[Wiki Loves Monuments] Feedback for the evaluation of WLM 2012

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

On Sat, 3 Nov 2012 20:18:29 +0100, Tomasz W. Kozłowski wrote:
> Hi there,
> a month after the end of the competition, I think it's about time we
> start slowly evaluating what was wrong and what was good with the
> organisation of the contest.
>
> ...
>
> Thanks in advance,

Hi Tomasz and everyone,

I was going to write this later, but I am afraid that we could lose the 
momentum we just gained, so I write it now. Please tell me if it would 
be good also to double this at the Commons page, but I really hope that 
there will be some discussion on the mailing list.

We are now completing the second edition of the contest, and I guess 
almost all of us were enthusiastic about the next year edition. I think 
we also all recognize that this is a lot of work, even if many things 
are ready (as several examples from this year demonstrate). And I think 
if we want to run the contest (with possible extensions whatever) on a 
regular basis, we also need a regular organization.

This organization can go in two ways.

First, one can think of creating a real organization, affiliated with 
WMF, similar to what the Wikiproject Medicine is trying to do now. I 
personally would not be interested in creating this organization, and I 
am not sure I would become a member if it has an open membership, but 
this is an option worthwhile to be discussed.

Another option, which I personally find more attractive, is to create a 
permanently functioning meta-project, smth like Project Cultural 
Heritage (scope to be discussed). It could be based on Commons or on 
Meta (to be discussed, both options have advantages and disadvantages). 
This must be a meta-project, because it coordinates efforts of many 
different projects: Different language Wikipedias, Commons (with which 
the interaction was sometimes not ideal), and potentially different 
languages in Wikivoyage, may be even Wikidata. Many components of this 
meta-project already exist on Commons and are supported by Maarten and 
other enthusiasts.

The added value of this project potentially could be:
- Coordination of creation (including translations in different 
languages) and maintenance of cultural heritage lists;
- Coordination of creation of articles; creation of high-quality 
content;
- Creation and maintenance of metrics (including the stuff we have 
recently been discussing such as  number of red links);
- Creation of a list of references which are currently scattered over 
different projects.
- During WLM submission periods, general coordination of maintenance.

What I generally find important is that this should be a year round 
project, not just seasonal preparation to the next WLM edition (though 
last time we started to prepare already in December if I remember 
correctly). It will not be only limited to participating countries. For 
instance, if a country (like UK this year) does not feel it can afford 
the WLM participation in a particular year, it can still expect to get 
help from the project and to contribute to help other countries).

Is there a general interest of creating smth like this? If there is 
some enthusiasm, I could start the initial phase. It is important 
however that I can not run such a thing alone. I view it as a general 
cross-project running collaboration, not as a collection of papers which 
gain moderate attention in September and have zero activity otherwise. A 
real Wikiproject.

Cheers
Yaroslav