Dear all,
as you may have heard Wikimedia Italia is working hard to build
database list since there are many different sources (some regions
have lists, some others don't, attributes are different, etc.) and
there are many problems around the copyright status and openness
(or,better, the closeness) of such data. So we are going to use data
from Open Street Map, we have already a list of 30k+ monuments.
So we are looking forward to boost the integration between WLM and
OSM, being our primary source of data. Wikimedia Italia is hiring a
developer to develop a tool (developed starting from
amenity-editor[1][2]) which enable user to easily insert monuments in
an OSM map adding the required (meta)data. We are in contact with some
Italian members of OSM Foundation to facilitate the process.
Now, the topic is really a hot one, in fact there are many people
working on it, we would like to coordinate our efforts in this
direction, as far as we know:
* User:Kolossos at de.wiki is working on Wikipedia-world[3a], this is
a separate project but I've informed him about what's going on[3b]
* User:Multichill is working on this map[4] (I have also contacted him[4b])
* WM AT and WM CH are supporting (or going to support), Alex Wagner.
I'm looking for more info about what he's doing.
So, we would like to help projects which are already runing and share
what we are going to do (we would like to avoid the duplication of
effort), so any feedback is welcome.
Cristian
[1]http://ae.osmsurround.org/ae/index
[2]https://github.com/grundid/amenity-editor
[3a]http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilfe:OpenStreetMap/en
[3b]http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer_Diskussion:Kolossos#Wikipedia-Word
[4a]http://toolserver.org/~erfgoed/map/
[4b]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Multichill#Integration_between_OS…
Dear WLM list,
we are preparing the db for the list of monuments,
and we'd like to know how you faced the issue of generating an unique
identifier
when you had to do that (because the official list didn't have it).
- is it useful (for some reason) to generate a "meaningful",
"well-constructed" identifier (which can be resolved by a particular
algorythm?)
Did some of you have to add additional attributes to the db, beside, the
ones descripted here?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Documen…
And a final question,
how the final pictures will correlate with the monuments? Will it be done
automatically by the Upload Wizard?
Thank you for your help!
Aubrey
Hello everyone,
as promised, I updated the Wordpress design we used last year and
created/adapted a theme and some plugins for our needs.
For the moment, I'd need some guinea pigs who test it with a clean and
current Wordpress installation and give me some feedback how it works.
All the details and the download are available at
http://www.visuelya.de/wlmeu/
Thanks!
Elke
Hi all,
as promised, here is our first monthly overview of the State of the
Monuments!
We have been working on the project for some time already, and here is a
small report on where we are and what is going on behind the scenes.
Please note that this might not be a complete overview -- if you have
any questions, don't hesitate to ask. And please see at the bottom of
this e-mail for some action points for all countries (and make our lives
easier)!
== International coordination team ==
This year, there's a team of (still) four people who are trying to
facilitate WLM internationally. Elke and Tomasz will join Lodewijk and
Maarten in trying to keep the troops together, and help the countries
share information and experiences and coordinate their work as
effectively as possible. All four have experience with organising Wiki
Loves Monuments at least for one year.
As Wiki Loves Monuments is growing each day, and there are some things
that even the most skilled volunteers cannot do (due to the lack of
time, willingness or motivation), during our meeting in Amsterdam in
December, we brought up the idea of a paid employee to help us organise
WLM 2012. This person will primarily help us to keep tasks timely and on
track.
We are now happy to announce that Wikimedia Deutschland have agreed to
host and fund an employee to help us facilitate the contest, and we will
be meeting with him/her very soon. More information on this will follow
in a fortnight, so please bear with us; and for now -- vielen Dank,
Wikimedia Deutschland!
Furthermore, we are still looking for a volunteer to join the
coordination team, and help take care of the international budget for
this year. Wiki Loves Monuments is fun, but the bigger it gets, the more
money we need -- and This Is Serious Business (unlike the meme). So, if
you'd like to take care of our budget, or you know a talented and
responsible person who has some experience with budget and finances (for
instance, your local Wikimedia treasurer), please contact any of us
off-the-list. A helping hand would be greatly appreciated!
== Countries ==
So far, over 25 countries indicated that they will participate, and 15
more have indicated interest in participating (see
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Partic…>).
Several more countries have privately shown interest, so things are
definitely going in the right direction!
