[Wiki Loves Monuments] Long term

[Ynhockey]

The sustainability of the project in the long term really depends on the
country, what's been done so far, and other factors.

I can see why in the Netherlands you might feel that you almost exhausted
the options, but this is not the case for other countries, because:
1) Many countries didn't participate this year, including quite a few with
active communities and/or chapters, including: Australia, Bangladesh,
Finland, Hong Kong and Macau, Hungary, Indonesia, Portugal, Taiwan, UK and
Venezuela.
2) For many countries the whole issue of monuments is new, maybe because
the government doesn't pay too much attention to it and there are no
well-defined lists, maybe because there is no awareness in the public, etc.
Examples include Israel and Ghana (correct me if I'm wrong).
3) Many countries simply can't realize their potential because of lack of
volunteering organizers, or geographic size, or other reasons. The biggest
example in the United States where at the current pace the competition can
be held for hundreds more years (this is a compliment btw, not criticism).
On the flip side, countries not facing this problem, e.g. Germany and
Netherlands, can probably identify many monuments in their
tens-of-thousands-long-lists that are underrepresented, and put more effort
into getting people to photograph those, e.g. by organizing free trips to
underrepresented cities, etc.
4) We really have to look at how many of the pictures we get are actually
good (usually a very small percentage, for example in Israel 219 pictures
out of over 6,000 passed the screening process) and do two things with
that, which can extend the life of the competition for a long time to come:
we can encourage the photographers who submitted the best pictures to
participate, for example by giving them better equipment (for chapters that
have access to it, or through partnerships with photography schools, etc.)
on the condition that they submit photos. On the flip side, consider
monuments that have many pictures but no good ones as underrepresented and
steer participants to those monuments.

Having said all of the above however, the question we should ask is whether
there is no better of the extraordinary effort requires by all of our
volunteers to organize this competition. I'm sure that for some countries
the answer is yes, there are better ways to spend this time. However, the
answer is rarely clear-cut and each country needs to consider all the
options.

—Ynhockey.

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 4:03 AM, Roel Balingit <
roel.balingit at wikimedia.org.ph> wrote:

> If I may just provide input, at the height of Wiki Loves Monuments
> Philippines, we received a phone call from Natural Wonders Foundation
> (Philippines) about a proposal that they would like to launch a similar
> project like Wiki Loves Monuments, in this case featuring the natural
> beauty of the country. I informed them that we are very interested about
> it, we may just need to discuss it after WLM international has completely
> wrapped-up, by then we would have finished our documentation. Though in the
> hindsight we are looking at Cultural mapping activities, because unlike
> most countries, heritage is often neglected in our country, so we better
> start going around photographing and documenting it.
>
> Roel
> WLMPH
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 6:15 AM, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On 04.11.2012 15:39, Jane Darnell wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I agree WLM doesn't fit in GLAM as GLAM is now, and the heritage
>>> organizations are mostly government sponsored groups who live, work and act
>>> completely differently than institutions in the GLAM world (the name says
>>> it all). Monuments people are field workers, they like to go outside, look
>>> at buildings and places, ask questions, and (most important of all) are not
>>> scared of meetups.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> WLM doesn't fit in GLAM because WLM is a well defined format with
>> specific objectives and the organization is easy because people can take 12
>> or 6 or 3 months to organize it because the format is basically the same.
>>
>> WLM is a good example to organize an event coordinating several
>> organizations because the formula is clear.
>>
>> GLAM at the moment is a "quid" that may change every time and in every
>> context. For this reason it seems that GLAM can include WLM.
>>
>> --
>> Ilario Valdelli
>> Wikimedia CH
>> Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
>> Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
>> Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
>> Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
>> Tel: +41764821371
>> http://www.wikimedia.ch
>>
>>
>>
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>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/**wikilovesmonuments<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments>
>> http://www.wikilovesmonuments.**org <http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org>
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> *ROEL BALINGIT*
> *Treasurer*
> *______________________________________________________________*
> *WIKIMEDIA PHILIPPINES*
> *G/F Gervacia Center, 152 Amorsolo Street, Legaspi Village, 1229 Makati
> City*
> *T: +63-2-8123277  | F: +63-2-8127177 | M: +63-917-8807635 *
> *W: **www.wikimedia.org.ph | E: roel.balingit at wikimedia.org.ph*
>
>
>
>
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