On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Ilario Valdelli
<valdelli@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry but we cannot write to all persons saying: "Please be kind but we
have made a mistake, the Swiss contest will have place in September
because someone in Berlin has decided differently".
If you phrased it that way, I agree with you. But if you told them that you were part of a European contest (with more than 15 nations involved at that time, and the European council and Europeana as partners, come on) I don't think it'd been a huge problem.
In Berlin the participants have decided to have the European contest in
September or to have the *Swiss contest in September*? I think that all
countries are free to organize their own contest as better is for their
environment, the European contest is different, this is organized with
the participation of all countries (and I wish that this was happening)
and with well defined rules for all countries. In this case if a country
will follow these rules, it can participate, otherwise it will be put
out for the European contest.
We decided to have WLM in September, which means that the pictures eligible have to be uploaded in September which means that the national contests have to be held in September as well. There is no European contest like there are the national ones: the European contest consists of nothing more than a jury of eight people picking the winners out of each country's top ten.
So it means that if the Swiss contest will have place in Summer there is
no problem, because it's a Swiss contest. Switzerland could participate
to the European contest uploading photos in September.
No, you can't participate in the European contest by just uploading pictures in September, since you need your local jury to pick the best ten pictures and submit them to the European jury.
In my opinion this misunderstanding has happened because it's not clear
when finish the national contest and when start the European contest,
where finish the organization in charge of each country and where start
that in charge of the team who is organizing the European contest. So,
put here (http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu/) a well defined rule to take
part in the event and defining what is in charge of each country in
order to make clear the conditions to participate and to give to every
persons the possibility to decide if it makes sense.
The notes from the Berlin meeting (
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011/May_Meeting/Notes/Results) clearly state that the contest runs from September 1st to September 30th, the national jury will have to submit the top ten pictures by October 31st, the European jury than starts their work and will be done until November 21st, so we can announce the winners in early December.
If this Timeline was not clear to you, you could have asked on the mailing list or contacted someone who was in Berlin, but saying there is no timeline or it's not clear who's in charge of what is just not true. The "Result wrapup" alone gives you a pretty good idea how the contest is/was supposed to be held.
Best regards,
Kilian