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

-------------------------------------------------- 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@wikilovesmonuments.eu Alternatively, you can contact: Lodewijk Gelauff, European co-ordinator Wiki Loves Monuments, +31 (0)6 49 74 82 81 (Netherlands) - lodewijk@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.