>From the international side, we are trying to help all new participating
countries set up the contest in their country as efficiently as
possible. Besides the obvious on-line help (like setting up mailing list
or OTRS queues), we can help you by giving real life workshops: Lodewijk
has already given a
successful workshop in the United Kingdom, and Tomasz will be travelling
to Ukraine and the Czech Republic this very weekend; Italy is to follow
soon. If you feel that a brainstorming meeting in your country with one
of us present would be helpful to sort some things out, please let us
know, and we'll try to help. We have some budget available to
accommodate in case your chapter has no funds.
Recently, we have also redesigned our progress page
(<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Progre…>)
to suit the needs of so many countries, and would like you to update the
status of the preparations in your area. Keeping that page up-to-date
would ensure that we can always keep track of the goings-on in all
countries, and also give you some help when needed.
== Documentation ==
The lack of proper documentation was identified as one of main problems
of the previous edition of the contest. This year, we have started
working on the documentation from the very beginning (with Tomasz being
our docmeister); all of this is merely a work-in-progress, but we
currently have a few pages (re)written and ready to use:
* http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments/Philosophy
*
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Timeline
*
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Who%27s…
*
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Communi…
* http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/FAQ
Besides that, we have been taking notes from all our Skype sessions, and
they are all linked at
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Meetings>
for your convenience. These are mostly some internal notes and
discussions, but they are of course 100% public ;-)
== Tech ==
Elke and Maarten have taken the lead on the technical side of the
preparations, and have worked on some of the things. We are in a
constant touch with Wikimedia Foundation developers about the
UploadWizard (some bugs have already been fixed, and some features
implemented) as well as about the mobile application.
Elke created a Wordpress theme for the local teams (more information to
follow soon!) an did some work on the toolbox
(<http://toolserver.org/~erfgoed/toolbox/>) together with Maarten and
Andre (Akoopal).
Maarten and Raymond worked on setting up some OTRS queues, and Nicole
has helped to forward the .EU domain to .ORG -- some additional work on
the website (a more powerful hosting, etc.) is still ahead of us.
Maarten has been working on the monuments database, too, and requested
some help with documentation; we'll work on that in the upcoming weeks.
For some additional detailed information on the tools and recent
developments, please see Maarten's e-mail from this past Saturday:
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikilovesmonuments/2012-March/002582.h…>.
== Partners ==
We're working very hard on getting in touch with relevant partners on an
international level again. There are no definite results that we can
announce apart from the existing partners from last year, so more about
that will follow later. If you have suggestions or have contacts that
can help out, please get in touch with Maarten!
== Action points ==
This will be the end of the report for February-March, so thank you for
taking the time to read it :-) As a follow-up, please:
#1: Fill in the progress page for your country
(<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Progre…>),adding
all the information you have -- and if you don't have information on
something, feel free to omit it;
#2: Create a page for your country on Wikimedia Commons; the US page
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012_in_the_…>
might be a good example.
#3: Make sure at least one or two people of your local team are on this
list; please sign up at
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments>.
Thanks!
-- Elke, Lodewijk, Maarten and Tomasz
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Hi all,
just wanted to let you know that Wiki Loves Monuments is going to take
over the world at Wikimania; Maarten and I have just submitted two
proposals:
*
https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wiki_Loves_Monuments --
a short introductory presentation on the projects, aimed at a more
general Wikimedia audience;
*
https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_g…
- -- an open panel which is going to provide people interested in
organising the project with some detailed information & updates on the
status of preparations as of July.
We hope to get accepted, and are looking forward to meeting you all in DC!
Regards,
- --
Tomasz Kozłowski
a.k.a. [[user:odder]]
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Does anyone know the folks behind Wheelmap?
http://wheelmap.org/
The technology seems pretty interesting, and it would be very cool
to use it for compiling lists of monuments.
The software is not open source, but it seems they are willing to
release it sometime,
and we, as WLM, could nudge them :-)
Aubrey
Dear all,
(apologies for the long message, but I think this info is helpful. Please
feel free to translate and/or post elsewhere.)
We're well on our way for organizing Wiki Loves Monuments 2012! With
already many countries<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Partici…>confirmed,
and working on their local organization, it starts to look all
exciting. With many new countries on board, it is probably helpful to
explain a bit better what Wiki Loves Monuments is all about, and why
certain parameters have been chosen in the past. This email will contain a
bit background information about the philosophy we had in mind, and several
useful (in-text) links too.
First of all I would like to share some thoughts about the goals we usually
have in mind when we were talking about organizing a Wiki Loves Monuments
in the Netherlands. Because although it seems pretty obvious that the many
photos that are collected are a big advantage, that was at least for me
personally not the main reason to organize. My main incentive was to make
more people aware of what Free licenses are all about, and to make people
aware that they can add content to Wikimedia projects. Let them take that
first step, and allow then the community to welcome those people. It is a
wonderful outreach opportunity, but also an 'inreach' opportunity. We bring
the core communities in contact with motivated photographers who have
quality content to share.
