[Foundation-l] Wiki Loves Monuments - will your country participate?

[Lodewijk]

-crossposting-

Hi all,
we're well on our way getting started with Wiki Loves Monuments 2012! (feel
free to forward)

For those that don't know what Wiki Loves Monuments is all about, please
read this blog post [
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/02/165000-photos-submitted-during-second-annual-wiki-love-monuments-photography-contest/]
on the WMF blog and this page about how the concept works [
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Documentation#Concept];
here's also a small introduction to the main idea of the contest and what's
awaiting us this year.

*== Wiki Loves Monuments in a nutshell ==*
The photo competition around physical cultural heritage (buildings,
bridges, etc.) is running in  September, organized in numerous countries
around the world. The contest is being organized in each country
separately, allowing to play to the local needs and wishes, but is joined
by an umbrella contest for the whole world making it all a bit more
exciting. Last year the contest was organized in 18 countries, and brought
in 165.000 images by 5000 uploaders. More importantly, 4000 of these
uploaders never uploaded anything before!

*== Is your country participating? Helping hands are needed! ==*
For 2012 already 24 countries [
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012/Participating_countries]
indicated that they will definitely participate, and 16 more say they
possibly will participate. Please take a look at the list, and see whether
your country is already there. If you would like to help organize this
contest in your country, please join the team that signed up for it (often
through a chapter or a local group) or start your own organizing group if
there is none yet! Interested countries for example include India, United
States, Chile, Sweden and Italy.

*== So, why would you want to organize a WLM in your country? ==*
Well, of course there are the images – it is great to have good images
available of your country. But more importantly perhaps is the amount of
individuals that might participate! Hundreds, maybe thousands of people who
never contributed before can now help out with what they are best at:
making photos. They often find it fun, and might hang around a bit longer
if we receive them well. It also is a good opportunity to get in touch with
local cultural heritage institutions.

Finally, it is a good way to try and forge a local community to organize
events together. It is an existing framework you can use, and although
there are no guarantees, working in an international context like this (the
largest collaboration between chapters and other Wikimedia organizations so
far!) helps a lot to keep people motivated and close to each other. An
international group will be helping interested groups with the basic
infrastructure and other things, and on a national level, you can focus on
the organizing of your own contest, lists and communications.

*== Join the team and get started! ==*
If you want to know more, feel free to leave a message[
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012]
or send us an email. But make sure to get started now if you're interested
- because some parts of the work just require quite some time since
external parties are involved. We would be delighted to help you out in any
way possible to pull off this event.

Best,
Lodewijk
(on behalf of the international coordinating team)