@Yaroslav: the main reason to focus on Europe this year was the large concentration, intergovernmental support (European Commission & Council
of
Europe) and lack of resources (mainly man power). If there are next year enough people to carry on the idea, I'm sure we can include more
countries,
*if* the concept works for them.
<...>
Finally a note about chapters. Yes, having a chapter is very helpful - usually it is a group of organized volunteers who has existing
experience
with media and volunteer coordination (because some coordination is necessary) and they have access to some kind of budgeting / bank
accounts.
But also this is very practical - this year four countries without any chapter participated: Andorra (with the help of Amical), Belgium & Luxembourg (with a lot of dedicated volunteers, mostly in Belgium) and Romania (with the help of a local pro-linux association and local volunteers). So there is definitely no rule against chapters without a chapter to participate, but it does require a steeper learning curve,
and
some extra dedication.
Well, as one example, we had some private correspondence about involvement of Russia: The chapter failed to organize anything, mostly because they failed to realize that the database they were pointed out to is workable, they did not want or dis not manage to contact other people who understand the subject, and there was no way for any other group of people to organize the contest. As the result, I just had to fill up the (previously empty) category "WLM 2011 in Russia" myself single-handedly, not obviously expecting any credit for this, but just to avoid creating an impression that there are no monuments in Russia.
Also, if there was no group let us give a random example - in Macedonia - who wanted to organize the contest, still it would be a good idea to open a category for WLM in Macedonia, just to get a chance to indeed involve new people and to possibly get a number of good quality image previously missing. Especially if people would know this in advance and could take pictures for instance during the summer holidays.
Just to be understood correctly, I think WLM is in general a good idea, and my criticism is not to undermine it is any way, but to possibly create some input for the next time. (I am a WLM supporter and I uploaded so far I believe about 1% of the total amount of images).
Cheers Yaroslav