Hello
I am going to comment on this one for I think it provides the opportunity to reflect on our global campaigns and collaborations-at-large.
It is an excellent theme obviously. But one I would oppose we choose. There are several reasons.
First, the initial reason why we decided to launch WLA in 2014. We had noticed that participation from the African continent at that time was terribly low. When awareness studies were made, it showed that the Wikimedia projects were yet very poorly known from the public (even the online connect public). We knew our first participants would be largely new to the wiki world. Our goal was to promote awareness of wikimedia through a regular, easy to grasp project, easy to participate drive. We also wanted a drive where anyone could participate regardless of whether there was a local team in their country or not. There were very few images from the african continent, so any theme would bring in content that would be an improvement. And choice of theme had to be a theme behind which a small team could cluster, regardless of political, religious etc. opinions. Our goal was not to simply "get images on Commons", but also to raise awareness on the continent, and to give the opportunity to small local clusters to start organizing something together and later become a usergroup, become integrated in the larger community etc.
This is why the themes we chose so far were purposefully as inclusive as possible, easy to understand, could be joined by anyone. I do not believe "Living Heritage" fits into that category so well. If you ask the standard person in the street what "living heritage" is... chance is you'll get a puzzled look.
9 years later, an additional layer of complexity is that more photography contests born (such as Wiki Loves Folklore) or more "larger approach drives" such as "Wiki Loves Living Heritage".
It already took us a few years to "make all photo drives" fit in the calendar (eg, Wiki Loves Africa changed its implementation months three times to accomodate other photo contests).
I do not think it would be helpful to overlap with the other contests focus. In particular when Wiki Loves Folklore is already overlapping a couple of weeks with Wiki Loves Africa in the calendar.
- First it would bring confusion to participants (so... what's the difference between x and y ?)
- Second, it could bring tensions between the organizers of the two drives, such as on communications, banners... (been there, done that...)
- Third, local teams would probably NOT "do more" or "do better". They would implement activities that would be attributed to both drives. You would end up with pictures taggued with both categories. It already happens.
We would certainly "reach" some different people. Not all participants would be overlapping, nor activities.
But would the overlapping and the tensions be worth the effort ? Would that be a good use of our collective time ? Would that be a good use of our shared funds ? I do not think so.
Which is why... we try... every year... to choose a theme that tries not to overlap too badly with the other photo contest themes. This is in particular true to anything related to "folklore and heritage" (= Wiki Loves Folklore, Wiki Loves Heritage) and true to anything related to "awesome landscapes and nature" (=Wiki Loves Earth).We gotta be smart, share the space-fund-energy-time, and collaborate when it makes sense to collaborate, but always keeping in mind to preserve or enhance the other great initiatives.
Flo
Le 05/09/2023 à 09:31, Gnangarra a écrit :
What about "Wiki Loves Africa's Living Heritage"
On Tue, 5 Sept 2023 at 05:16, Wilson Oluoha <wilson@wikiinafrica.org> wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,_______________________________________________
The search for a theme for the 2024 Wiki Loves Africa contest is still ongoing.
Please click the link below to share your thoughts on what you think the next Wiki Loves Africa theme should be:
Kindly recall that Wiki Loves Africa (www.wikilovesafrica.net) is an annual photography competition that takes place across Africa. It was designed to take back the visual narrative by re-imaging contemporary society and cultural heritage across Africa through the eyes of Africa’s photographers.
Wiki Loves Africa images have collectively - since metrics began in 2016 - been viewed 1 billion times.
Started in 2014, the 9 editions so far have resulted in the contribution of 102,068 images to Wikipedia's media library, Wikimedia Commons, by over 10,380 photographers from 55 countries across the continent. The images have a life beyond the competition, with these images being placed in articles on Wikipedia, and thus being viewed by over 1 billion times since the impact began being monitored from 2016; with 25 million views in May 2022 alone.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chers Wikimédiens,
La recherche d'un thème pour le concours Wiki Loves Africa 2024 est toujours en cours.
Veuillez cliquer sur le lien ci-dessous pour partager vos idées sur ce que vous pensez être le prochain thème de Wiki Loves Africa:
Wiki Loves Africa;(www.wikilovesafrica.net) est un concours annuel de photographie qui se déroule dans toute l'Afrique. Il a été conçu pour reprendre le récit visuel en réimaginant la société contemporaine et le patrimoine culturel à travers l'Afrique à travers les yeux des photographes africains.
Les images de Wiki Loves Africa ont collectivement - depuis le début des mesures en 2016 - été vues 1 milliard de fois.
Démarrés en 2014, les 9 éditions à ce jour ont abouti à la contribution de 102 068 images à la médiathèque de Wikipédia, Wikimedia Commons, par plus de 10 380 photographes de 55 pays à travers le continent. Les images ont une vie au-delà du concours, puisqu'elles sont placées dans des articles de Wikipédia et ont donc été vues plus d'un milliard de fois depuis que l'impact a commencé à être surveillé à partir de 2016 ; avec 25 millions de vues pour le seul mois de mai 2022.
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Boodarwun
Gnangarra'ngany dabakarn koorliny arn boodjera dardon nlangan Nyungar koortabodjar'
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