CEE/Newsletter/October 2017/Contents/Estonia report

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Estonia report: In search for scientific images and people who would help to bring them into Wikipedia[edit]

By Ivo Kruusamägi
One of the finalists of last science photo competition. Fluorescence and birefringence of 445 nm laser in calcite crystal. Author: Jan Pavelka (CC BY-SA 4.0).

To build a great encyclopedia we need both text and media. So far we have collected images mainly on cultural and natural monuments, but not so much about anything else. One of the fields that have gone unnoticed is science. But not for long: we'll change that in this November.

Wiki Science Competition (WSC) aims to bring scientists closer to Wikipedia and to encourage the creation and, especially, the free sharing of all sorts of imagery about the sciences. It will be opened for participation in as many countries possible, but naturally, it would have better results in countries where there is someone locally promoting it. So make sure if your country is listed as an active participant. The main tasks for local organizers are promotion and assembling a jury, so there really isn't anything difficult.

WSC has five categories: People in Science, Microscopy images, Non-photographic media, Image sets, and General category. It isn't limited only to photographs as videos, computer-generated images etc also fit under it. And there are plenty of outstanding images to crave after; for instance, in the last Picture of the Year final, there were 5 images from science photo competition out of 58 total.

When the last installment of this competition took place in November 2015, it involved 10.000 images from 2200 participants from 40 countries. Then it was just Europe, but now we are looking for other continents as well. We are aiming for 50.000 images and 10.000 participants and there are even greater plans for the next round, that will be held in November 2019. Come and jump on board!

CEE region is the birthplace of science photo competition and the future growth of it depends greatly on the activity of CEE countries. Let's bring scientists into Wikipedia! It's about a time. You are welcome to join the ranks of organizers and participants of this competition.

See more: http://www.wikisciencecompetition.org/