Wikipedia:Wiki Loves Monuments 2011

Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 was a photo contest regarding National Heritage Sites in Europe. There is a central European website for participants, with separate websites per participating country. The comprehensive project portal is on Wikimedia Commons and the winning photos per country are here.
 * Update February 9th, 2012: We are well into 2012 now and plans are warming up for WLM 2012, but the WLM 2011 project is just starting for the English Wikipedia here. Please consider browsing all of the winners from WLM 2011 for all participating countries, and creating article stubs or adding pictures to formerly pictureless articlies. After all, the whole idea behind WLM is to be able to illustrate Wikipedia in all languages! Please also join the discussion how the English Wikipedia should prepare for the new load of images that the Wikimedia Commons project will harvest in September 2012.
 * Update September 6th, 2011: We have passed the 15,000 milestone in numbers of uploads in just 5 days - thanks to all photographers (or their devoted following of upload-helpers)!!!!
 * Update September 16th, 2011: We passed the 50,000 milestone and helped push Commons over 11,000,000 files yesterday! What will the last half of the month bring? This is an amazing result and a warm welcome to Russia, who starts their national competition this week.
 * Update September 21st, 2011: We passed the 75,000 milestone yesterday - and Russia has already uploaded over 1,000 photos in less than a week!
 * Update September 27th, 2011: We passed the 100,000 milestone on Sunday (Signpost coverage) and five countries already have over 10,000 uploads!
 * Update October 1st, 2011: We passed the 165,000 milestone last night thanks to a rumor about breaking the Guiness book of world records on most photo's sent in to a photo contest! The average number of uploads per user went up from 17 to 30 - what an amazing sprint!

Follow the number of uploads per heritage list on Commons as the contest progresses!

Dutch background
In September 2010 the local Netherlands contest resulted in over 12,000 photo's of rijksmonuments being uploaded to Commons. From the photos submitted there were more than 8,000 unique monuments photographed. The best pictures were selected by a jury and the winner was awarded an iPad. From this 2010 success plans have started for a Europe-wide 2011 race in the same month: September.

What is a monument?
In the Dutch contest, there was some discussion about where to draw the line in terms of monument status. In the Netherlands, there are World Heritage Sites, National Heritage Sites, Provincial Heritage Sites, and Town Heritage Sites. After much discussion, the decision was made to include only the National Heritage Sites in the contest, which is already more than 55,000 objects. Though many countries agree on the definition of cultural heritage sites as definied by UNESCO, each country has its own criteria for inclusion on a heritage list. To reduce any confusion, the WLM organizing contest committees of each country are busy working on lists of monuments to be photographed.

Why September?
Many people complained that the contest took place in the worst month imaginable for Dutch weather, and many photos were taken of billowy clouds shadowing gloomy courtyards. September was chosen for several reasons, but the most obvious one is because in September there are many events surrounding national heritage sites, such as the European Heritage Days, which attract visitors with cameras. For the sun-lovers, the criteria for inclusion in the contest is not that the picture was taken in September, only that it is uploaded to Commons in September.

European contest
Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 is not just Dutch, but is now a European contest! That means you can shoot monuments wherever you go in Europe this summer and come September, if you upload them with the proper country monument identification (in the Netherlands, the rijksmonument number), you may have a chance to win in the local contests of the participating countries. You can win one of many prizes in each country, and the local country jury selections automatically enter a Europe-wide contest with its own set of prizes as well. Since there is Wikimedia cooperation with external cultural heritage associations (see contest rules per country on Commons), this year should have better publicity than in 2010. For a better overview of the participating countries and the status of their national register lists, see Lists of European Monuments on Wikimedia Commons.

Participate!
You can participate by helping us categorize the phenomenal number of photos harvested, and linking them to existing articles with no picture. Though the contest has ended, the special Wikimedia Commons uploader (see the list of links below - each country has its own tailored version, or "campaign") is still live for those wishing to add monuments. This "campaign" addition to Commons is permanent for the purposes of the heritage registers. The table below shows the numbers of photos so far (1 October, certain bot-uploads are still running from some countries and firm numbers are expected next Monday):


 * Andorra (Catalan committee which also participates in Spain) - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Austria - Jump to their Wikipedia page with an overview per canton of the missing photos you can add (once you locate the missing photo, clicking on the link next to the address brings you to the Commons uploader with pre-filled id)
 * Belgium
 * Jump to their Commons uploader for Wallonia
 * Jump to their Commons uploader for Flanders
 * Jump to their Commons uploader for Brussels
 * Denmark - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Estonia - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * France - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Germany - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Luxembourg (together with Belgium) - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Netherlands - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Norway - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Poland - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Portugal - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Romania - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Spain - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Sweden - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * Switzerland - Jump to their Commons uploader
 * UK - A gift of 80,000 UK images from the geograph project has resulted in over 48,000 images on Commons to be sorted. No more pictures this year please!
 * More detailed information on which countries are interested in participating, where they are in organizing and how you can help is available on Commons:Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2011/Progress

2011 goals
The goal this year is to gain more pictures than last year in order to add to the various country heritage projects such as the Dutch heritage wiki project. The contest is organized in a federative fashion, so the details on a national level might differ from country to country. The basic concept is that people are invited to upload images of monumental objects under a free license for usage on Wikipedia. We want to try to get complete lists of these monuments on Wikipedia, including photos - giving a great and unique overview of the cultural heritage in a country. Constructive input on how the organization could be further improved compared to last year is warmly welcomed in a convenient location: the talk page of Commons:Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2011/Progress. Our partners are Europeana, European Heritage Days, Europa Nostra, and the Council of Europe, which we hope will help us make this competition a greater success than last year.

