Hi everyone,
Now is the time to send out your press releases. Would be nice if
everyone could have send out their press releases before the weekend. We
just send out a press release in the Netherlands and also send out a
bunch of regionally targeted press releases in the Netherlands.
So start sending out emails. Start twittering. Start using Facebook. And
of course: Start sending in photographs tomorrow.
Below the email you'll find the European press release for some inspiration.
Maarten
Wikimedia Volunteers from 15 European Countries Announce Wiki Loves
Monuments Pan-European Photo Contest
Netherlands, September 1, 2011--- Wiki Loves Monuments, a yearly
Wikimedia photo contest announces the first-ever pan-European contest to
be held this September in more than 15 countries throughout Europe.
Wikimedia invites anyone in the world to submit their best photos of
European buildings and monuments taken during the duration of the
contest. All photos will be made freely available for use on Wikipedia
and Wikimedia Commons.
“Europe has hundreds of thousands of monuments, most of which still have
no freely-available images on the internet, and aren't available on
Wikipedia” said Lodewijk Gelauff, one of the organizers of the European
contest. “It’s our goal to change this. 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.”
Information about European cultural heritage is an important part of
Wikipedia and images of many important cultural structures in Europe are
not available on Wikipedia for the 400 million readers who use Wikipedia
all over the world. Wikimedia organizers invite people of all ages and
backgrounds to take part and help provide images of European monuments
and buildings for Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. The European Heritage
Days organized throughout Europe in September are a good opportunity to
take photos.
The contest is inspired by the successful 2010 pilot conducted in the
Netherlands, which resulted in 12,500 freely-licensed images of
monuments and buildings now freely available to be used in Wikipedia and
by anybody in the world.
"We are excited that Wiki Loves Monuments is being organized in so many
countries, and is supported by international organizations such as the
Council of Europe, the European Commission, Europeana and Europa
Nostra,” says Gelauff.
Wiki Loves Monuments runs throughout the entire month of September and
is organized in independent national contests. Participation is open to
anyone interested in taking part. Participants can go to the contest
website and register. Winning images from regional contests will then be
submitted to the pan-European Jury. More information about the contest
and how to enter can be found at:
www.wikilovesmonuments.eu
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Note for editors (Not for publication)
For more information, please contact the organizers of the contest in
your country via the contact details on
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011/Pressor
via email: info(a)wikilovesmonuments.eu Alternatively, you can contact:
Lodewijk Gelauff, European co-ordinator Wiki Loves Monuments, +31 (0)6
49 74 82 81 (Netherlands) - lodewijk(a)wmnederland.nl
About Wikimedia
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 an American foundation and a
network of national associations which co-operate closely with the
volunteers on the Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia.
About Wikipedia
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 (May, 2011). Available in more
than 270 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 18 million articles
contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people.