Grants:Project/Rapid/SuperHamster/Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 in the United States
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Summary[edit]
Wiki Loves Monuments is an international photo competition for monuments and historical sites, taking place every September in more than 40 countries around the world.
The United States has participated in Wiki Loves Monuments in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Last year's competition in the United States resulted in over 10,400 photos uploaded by over 1,900 individuals, at least 9% of which are being used across various Wikimedia projects. This year, the U.S. contest is organized by SuperHamster (Kevin Payravi) and Quercusechinus (Laura Soito), who have organized since 2016 and 2018 respectively.
Project Goal[edit]
This project has two main goals:
- Adding content: Getting both a good quantity and quality of photos of registered historical sites is one of the main goals of Wiki Loves Monuments. Last year's competition in the United States resulted in over 10,400 photos uploaded by over 1,900 individuals. Of these images, at least 9% of them have been used in various Wikimedia projects. We hope to and anticipate performing at a similar or better level this year.
- Recruiting new editors: The vast majority of participants have been brand new contributors. In the U.S. contests since 2016, ~85-95% of uploaders were new to the Commons. We hope to see a high turnout of new participants again this year. At the very least, the competition results in thousands of people becoming introduced and knowledgeable of the Commons and Wikimedia as a whole; at the best, we get a handful of contributors who continue to contribute after the end of Wiki Loves Monuments.
Project Plan[edit]
Activities[edit]
Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:
1. What content will the contest focus on, and why is it important to your community?
- Wiki Loves Monuments focuses on gathering photos of registered historical sites from all around the world. From the official "about us" page, "Cultural heritage is an important part of the knowledge Wikipedia collects and disseminates...An image is worth a thousand words, in every language at once and local enthusiasts can (re)discover the cultural, historical, or scientific significance of their neighbourhood." With Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States, we hope to be able to gather images of cultural and historical sites from every corner of the nation.
2. How will you let people know about the contest?
- Geonotices on Wikimedia projects, the primary driver of participants
- Social media (see Twitter account), with both organic and paid posts
- Outreach with external organizations and groups, such as state historical societies and photography clubs
- Outreach with Wikimedia groups, such as interested WikiProjects and Wikimedia affiliates in the United States
- Mass-message all of last year's participants to encourage them to participate again
3. How will you judge the contest and award prizes?
- See Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2018 in the United States/Judging for last year's 2018 competition; while the judging format for 2018 has yet to be announced, it will be in a similar format to 2018.
- Judging for our contest is a multi-stage contest, where multiple judges are recruited from various communities (such as Wikimedians, professional photographers, and artists) to judge the contest's photos. Each stage narrows the photo pool until the top-ten are determined. The volunteer-developed Montage judging tool is used by the judges to help streamline the process.
4. For photo contests, what is the strategy to get images used on projects?
- On the English Wikipedia, the NRHP WikiProject does an effective job of finding and using images uploaded during Wiki Loves Monuments. We will reach out to this WikiProject to inform editors about the contest, and will also see if we can find similar groups on other language versions of Wikipedia. Likewise, WikiProjects and Wikimedia affiliates for each state will also be informed about the contest.
5. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?
- We're excited to continue organizing Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States, and to see the competition results sustain and be enjoyable for participants.
Impact[edit]
We consider our project successful if we accomplish the following:
- Receive a sizable number of participants and uploads, somewhere in the ballpark of last year's numbers.
- Successfully support participants, new and old, in contributing photos.
- Build new relationships with historical organizations.
To accomplish these goals, we have set the following goals for ourselves:
- Number of participants: At least 1,200
- Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: At least 8,000
- Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: At least 1,000
- Number of external organizations that promote our event: At least 5
Resources[edit]
What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).
- We would like to utilize the remaining $401.55 from WLM-US 2018 on this grant.
- This event is organized by SuperHamster (Kevin Payravi) and Quercusechinus (Laura Soito). Collectively the organizers have had 4 years of experience running Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States.
- We plan on receiving outreach and promotional support from various historical societies and related institutions.
What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.
- We have assembled the following request similar to last year's. After several years of running the event, we've found the provided prize values to be enough to encourage participation from professional photographers, while lower amounts have resulted in complaints from participants.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Prize | $400 | In the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing. |
| 2nd Prize | $250 | In the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing. |
| 3rd Prize | $150 | In the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing. |
| Certificate printing | $15 | 10 certificates on high-quality paper sent to top-ten placers. |
| Custom shirts for jury members | $150 | 15 custom shirts (~$10/each) from Blue Cotton, which will go to our volunteer jury members. T-shirts provide a nice incentive and thank-you for our jury. |
| Postage | $30 | |
| Total: $995 |
Endorsements[edit]
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