Talk:Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Wikipedia Photography Club or Wiki Photographer

How is this different from typical volunteering?

Lots of people already submit photos. How is your project different from what typical Wikimedia volunteers do? You say that you want to collect historical photos. How is what you are proposing different from [1]? Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:25, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Blue Rasberry for the comment.

Yes, you are right. There are many contributors who uploads the images as well as other media files. But i found that this process is not helpful for Bengali Wikipedia (more specifically about Bangladesh). In Bangladesh there might be some people who are contributing images to the Wikimedia Commons. But the problem is these contributions are not reflected in none of the Bengali Wikimedia projects. Among the regular contributors there are about 2-4 peoples who add images(sometimes) and almost all of them are interested on article writing.

There are many people who take photographs and upload in social network sites. My target is to make them volunteers of Wikipedia. We already know that wiki is a place where everyone can join and contribute in article writing and upload relevant media files. But the image contributors are not increasing that much. If we say that there are some wiki photographers and they made a club, join and contribute images to the Wikipedia, then it sounds simpler and i think more people will be interested to be a volunteer. In the club we can discuss the problems and better ideas about the images of the Wikipedia and improve our skills. It is better to create this club based on the regions. Because the regular meetups will be a important part for the club members. Now we say that, "Contribute to the Wikipedia". As we are focused on the images then our slogan will be "Contribute images to Wikipedia".

I have gone through the pages related to the GLAM and if i am not wrong then it shows the opportunities and areas which could be used as a resource for Wikipedia. GLAM is a very good initiative and I am interested in the Wikimedia Commons part. Where we will upload the images to commons and at the same time we can attach images with the relevant wiki pages. We can amuse that the members of the club will have the knowledge about the photography and they can capture and collect the images in a better way. For completing a GLAM project successful the club will play an great role.

I have mentioned that the project will be started from Dhaka and we will capture the images of the historical places. There is a specific reason, and that is i know that there many historical places in Bangladesh and it will be hard to cover via GLAM. Here is an example, the Dhaka city has a nick name, City of Mosques, and there are only 14 mosques listed in the English wiki (see details at en:Category:Mosques_in_Dhaka), you should understand that only 14 could not make a nickname for the city. There are a many of mosques are not listed yet.

Here the goal is to gather those skilled and interested people who have the knowledge and/or interest in photography. I think i have answered properly. --Nasir Khan Saikat 16:24, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Why one photographer?

As I understand it, a Wikipedia fellowship would offer a fairly substantial amount of money to one person. Instead, why not start a well-publicized contest asking people to submit photos in neglected topic areas? (Bangladesh might be one) Use the money to offer a fair number of modest cash prizes (the cash being more a way to raise the prestige of the award than really a payment for services). Have volunteers spam inquire at Flickr about photos there which they like but which are locked up under copyright, to see if the photographers might donate a few in hopes of winning. Wnt (talk) 18:04, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Wnt for your valuable comment and suggestions.

I would like to clarify some of the points here as your understating and my perspective of submission are not completely similar.

I know that a fellow gets a substantial amount of money but i do not have any idea about the actual amount . So at this moment i can not describe you the total break down. To get the money and spend for my own purpose is no the reason of submitting the project idea. I am very sorry i could not be able to describe the idea in a proper way and that is why you could not find the main goal.

First of all here i have not applied as a photographer and not asking the money for my contribution. And the goal of the project Wikipedia Photography Club or Wiki Photographer is not to capture or collect the photos. But through this project i will try to contact and form a group of photographers who are interested to contribute to the Wikipedia for a long term. And if a club exists then it will be easier to arrange the Wiki Photo Walk, Wikipedia Takes a City, GLAM and other type of events. Even if are working on some article and some images are required then you can ask to the club members. But you not arrange photo contests several times in a month.

You suggested that it is better to use the money to contests and winners. It is a good proposal, and i totally agree with you. But i tried this approach and output was lower than then expectations. And I (as a EC member of Bangladesh Open Source Network) maintain a support channel for those who want to give their photo to the Wikipedia. Sometime we upload the images on behalf of the photographer or copyright holder. And in this project a have observation that when we publish any announcement only then we get a number of images but on the other time the response is very near to zero. People who send us the photos at that time also upload good photos to the social network sites and other photo sharing groups.

I had conducted several workshops for the bloggers in Bangladesh. There were many reasons not to join and one of them is they can not show they are Contributing for the Wikipedia and there is no level of skills as the forum software manages. Here the thing is they want the recognition and show others that they are the volunteers of Wikipedia. I noted this point and planing to overcome for the photographers and here the is the term Wiki Photographer will be used. Based on some parameters we will try to appreciate the volunteers.

I also mentioned that through this project some historical images will be collected. Here the reason is we have formed a club and there is activities there then it will not be sustainable. As the mentioned images are important to collect and the club needs something to do and i just tagged these two. And some workshops might be arranged for the new volunteers. for doing these outreach events and get access to collect the images some cost is associated and being a student it is not possible for me to spend regularly.

Being a volunteer i tried to do the similar tasks but i had to face some problems. But if became a fellow then i will have to face less problems.

I think i have properly replied your queries. thanks --Nasir Khan Saikat (talk) 19:33, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Proposed change in your topic

Dear Nasir, I went thru your proposal and I want to suggest a few changes that might help you get the fellowship. The photography club that you are talking about very much falls in the area of GLAM (galleries, libraries,archives and museums). This is a Wikiproject. Have you seen its portal? GLAM is a place where you can initiate projects related to media content donation and partnerships to get photos from institutes etc. You can also form a photography club and get them to take pictures in a museum etc. I suggest you add GLAM to the project name.

Another thing, if you don't want to work with institutions and just want to have your photography club to take pictures of historic places, have you considered participating in Wiki Loves Monuments? Wiki loves Monuments 2012 has started and maybe you can be the main coordinator for it from Bangladesh? I suggest your rename your project with 'WLM' tag then. I hope this helps and if u need assistance in setting up these projects, feel free to tell me! Cheers! Noopur28 (talk) 03:44, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Hey Noopur, Thank for the suggestion. Before submitting this proposal i went through the GLAM project page. I am very interested to do that and that is the main reason of this idea submission. I want to work with institutions and individuals and collect the photos for Wikipedia and here the problem comes. Here in Bangladesh the number of active Wikipedians are very low and among then all are not interested or able to contribute to this kind of outreach projects. Images and other media files are parts of Wikipedia not the main thing so we emphasise more on article writing. Now if a photography club exists then we will get a new group of volunteers and these people can contribute to the GLAM, Wiki loves Monuments and other related projects. Wiki Photographer term can be used for the club members or those who contribute photos regularly. Here my goal is very simple, gather photographers and create a open platform that people with interests in photography can easily contribute to the Wikipedia.

I am not sure how to add tags to the project name. Could you please elaborate a little. --Nasir Khan Saikat (talk) 06:07, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Suggesting Wikimedia Grant via BN Chapter instead of fellowship

This project sounds really great and there is definitely lots of overlap with the work that other volunteers are doing around WikiLovesMonuments, GLAM, etc! In general, local outreach and community organizing projects like this tend to be most successful when working with a local chapter instead of WMF. So, its the opinion of the Fellowship Program that it would make more sense for WMF to support a project like this as a Wikimedia Grant coordinated with the Bangladesh Chapter rather than via a fellowship. I highly encourage you to submit a grant proposal, and am sure that the Grants Advisory Committee and Asaf would be happy to assist or answer any questions you have about that process.Siko Bouterse (WMF) (talk) 17:57, 30 March 2012 (UTC)