At the same time, it is a way to motivate the volunteers who normally edit
WIkipedia, to go a little step further - and help a little big in the
organization. Because it is a reasonably well outlined event - but still
gives plenty of freedom, it is a great opportunity to try out how to
organize something in your country if you're not actively doing so. It also
is a breeding ground for further collaborations with cultural heritage
institutions which you may not have had contacts with yet. I would dare to
say we have been successful with that. More than 200 volunteers
collaborated in 18 countries. More than 5000 people uploaded images, of who
4000 never contributed anything to Wikimedia. More than 160.000 images were
released for usage on Wikimedia projects.
You may already have found the Concept
page<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Documen…>
on
Wikimedia Commons which contains basic documentation about how the Wiki
Loves Monuments looks like. There are some important principles we try to
keep constantly in mind, which are in our understanding of the past two
years the reason for its success. They may seem intuitive to some, but the
consequences are unintuitive to many.
First of all, it is important that it is *easy to participate*. The
threshold should be as low as possible for people who have never uploaded
anything. This is both technically (easy upload forms) but maybe just as
important: socially. We should not throw up rules which are not absolutely
necessary, and be as welcoming as possible. Lets just accept it that there
will be some low quality images, because thanks to lower thresholds, there
will also be more high quality images. Lets not bother the new users too
much with our obsession with categories, templates and layout - but let us
focus on welcoming them, and suggesting how they can *easily* write
articles about their object of interest: cultural heritage.
It should of course be *fun to participate*. This sounds obvious, but many
things can make it a lot less fun. For example, bureaucratic measures such
as sending permission emails and (again) adding categories. Lets try to
take that away from them, and for example think through the upload process
in such a way that emails are not necessary (only own work). No
categorization is strictly necessary (use the available databases to
automatically categorize based on the identifier). But also, organize
events, thank people. Something we can improve on this year by the way, is
a thanking/badge system for participants. If there is anyone willing to
take this up, I would warmly welcome that (please create a separate thread
about that).
Where-ever you live, participating should be *nearby home*. This is similar
to easy to participate, but very practical: we don't want people to have to
travel long distances to get to a monument. Lets try to use a definition
for monuments that allows many people to photograph monuments nearby their
home. For your comparison: the Netherlands has 60.000 monuments on a
population of 17 Million. This may be at the higher side of the range, but
it seems to work just fine. You may for example consider adding
'state-level' or 'province-level' monuments if you want more objects. Think
out loud and definitely ask for input if you think you have very few
monuments. Don't worry about not completing the list with a photo for every
object: that is not the goal. If we cover 10% in one contest, that is a
major achievement. Nearby home is not *just* important because of the time,
but also because people are proud of their own area, and want to tell the
rest of the world about it!
We learned that for many people the main reason to participate is to *Help
Wikipedia*. We should incorporate that in all our messaging. They care
about prizes to some degree, but especially the super-participants with
many uploads, and the many people who just upload their vacation pictures
because they have them anyway, will mainly participate because they want to
help. Those are also the people who are more likely to stick around. This
is also why it is so important to have the monument lists on Wikipedia, and
use the images there.
Finally, it is imperative that participants get *quick and visible results*.
If they upload something, we should try to have a mechanism to actually
being used. Maarten created a wonderful bot to make suggestions which
images can be used where. I'm sure he will share that in more detail later
on, but this is why online volunteers are also important during the
contest. If we can put up images on the lists quickly, that has two major
effects: people see that their contributions have an actual impact, and
will continue to participate, but also they will be able to focus on the
monuments that need their help most: monuments without a photo, or a very
bad photo. By adding the contributions to the lists quickly, we avoid that
they are disappointed because someone else already created a photo which
was waiting, while they were taking the photo.
Please try to keep these lessons in mind when organizing your contest.
Internally, this translates to two good practices: *Communicate often,
communicate well *both inside your group as with other countries. And also:
*Keep it Simple*.
Thank you for reading through the end. I hope it helps.
Best,
Lodewijk
Hi all,
André Engels helped me out and ran some scripts helping to generate some
stats from the survey we held last year. Please find them in the
attachment. He did not interpret the Open Text Fields.
Could someone try to put that (automated? So that we can correct data set
where necessary?) into graphs etc? And perhaps put it on a site?
Best,
Lodewijk