Hi everybody, (long post, bear with me)
In response to the message given below, I also sent a message to Vinu Thomas on the lines of messages I write such as the example below. I usually ask Flickr natural history photographers for permission to use their images. I use the following arguments as outlined in a specimen mail (actually sent by me).
For example :
Nest of Red-faced spinetail Hi Scott,
I'm an editor of Wikipedia from India. I'm writing an article on "Structures built by animals". You can see the article here placed in the main wiki though it is still under development :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structures_built_by_animals
It has been viewed over 800 times in the last four weeks or so.
Wikipedia needs an image of the nest of the "Red-faced spinetail" for the above article to illustrate a fact that I shall be adding.
"The red-faced spinetail places bits of grass and other material loosely streaming both above and below the nest chamber to break its shape and to cause it to resemble random debris without any underlying structure (Hansell 2000)."
The image could also be used in the following artcles -
* Red-faced spinetail (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-faced_Spinetail) (this article is viewed by 70 people on average every month) * Nest (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nest) (this article is viewed by 7600 people on average every month)
Unfortunately, Wikipedia does not have an image of a Red-faced spinetail's nest in its repository called Wikimedia Commons. I wanted to request if you would consider donating your image of the nest for a social cause.
www.flickr.com/photos/certhia/5659454247/
Having an image adorn a main aspect of a creature's life, or an important fact in natural history on Wikipedia gives great pleasure to the photographer.
If you would like to oblige, please just change the license of this image to allow commercial use and derivatives and send me a message. I would do the rest and keep you informed.
If you have any queries, please do let me know. I will be happy to answer them
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
I'm glad to say scott_clark generously obliged and you can see his image here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red-faced_Spinetail_Nest.jpg
The other image in REd-faced spinetail was also provided by another Flickr contributor - Jim Scarff.
The purpose of sending this email is to let you know how I do it and that its being done quite successfully.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------
On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 1:45 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < parakara.ghoda@gmail.com> wrote:
WDD, thank you. I too sent him a message on Flickr.
I've been too busy requesting people to donate astro pics, first time I'm looking at Roads --~~~~
On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 1:25 PM, wheredevelsdare@hotmail.com wrote:
As Pradeep mentioned, Iv been doing this for some time - some people are happy to oblige, some feel elated that their pic will be on wiki, some arnt willing, some dont bother to reply. I normally paste the following message in the comments section of the image Im interested in (Since this user has disabled comments, sent him a message):
Could you please change your licensing to allow use on Wikipedia. Your pics are brilliant and would be of great use. Only Flickr images tagged as PD, BY (CC-BY) or BY SA (CC-BY-SA) are allowed on Wikipedia. Thanks!
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 13:14:53 +0530 From: parakara.ghoda@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Bangaloreans, help convince this fellow for some photographs.
VInu THomas, was invited by Nokia for a Helicopter trip over Bangalore. Here's the photoset of his pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinut/sets/72157628467032159/ Help convince him. Another photographer is Vijay, aka @misgeek on Twitter. Do help.
Hari, I think this is a good time to ask for a grant for a Kannada Media contest.
-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on February 12th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spacship and now it is a Toll Plaza. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG