Dear all As you all know in the Wikmedia movement nothing really inspiring and creative can be done without the volunteers. Their ideas, time and energy are priceless. That is why Wikimedia Poland has created an award to say "thank you" to great people that inspire and coordinate our projects (expeditions, workshops, editathons, photo contests etc.) and for the volunteer of the year. We invited four people from the outside of the Wikimedia movement - people representing cultural institutions NGO's and the media - to form a jury with a task to choose the projects and the volunteer that should be rewarded. The jury also gave us precious information about how people who are not Wikimedians see our projects and which they perceive as the most interesting and inspiring.
The ProWikimedia 2015 award will be given in 4 categories: 1. Free content ambassador - in recognition of a project which had major impact on promoting openness, knowledge of free licenses, and free culture outside Wikimedia communities or which resulted in resources that were of great use to projects, institutions and publications outside of the WIkimedia movement 2. Efficient content acquisition - in recognition of a project which exhibited a high ratio of acquired content quality and quantity in the context of financial outlays 3. Innovation / pioneering character in acquiring free content - in recognition of a project which showed creativity, innovative approach and original viewpoint in acquiring free contents for the WIkimedia projects 4. The volunteer of the year
The award ceremony will take place this Saturday in the library of the European Solidarity Center - an institution with a mission of maintaining the heritage and message of the Solidarity movement and sharing the achievements of the peaceful struggle for freedom, justice, democracy and human rights. And it is a great place to recognize the great effort of Wikimedia volunteers who change the world by sharing knowledge.
The ProWikimedia project has already (thanks to the outside jury) thought us a lot about our actions and initiatives and given us precious (and sometimes surprising) insight. But it's main purpose is to keep our volunteers inspired, encourage them to start new initiatives and show them how great job they are doing. I am really excited about this award as I truly believe that showing gratitude to our volunteers is something really important. And we need to find new ways to do it.
Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska [[user:Magalia]]