[WM-RU] OTRS digest - European Science Photo Competition

Hello! Would Russia be interested to participate, if there would be European Science Photo Competition in the coming autumn? With regards Ivo Kruusamägi --------------------------- *Background info:* Estonian_Science_Photo_Competition <

has been held in Wikipedia between 2011--2013 and I plan to do it once again

2015. Then again, why not to make it bit bigger this year? Why not to

all Europe? For that I'd like to know what countries would be interested

such a thing. *Why to have it?* Well, I have organized it mainly for 3 reasons: * there aren't any (other) science photo competitions in Estonia, but

should be at least one; * I have felt the need to bring universities and Wikipedia a bit closer

isn't a topic I take lightly <

); * and as nearly all participants are non-wikipedians, then that gives a higher chance of getting new people / content, that we wouldn't had in any other way (wikipedians would take images anyway, with or without competitions). + what really makes photos scientific is the description and that really brings scientific community closer to Wikimedia. Information behind the images is just as important to us. *What is needed?* One or more local activists interested in science and/or outreach. Let him or her contact me asap so we could put together some plans for 2015. Money or lack of it isn't a problem. Science popularization is on rise and that makes it rather easy to sell the idea and get the sponsors behind it if needed. This competition has been held in Estonia with just one-man-team. So it is perfectly possible to do it without a big group of people, even thou

some more could help a lot. (But as you already know, Estonia looks something like this <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tarvasj%C3%B5gi.jpg>, as we

don't have much people around). *What to be ready for?* It is important to notice that it is still a rather specialized topic and therefor it will never bring as many images as WLM or WLE. That is: number of images per contributor will be significantly smaller. It also asks for a lot of communication. So you got to be willing to talk with different universities and institutions, as the main target group aren't wikipedians (with just aiming for wikipedia users, then you don't even need to give away prizes or worry if newspapers would cover it, as you'll get the images anyway -- I have even targeted nonwikipedians in

way: zero-cost-no-prizes campaign works just fine <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_HELP>). Excluding the exhibition of best images (that I have gotten money from Estonian Research Council), the cost for it in Estonia has been ca 100 € per year. Even that could be smaller (first year ended with 20€ profit), but then it is hard to say that local chapter contributes to it :) So it should be totally possible to do it with very low cost or even profitably. So, not much is needed beside interest. Are you interested?