[Foundation-l] Wiki Loves Monuments (Was: On curiosity, cats and scapegoats)

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

> @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