<div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:17px"><div><b>Wikimedians team up to make European Cultural Heritage Accessible to the World </b></div></span><div><div></div><div class="h5">
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<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"><b>Volunteers from 16 European Countries Have Uploaded 15,000 Images and Counting</b></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Amsterdam, September 6, 2011--- Wikimedians from 16 European countries announced the first-ever Pan-European Wiki Loves Monuments contest, a photography contest, running throughout the month of September, focused on capturing and sharing images of important monuments and buildings in Europe. Since its September 1st launch, more than 1000 images have been uploaded from a few of the most active countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Europe has hundreds of thousands of historically and culturally significant monuments and buildings, most of which still have no freely-available images on the Internet. These important structures are often damaged or destroyed overtime, endangering the opportunity for people all over the world to access and learn about them. Although some prominent cultural artifacts are protected and documented by various international organizations and agencies, a majority of them are not. Wikipedia is one of the only freely-accessible shared places on the Internet offering a digital home to these artifacts, however, most of the culturally significant buildings and monuments in Europe are missing. This contest aims to make sure that they are represented in the form of images so that everyone, European or not, has access to Europe's cultural heritage. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">“Wikimeda’s ultimate goal is to make all information freely available to everyone in the world, and images of Europe’s important cultural structures are needed to complete this mission. All over Europe, important monuments are tucked away from the rest of the world--they haven't been documented or shared on a website like Wikipedia," said Lodewijk Gelauff, one of the lead organizers of the European contest. "There are hundreds of thousands of monuments that people walk past every day and they have no idea these structures are culturally significant and should be shared."</span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">The contest is inspired by the successful 2010 pilot contest conducted in the Netherlands, which resulted in 12,500 freely-licensed images of monuments and buildings now freely-available to be used on Wikipedia and by anybody in the world. Wiki Loves Monuments runs throughout the entire month of September and is organized in independent national contests. Winning images from regional contests will then be submitted to the pan-European Jury. Participating partner countries include: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">The contest is supported by international organizations including the Council of Europe, the European Commission, Europeana and Europa Nostra. The month of September was selected as it coincides with European Heritage Days organized throughout Europe. Prizes, including a full scholarship to Wikimania in Washington, DC, will be awarded to winners medio December. More information about the contest and how to enter can be found at: <a href="http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu" target="_blank">www.wikilovesmonuments.eu</a></span></div>
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<span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"> “Europe's cultural artifacts have universal significance. And it’s not just about the documentation of these artifacts, it's about making sure they’re accessible to people no matter who you are or where you live in the world,” says Gelauff. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Press Contacts:</span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Lodewijk Gelauff, European co-ordinator Wiki Loves Monuments, <a href="tel:%2B31%20%280%296%2049%2074%2082%2081" value="+31649748281" target="_blank">+31 (0)6 49 74 82 81</a> (Netherlands) - <a href="mailto:lodewijk@wmnederland.nl" target="_blank">lodewijk@wmnederland.nl</a></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Press contacts and press releases per country: </span><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011/Press" target="_blank">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011/Press</a></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">About Wikimedia</span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Wikimedia is the movement behind Wikipedia, supporting the same goals on realizing a world where all knowledge is freely available for every human being. This is possible through the US-based Wikimedia Foundation and a network of national associations which co-operate closely with the volunteers on the Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">About Wikipedia</span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 390 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property world-wide (July 2011). Available in more than 270 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 18 million articles contributed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. </span></div>
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<span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">=== Q & A ===</span></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"><b>How are Wikimedia and the European Partners working together on this?</b></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">Wiki Loves Monuments is lucky to be supported by a wide contingent of European organizations - including the Council of Europe, the European Commission, Europeana and Europa Nostra. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">These organizations support Wikimedia through their extensive networks with their national partner organizations and through their communications. Some partners such as Europeana provide besides that also direct support by making awards available.</span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"><b>When will you announce the regional winners</b></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">The regional winners will be announced by their national organizations by the end of October or the beginning of November. They will submit their nominations for the European jury by October 31.</span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"><b>When will you announce the final winners</b></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">The European jury will deliberate in November about the nominees by the national juries and decide which photo will win the fully funded trip to Wikimania in Washington DC in 2012. The winners will be announced at the DISH conference in Rotterdam on 6-9 December. </span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><br></div><div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"><b>How can I track the images being submitted?</b></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">All eligible images submitted are available through Wikimedia Commons: </span><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011" target="_blank">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011</a></span></div>
<div style="padding-right:1px"><span style="padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:1px">You can always see the last few submissions on the main page of <a href="http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu" target="_blank">www.wikilovesmonuments.eu</a> .</span></div>
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