Grants:Project/Rapid/UG LV/Wiki Loves Earth 2020

Increasing the number of freely licensed images of preserved areas and natural monuments in Latvia;
Raising awareness of nature protection through the photographs uploaded during the competition;
Highlighting the need to document nature monuments at their current state.
Raising awareness of free licenses among photographers in Latvia;
Recruiting new contributors to Wikimedia Commons;
Building capacity of local community.

Project Plan

Activities

1. What content will the contest focus on, and why is it important to your community?

The contest will focus on pictures of natural protected areas and natural monuments in Latvia. We have a list of protected areas based on official lists by state agency, it is imported in Wikidata and we are generating pages in Wikipedia from that. The amount of freely licensed photos of natural monuments in Latvia is still low and as time goes by the accessibility and state of the monuments deteriorates due to loop-holes in nature preservation legislation. Prizes are important for the Wiki Loves initiatives because this helps us to gain the trust of participants and continue to engage them in the future.

The contest will run in June and July, which is different from past. Due to many people self-isolating during global pandemic we will encouraging people to look into their archives for suitable images. It is reported that there is increased number of people spending their time in nature instead of other types of entertainment. We will also target this audience.

2. How will you let people know about the contest?

Based on observations from previous contests:

The most important way to advertise the contest will be central notice banner arranged by the international team.
Communication through our social media accounts, mostly Facebook but also on Twitter and Instagram. We have seen good results and some of winners have come from social media;
Posting announcements in local photo and tourism related Facebook groups (quite effective), forums and sites.
Writing a press release before and after the contest.
Information about the contest will be sent to nature protection and enthusiast organizations, schools and youth organizations;

3. How will you judge the contest and award prizes?

The jury will consist of 4-5 people from mixed backgrounds and will judge photos in several rounds, using Montage jury tool, which we used for previous photo contests. We will try to include a photography and a nature protection expert, as well as a wikimedian. Due to global COVID-19 pandemic no awards ceremony will be held and prizes will be distributed online or con tactless delivery.

The amount requested is based on previous experience. We intend to award vouchers to top 10 images with slightly bigger prizes for first three. We will enforce rule that top 10 images should contain no more than 3 from a single photographer as we has a problem with single person dominating the contest.

4. For photo contests, what is the strategy to get images used on projects?

The object lists contain links to already existing articles on the topic. The community will be encouraged to create articles about the missing topics. Social media will be used to promote quality images without an article on the topic.

5. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

The project will go on even if not funded. We have run Wiki Loves Monuments without funding and still received several hundred pictures.

Impact

Our targets for the contest:

1000 photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
30 participants uploading a photo
15 newly registered participants
10% distinct photos used in Wikipedia articles
our press release published in notable online publication

Resources

Team

Papuass (head organizer)
AgrisR (social media)
Edgars2007 (technical support)

Budget

Item	Cost (EUR)

Awards for participants	600
Gifts for jury members	80
Miscellaneous	50
Total	730

Endorsements

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