*Cough* This is something that I've been working on quietly and there is a real possibility that things will improve at a higher level than political parties. I can't really say very much on here because the important bits were shared in confidence but I am hopeful about next year and images are already starting to filter out slowly via this person (I received another one for a federal MP just today actually).<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 4:12 PM, Brianna Laugher <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:brianna.laugher@gmail.com">brianna.laugher@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi,<br>
<br>
I have noticed for a while the difficulty that Wikipedia editors have<br>
had in obtaining freely licensed photographs of Australian politicians<br>
for their biographical articles.<br>
<br>
I think a good project for us might be to do some gentle (private)<br>
lobbying to political parties and/or their branches to encourage them<br>
to release a set of high quality portraits under a free license.<br>
<br>
The best case would be if we could get a party or parties to release a<br>
bunch of photographs rather than individuals (a last approach), mostly<br>
because it is much more efficient.<br>
<br>
I think it is a good project because it will be positive for both them<br>
and us, it's very easy for us to point out the benefits for them, it<br>
will further raise awareness of free licenses to politicians and the<br>
work necessary to achieve it is mostly on-wiki and easily divisible,<br>
making it easy for people to contribute even in small amounts.<br>
Probably starting with current politicians and working backwards is<br>
the easiest way to go.<br>
<br>
It could go something like this:<br>
* Collate stats about articles via different ways of categorisation<br>
(eg state, fed/state/local [in cities?], party)<br>
* Prepare letters and arguments to help persuade parties and individuals<br>
* Find and collect contacts in all the parties and at all levels of government<br>
* WMAU sends letters, phones people etc.<br>
<br>
So you can imagine this is one case where having a body behind a<br>
letter might hopefully be more persuasive than an individual.<br>
<br>
We have lots of starting points already --<br>
* <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_politicians" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_politicians</a><br>
* <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Australian_politics" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Australian_politics</a><br>
<br>
Thoughts?<br>
<br>
cheers,<br>
Brianna<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
--<br>
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:<br>
<a href="http://modernthings.org/" target="_blank">http://modernthings.org/</a><br>
<br>
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