for a grant from WMF and ask for prizes for international winners.
>
> In this case, I don't think we really need an international team.. Romaine
> is doing good. He's providing good technical support.
>
> Saqib
>
>
>> From: KaewWiki@gmail.com
>> Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 06:47:36 +0700
>> To: wikilovesmonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
>> Subject: Re: [Wiki Loves Monuments] international website
>
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> My understanding is different. There are at least three people
>> volunteer to be on the international team. They have indicated their
>> intention on this mailing list:
>>
>> From: Bachounda Mohammed <bachounda@gmail.com>
>> To: wikilovesmonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
>> Subject: [Wiki Loves Monuments] 2014 international? (Bachounda mophammed)
>> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 21:55:48 +0100
>>
>> Subject: Re: [Wiki Loves Monuments] 2014 international?
>> From: KaewWiki@gmail.com
>> To: Wiki Loves Monuments Photograph Competition
>> <wikilovesmonuments@lists.wikimedia.org>
>> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 21:58:25 +0700
>>
>> From: Vacio <vacio@riseup.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Wiki Loves Monuments] 2014 international?
>> To: wikilovesmonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
>> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 08:20:07 -0400
>>
>> If we really need to have more volunteers for the international team,
>> I believe that we can do so. But the question is probably beyond
>> that:
>>
>> What do you expect to get from an international team?
>> Technical support?
>> Value-added to the competition?
>>
>> Best,
>> Taweethaも
>>
>>
>> On 30 June 2014 05:16, Lodewijk <lodewijk@effeietsanders.org> wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I was approached about the international website, after Saqib's email
>> > about
>> > this.
>> >
>> > I see it this way: To the best of my knowledge, there is /no/
>> > international
>> > wiki loves monuments competition in 2014 - not enough people volunteered
>> > for
>> > an international team. At the same time, there are some /national/
>> > competitions that will be organized, but without a real international
>> > layer.
>> >
>> > This is no problem, as we discussed before the possibility to have Wiki
>> > Loves Monuments international in odd years (2013, 2015 etc) and Wiki
>> > Loves
>> > Earth international in even years (2014, 2016 etc).
>> >
>> > This has the implication that I will alter the website sometime soon to
>> > reflect this intention. I will remove the links to the national
>> > competitions
>> > from the sidebar to avoid outdated information. I will link to the
>> > commons
>> > page for more information about national competitions that may or may
>> > not
>> > happen in 2014.
>> >
>> > If my assumptions here are off the chart, then please speak up. If I
>> > totally
>> > missed an announcement, please let me know.
>> >
>> > Hope that helps and clarifies,
>> >
>> > Lodewijk
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
>> > WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
>> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
>> > http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
>> WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
>> http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
> WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
> http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org

_______________________________________________
Wiki Loves Monuments mailing list
WikiLovesMonuments@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org