Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2015
Wiki Loves Earth 2015 is an international photographic competition that takes place – with the subject natural heritage (protected areas) – in various countries. For all participating countries there are separate competitions organized by local teams, so periods, rules, prizes etc. might differ a bit. After all country finalists have been chosen, an international jury will again select the overall winners; compare the gallery of 2015 finalists and winners.
Concept
Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) was initiated and first held by Wikimedia Ukraine in 2013. In the second year, WLE 2014 took place in 15 countries/regions.
The basic aim of the competition is to collect photos of natural heritage sites – such as nature reserves, landscape conservation areas, national parks, scenic/landscape areas, remarkable gardens, etc. – to illustrate articles in the worldwide free encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. Like Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), we use official lists of protected areas, usually available from government agencies.
The focus is not only on sites of national importance, but also on those protected at the regional level, and on the widest variety of natural sites possible: forests, parks, gardens, rocks, caves, or whatever part of nature is protected in your country. This means that most users will be able to find several natural heritage sites close to them.
Participating countries 2015
Upcoming competitions
This list includes countries for which it is clear they will participate, where there is already an organization team, and basic Commons pages have also been created.
Competitions still in preparation or of unclear status
The list below includes further countries that (maybe) would like to participate in 2015.
| Country | Commons landing page | Contest period | Page for questions | Notes | Lists of protected areas/objects | Campaign | Uploads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
WLE Australia | ? | contact us | list of protected sites | wle-au | 0 | |
|
WLE Jordan | ? | contact us | list of protected sites | wle-jo | 0 | |
|
WLE Lebanon | ? | contact us | list of protected sites | wle-lb | 2 | |
|
WLE Ecuador | ? | contact us | list of protected sites | wle-ec | 0 |
If you decide to hold Wiki Loves Earth in your country you need to complete the required steps:
- Have or create a list of relevant protected areas (on Wikipedia or Commons). – Different countries have different systems with multiple levels of protected areas (from large National Parks to individual protected trees in the middle of nowhere). All these objects are usually defined by official documents. If there isn't any such list for your country, you can create a public list of areas worth to be called natural heritage site.
- Have or create clear recommendations for photos. – Define, what aspects photographers should focus on.
- Have a working organization team, and name the responsible contact, e.g. by a list of helping users.
- Organize a good jury for your country. At an early stage, please also think about possible prizes for winners.
- Create the landing page on Commons for your country (
Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2015 in …), and take care for categories, templates etc. (Later on, you might need to ask other users for technical help e.g. for specific campaign adaptions.) - Questions? – please ask :)
Rules
- The set of rules for the international part of the contest.
Help and FAQ
Where to ask questions?
The primary place for questions or suggestions is the WLE 2015 talk page (English language preferred). For country specific issues, please use the contact pages linked in the above section "participating countries" (different languages).
Other places to get help:
- wikilovesearth
lists.wikimedia.org (subscribe) - #wikilovesearth webchat
- comments on the wikilovesearth.org website
Tools and useful links
Familiar tools from Wiki Loves Monuments will be adapted for Wiki Loves Earth. In Ukrainian WLE 2013 we used our own tools, which can also be available internationally. Adaptation progress will be tracked below
- WLE upload campaigns
- For templates see Category:Wiki Loves Earth templates.
- For existing campaings see the wle-xx links in the above lists of participating countries.
- WLE organizers with campaign editor rights are:
- User:Vikoula5 - Algeria
- User:Ilya - Ukraine
- User:Romaine - for all countries, and available to help anyone with their campaigns
- Stats
- Other useful things