Grants:PEG/WM US-NYC/Wikipedia Takes Manhattan/Report

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Project Goal: The goal of this project was to expand the archive of images on Wikimedia Commons of photography targets in the New York City and Philadelphia regions, and to spread the notion of contributing free images in a socially engaging and fun way to the general public.

Description of actual activities:

What lessons were learned that could help others succeed in similar projects?

We had a number of new technical improvements, including the photo scavenger hunt tool on the toolserver, a number of templates on Wikipedia and Commons, and a new self-scoring technique.

It would have been an improvement to have handled better the distribution of the manual work on the photo scavenger hunt tool on the toolserver.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

The project reached out to a large number of new people (mostly non-Wikimedians) who contributed valuable images to the project, and will be more inclined to contribute text and images on their own in future.

Firmly establishing this project as an regular event for us has helped increase our credibility as an organization, and furthered our ability for long-term planning with partners.

Thousands of free images were generated by this project, useful on many Wikipedia articles:

Detail of expenditures:


  • 3 Eye-Fi Cards for prizes: $210
  • Pizza at WTP-1: $32 (WTM had donated food)

Amount underspent in US Dollars:

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of US$758 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:PEG/WM_US-NYC/WikiConference_USA_2014.
  • $758

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?

  • Yes, for use in future photo scavenger hunts of this type.