Contest

Wiki Loves Monuments is an international photo contest for monuments, organized by Wikimedia this September. Wikimedia is the movement behind Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – a global collaboration authored by volunteers.

Cultural heritage is an important part of the knowledge Wikipedia collects and disseminates. Everybody can contribute images as well as write articles. An image is worth a thousand words, in every language at once and local enthusiasts can (re)discover the cultural, historical, or scientific significance of their neighbourhood.

In 2011, Wikipedia volunteer communities in 18 countries have joined this initiative, and also in 2012 volunteers are enthusiastically paving the way to make participation easy for others. In more than 20 countries all over the world, a national contest will be organized with their national monuments, partners, rules, events and winners. Every national contest will be able to nominate some of their winning pictures for the international contest. These nominated pictures will be judged by the international jury, which will then award extra prizes to the best images from all participating countries.

The contest is inspired by the successful 2010 pilot in the Netherlands, which resulted in 12,500 freely licensed images of monuments that can now be used in Wikipedia and by anybody for any purpose. The 2011 contest in 18 countries resulted in more than 165,000 images submitted by over 5,000 participants.

Any support is welcome: from uploading a single image, spreading the word about the contest, to becoming a partner or sponsor. This September, cultural heritage will be in the spotlight on Wikipedia – from Chile to India, Russia and the Netherlands.

Rules

There are a few rules for photos to participate in the European contest. Most of these rules are also adopted as rules for participation on a national level. Every submission should be:

• Self taken and self uploaded (No watermarks/copyright symbols)
• Uploaded in September 2012
• Freely licensed
• Contain an identified monument
• Nominated through a national contest

Next to that, there are a few practical rules:

• The participant should have an activated e-mail address on the upload platform
• The first winner will get to choose the first prize etc.

If necessary, the rules can be adapted via the international coordinators.

Special categories

Besides the regular contest, there are may be special categories – with their own award and jury. Besides that, the normal rules apply.