Dear Wikimedians,

Wikimedia Commons is happy to announce that the 2010 Picture of the Year competition is now open. We're interested in your opinion as to which images qualify to be the Picture of the Year for 2010. Any user registered at a Wikimedia wiki since 2010 or prior with more than 200 edits as of 1 January 2011 (UTC) is welcome to vote. Check your eligibility now.[1] If you meet the criteria, you are able to vote.

Nearly 800 images that have been rated Featured Pictures by the international Wikimedia Commons community in the past year are all entered in this competition. From professional animal and plant shots to breathtaking panoramas and skylines, restorations of historically relevant images, images portraying the world's best architecture, maps, emblems, diagrams created with the most modern technology, and impressive human portraits, Commons features pictures of all flavors.

For your convenience, we have sorted the images into topic categories. Two rounds of voting will be held: In the first round, you can vote for as many images as you like. The first round category winners and the top ten overall will then make it to the final. In the final round, when a limited number of images are left, you must decide on the one image that you want to become the Picture of the Year.

To see the candidate images just go to: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2010/Galleries

Wikimedia Commons is interested in hearing your opinions on our featured images of 2010. The deadline for first round voting is the 4th of May at 23:59 (UTC).

Thanks, Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year committee

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2010

[1] http://toolserver.org/~pathoschild/accounteligibility/?user=&wiki=&e...