Hi everyone,
I would like to thank everyone who weighed in on what Wiki Loves Monuments
should look like in 2020. It will be a special year - originally we thought
it would be special, because it's the 10th international edition. It turns
out, that it will also be an especially challenging year to organize a
photo competition.
Countries around the world are dealing with the consequences of this
ravaging pandemic, and many national organizers have already been wondering
what approach to take this year. We organized office hours about this a few
weeks ago, and as international team, we took the time to digest this. I
wanted to take this email to give hopefully a bit more clarity about how we
will organize Wiki Loves Monuments this year.
*Responsibility for national organizers*: First of all, I would like to
emphasize that the international team coordinates the national
competitions: we are not qualified to tell you exactly how to organize your
competition. The situation is rapidly evolving, and different in each
country. National teams are best placed to decide whether and how to
organize a competition in your country. We will try to help set an
international framework, and assist in the exchange of best practices. We
expect that national organizers will *follow the guidance and regulations
set by their national governments and health authorities*. Note that
funding and WMF affiliate recognition may come with additional
guidance/requirements.
*Extended timeline*: National organizers have the opportunity to choose a
different range of dates for their national competition. You can pick any
range of 30 or 31 days within the period September-November 2020 as your
upload dates. That means that one country does not have to use the same
upload dates as another. This hopefully allows more flexibility for rapid
changes in a national situation, but also for national organizers that
currently don't have the capacity to organize a competition due to personal
circumstances, to push the competition a little later in the year. However,
uploads after November 30 will not be accepted. The jury deadline will be
January 2, 2021 for all countries. A simple timeline has been published on
Commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2020/Organi…>,
and will be updated there. Other documentation may be outdated - feel free
to update.
*Exchange of best practices*: There will be plenty of national challenges
this year. I created an exchange page to share some best practices
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2020/Organi…>
(but you can also keep using our mailing list). How to organize a
competition when there are government restrictions? How do you make sure
that not too many people show up? What kind of in-person events may be
responsible, if permitted by local government? How to organize online
upload workshops? This may be especially a good place to exchange some good
blog posts and communications that inform participants on how to behave. I
put up a few empty headers, and would love it if people help flesh out tips
based on their experiences.
*Special awards in 2020*: We already scheduled special awards in 2020
before the crisis became obvious. The international team is planning to
organize two special regional awards (to be finalized in August) for
underrepresented regions and possibly one award for some 'innovation
category' (such as drones or 3D representation). Finally, we're considering
a special award for UNESCO world heritage outside of participating
countries (this would cover an upload period in November 2020). Thoughts
about this are welcome on the main talk page on Commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2020>.
Please don't forget to register your interest to participate here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2020/Partic…
I'm sure that this won't be the last email on this topic, but invite you to
ask questions if you have any. You can do that on the Wiki Loves Monuments
mailing list, or on the main talk page.
On behalf of the international team,
Lodewijk
Reminder:
The first session is going to happen in about 12 hours from now: 6 June
2020 (Saturday) - 5 pm to 7 pm UTC (10 am - 12 pm PDT) at
https://meet.google.com/vpq-rvzt-jpc
The second session is going to happen in about 25 hours from now: 7 June
2020 (Sunday) - 6:30 am to 8:30 am UTC at
https://meet.google.com/npz-jbih-hdb
Best
On Sun, May 24, 2020 at 9:29 PM Krishna Chaitanya Velaga <kcvelaga(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Hope this email finds you all in the best of your health, and you are
> staying safe amid the ongoing crisis.
>
> In one of the recent threads on this mailing list, community members
> expressed their doubts regarding Wiki Loves Monuments 2020, considering the
> COVID-19 pandemic. It was glad that to see various suggestions coming up
> regarding how to go about it. To facilitate the same, the International
> Team will be conducting two office hour sessions on 6 & 7 June 2020, in
> various time slots, making for people across the to take part and share
> their ideas. During these sessions, we will start off with WLM 2019
> surveys, how do we see Wiki Loves Monuments as an international competition
> in 2020, and about organising Wiki Loves Monuments as national competition
> - various potential challenges, opportunities, and ways of doing it. Inputs
> shared during these sessions will be crucial in making a decision regarding
> organising WLM 2020.
>
> Details of the sessions:
>
> - 6 June 2020 (Saturday) - 5 pm to 7 pm UTC (10 am - 12 pm PDT) at
> https://meet.google.com/vpq-rvzt-jpc
> - 7 June 2020 (Sunday) - 6:30 am to 8:30 am UTC at
> https://meet.google.com/npz-jbih-hdb
>
> Agenda for the both the sessions is the same, two different sessions are
> being conducted to enable people from various parts of the world to attend
> according to their convenience.
>
> Regards,
> Krishna Chaitanya
>