Lists of monuments
Recently, a list of lists of cultural heritage objects has been made as a measure of progress for showing how each participating country is shaping up in terms of monument numbers to link to photos. Without a monument number, an uploaded image cannot be linked to a monument location and will not be eligible for participation. To simplify this for non-Wiki experts, a database is pre-filled based on the monument lists obtained from the participating countries' heritage organisations. This is a lot of work and it would be nice if other wikipedians could help. Of course we welcome any initiatives and support local enthusiasts with our experience.

Contest rules
The awards ceremonies of the various national competitions will vary, so see the national websites for detailed information. You can already start taking pictures (or sifting through your old photo albums) and look up monument numbers. In general, to transfer photos to participate in the contest, they need to be taken by the uploader (copyright CC-by-SA is the default), and uploaded on Commons between September 1st and 30th.

Film or audio footage
Though pure audio footage (such as old church bells clanging) has been rejected, there is still work being done to allow film footage (with sound). Join in the conversation!

How to contribute to this WLM initiative
You are of course invited to take pictures and join in the fun this September. Go dig up your old pictures of Europe and see if you have any that can be used. For example, lots of weddings take place in older buildings, so there is a chance that you can win a prize based on some of those wedding pictures. If there are people in them though, please ask them to agree first to onwiki publication.

Help spread awareness
If you feel any affinity with Europe at all, you can help spread awareness and ease the task of the organizing committees. Since Commons is the general meeting ground for organizers and participants, you can sign up for one of the projects there, and if you are a regular contributer to the English Wikipedia, please sign up here!

Help with infrastructure of the contest
If you live in one of the participating countries, please feel free to add monument numbers to all heritage pages in your area on the English Wikipedia. If you are great with lists, perhaps you can help translate the various country heritage lists to the English wikipedia. If you are good with languages, your translation skills are needed for infrastructure articles on all participating Wikipedias. You are of course also invited to join the workgroup responsible for the contest.

Version 1.0 assessments
By adding the Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 to the talk pages of the various articles, they can be tracked here: For more information about Version 1.0 assessments, see WP:1.0 and WP:WVWP.

To do list
Jump to the overview per country

Glossary of terms

 * Cultural property: Make sure all participating wikipedias have a page defining the term cultural property as defined in international law. If the participating country uses the blue shield, make sure a local example is placed in the commons category.
 * WHS: Check all participating wikipedias have a page defining the terms World Heritage Site including the list for that country which also includes the nominations (listed under the WHS column in the infrastructure table) and the UNESCO terms for cultural heritage and natural heritage which are the designations used in the WHS lists.
 * NHS: Check all participating countries have a page defining the terms National Heritage Site and Heritage site (note we are interested here in National Heritage Sites only, and the local heritage sites, though important, are probably not notable enough internationally)
 * Name of NHS: Check that for all participating countries, the name of the protected object has its own page separate from the NHS page. If the country uses a recognizable logo on its nationally protected buildings, upload it to Commons (see Commons:Category:Logos of heritage organizations, and Commons:Category:Distinctive emblems for the Protection of Cultural Property
 * EHD: Make sure the participating country has a page for the European Heritage Days with the name of these days in all languages, accompanied by the organizing organization, which may or may not be the same party as the heritage list owner! These days are usually in September, so this is our major photo-opportunity event

Make lists and portals to lists

 * WHS: Make sure the participating Wikipedias have a comprehensive list of the World Heritage Sites of its countries participating that is not the same as the main list and which includes the nominated National Heritage Sites; i.e. the Polish Wikipedia should have a page for List of World Heritage Sites in Poland
 * NHS: Make sure the participating country has a comprehensive list (split per region) of the National Heritage Sites before the competition with an ID number; they can be here, on Commons, or at least on the native Wikipedia. The portal page of this list needs to be on all participating language wikipedias, such as Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance. Without a monument ID number, the uploader's picture will not enter the contest. A typical list is List of cultural property of national significance in Switzerland: Schaffhausen
 * ID numbers: Make sure the underlying pages of the lists are easily readable for the "monument ID numbers", since it is the monument ID which the uploader needs to make sure the photo gets counted and put in the lists properly with the help of Commons bots. Last year we could tag the pictures with the identifiers. See commons:Category:Cultural heritage monuments with known IDs). The idea is to set up a similar structure for all participating areas and countries whenever possible. Together with structured tables on the local wiki (with the identifier as a field) this will provide an easy way to add missing pictures. And well it's one of the requirements that pictures have an identifier.
 * Protection agency: Make sure the participating country has an article on the governmental agency responsible for protection of the National Heritage Sites (there may be one (sub)agency per type of Site (archeological, natural, remote building, historical building, etc)
 * Interwiki links: Check out all of these variables for the various language wikipedias for countries with more than one language and without a central Wikimedia chapter (like Belgium!!)