WikiLovesMonuments March 2012

wikilovesmonuments@lists.wikimedia.org

41 participants
29 discussions

Development of OSM-WLM integration tools
by Cristian Consonni 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

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…

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Questions about lists and db
by Andrea Zanni 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

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

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WLM Wordpress theme
by elya 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

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

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State of the Monuments - March 2012
by Tomasz Kozłowski 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

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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Presentation & panel on Wikimania
by Tomasz Kozłowski 18 Mar '12

18 Mar '12

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 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]] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJPZlyrAAoJEKvZGSRfXI2nzzEIAJ4h0t5KycatMTpJT5rYSRud dEZWJyi0c4m5axgKqfTT5hrriWntvSyW3NIDD/jYZ5wJPLH1SEfif/zah1R21W4A whnan3Qnv6RF+q1NnesU+oHjCsR8kyuNPOlEzNTDdCLbQ2dtA34QBd1syfr+gqbX PJHEpaXi6GUWQw4L2BLvIJ2caYE5+oIA3L0U9aUzdWePKJ/erqfiFqcrXU1wPQZ8 XZkuTZWmQg9bakgNeaIe89yudDQzRHkSZh8TcIyhyBrAxlOaejW6zbKXo92wwYCc hCbo9AqTk53OQj+trPJYoFM/NJNAAMgoDeyyAU8e+v6Qhv+Sx0cz4h3SK6JJ928= =I+KC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Who is who?
by Maarten Dammers 17 Mar '12

17 Mar '12

Hi everyone, We created the page https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Who%27… to introduce the international team. Maarten

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Wheelmap.org
by Andrea Zanni 13 Mar '12

13 Mar '12

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

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WLM at the Berlin Hackathon
by Maarten Dammers 11 Mar '12

11 Mar '12

Hi everyone, Last year we met at the Berlin Hackathon to discus Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 [1]. This turned out to be a very useful meeting where we defined Wiki Loves Monuments. This year we don't plan to organize such a big meeting, but we will be present at most international events like the upcoming chapters meeting [2], Wikimania and the Berlin Hackathon [3]. Any people planning to go to the hackathon and feel like talking about Wiki Loves Monuments? We could have a session with the "new" countries and we could have a tooling session [4]. Maarten [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011/May_Me… [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2012/WLM [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Berlin_Hackathon_2012 [4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011/Tools

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The philosophy behind the few rules we had in 2011
by Lodewijk 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

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

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Participants survey
by Lodewijk 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

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

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WikiLovesMonuments March 2012