Contest in June

The contest «Wiki loves the Earth» is opened  only until 31 May in Ukraine, Andorra & Spain, Macedonia, Armenia & Nagorno-KarabakhAustriaAzerbaijanBrazilEstonia,  but in June there is the opportunity to participate in other countries!

So, Serbia and Algeria are ready to open receptions of photos from 1 to 30 June. But in Germany, the Netherlands, Ghana and India contest lasts two whole months – May and June.

Participation in competitions in all countries are identical. So if you have pictures of the natural heritage or if you  plan to visit them – download your own photos to Wikimedia Commons and win!

Gudalur, India. Author: Manoj K. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

The middle of the contest

These days we are at the middle of the contest, so we’re able to draw the first conclusions.

We came to an inference that Wiki Loves Earth is interesting for many countries. It’s not only a great opportunity to show the charms of nature, but also a huge chance to draw public attention to the environmental problems and Wikipedian activities. The focus is not only on the sites of national importance, but also on the areas protected on the regional level, and on the widest variety of natural sites possible: forests, parks, gardens, rocks, caves and whatever is protected in the participating countries. This makes that most users will be able to find several natural heritage sites close to them.

Blue Lakes, Bilohiskyi region. Ukraine. Author: Oksana Golovko. CC BY-SA 3.0

More than 20 countries were ready to organize «Wiki Loves Earth». There are: Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Iraq, FYR Macedonia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.

However, only 13 of them were ready to start May 1. The reasons were different: from lack of time to governmental bureaucracy (as in some countries it was too hard to gain the lists of natural heritage sites from public authorities).

Matka (Macedonian: Матка, meaning “womb”) is a canyon located west of Skopje, Macedonia. Covering roughly 5,000 hectares, Matka is one of the most popular outdoor destinations in Macedonia and is home to several medieval monasteries. Author: Miljovska. CC BY-SA 3.0

Nevertheless, Wiki Loves Earth is successfully going at 13 countries: Andorra&Spain, Armenia, Austria,  Azerbaijan, Brazil, Estonia, Germany, Ghana, Macedonia, Nepal, the Netherlands and Ukraine. A few days ago India has also joined the international contest.

Massive Cadiretes. Author: Enfo. CC BY-SA 3.0

So far nearly 30 000 photos from all over the world were uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons under a free license. All photos will be freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work.  Licensees may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these. It’s a good opportunity for Wikipedia to collect more free photos and use them as illustrations.

Now the first three leaders are Ukraine (6572 photos), Macedonia (4730 photos) and Andorra&Spain (4404 photos).

Write an article about the nature heritage

Photographers are masters of presenting needed information. But … that’s as well as famous historians and financial geniuses. Sometimes it’s difficult to draw a precise line between pure knowledge and manipulation of us – subtle and subliminal or direct and brazen. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, somewhere in the intersection. Therefore we would like to see, not just read. Heard, not just seen. You can go not everywhere, but you can have a pretty full understanding of your own country.

Synevyr Nature Reserve, Ukraine. Author: Aleksandr t15. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

On May 1 , in conjunction with the photo contest «Wiki Loves Earth» Wikipedia started a month of articles about nature monuments in Ukraine. In the articles Wikipedians use all that photos from the contest. Sometimes having a good picture prompts for writing essay about an event. Sometimes having the article helps choose a place for a travel.  There is no importance what  the chicken or the egg was the first.  The main thing that we get to pinch more free knowledge .

Kaski district of Nepal is famous for many Lakes including Fewa. But not every one other to visit other than Fewa. Because of the lack of publicity Begnas lake is barely explored. Author: Gaurab. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

During these two weeks volunteer editors have created over 75 articles and have improved over 20.

If you love to travel and take pictures – load your own photos. If you are not too handy with a camera – write articles. Improve the existing text. Loads and write. Share your expertise with others in the hope that both of you share too. Or already shared before.

Eidapere Park; Eidapere Forest District Park. Author: Ilme Parik. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Estonia license.

Author: Antanana.

Congratulate India on a start of «Wiki Loves Earth» and Macedonia with second ranking place!

«Wiki Loves Earth» international photo contest has a new participant – beautiful and ancient India. It already has 28 first photos at the Commons.

Macedonia is a great country with active and talented people. Now it is in the second place with 3265 uploaded photos.

Views of Mavrovo. Author: MacedonianBoy. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In Twitter @WikiLovesEarth you can find the most interesting facts from the each country. For example, Darco Nikilovsky from Macedonia uploaded near 1000 photos from his native country!

So, we congratulate our colleagues from India and Macedonia!

Coast near the village Dolno Dupeni. Author: Bijonse. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

 

Contest’s statistics

Today we have only 12 countries that started «Wiki Loves Earth» 2014. Unfortunately, Greece isn’t in this list now, but we hope they will be there soon.

Ukraine is in the first place with 1996 photos. Austria has 1899 photos. The third place has 1885 photos. Here’re Spain&Andorra.

The other countries are in the following order:

4. Macedonia with 1259 photos

5. Germany (1102)

6. Armenia (858)

7. Brazil (533)

8. Nepal (251)

9. Azerbaijan (192)

10. Netherlands (180)

11. Ghana (91)

12. Estonia (78).

Some beautiful photos from this year contest:

Artificial lake Mladost , Veles, Macedonia. Author: Bijonse
Aragats mountain, Aragatsotn, Armenia. Author: Alexander Mkhitaryan B
Cataratas – Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. Author: Rodrigo28
The view of the Himalaya seen from Phoolbari Village, Nepal. Author: Skrissh2013
Azerbaijan. Author: Alikooo.
Zuid-Kennemerland National Park, Netherlands. Author: Bnms
Mountain Afadjato, Ghana. Author: General DeLa Rey
Oru Landscape Protection, Estonia. Author: LeaRand

Read more at the international Facebook page ot in Instagram.

Here is just a short update from the Wiki Loves Earth Dutch team

Wiki Loves Earth in the Netherlands is ready for the competition to start on the 1st of May that  will last until the 30th of June.

National park “Weerribben”, Netherlands. Author: Ziko van Dijk. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license.

In addition to the photo competition, the Dutch chapter took the initiative to not only award prices for photos, but also to have a main prize for the best recorded sound in nature. Furthermore, the Netherlands has made an official partnership with the 20 National Parks that exist to collaborate on communication, organisation of events and access to expert knowledge. Throughout the two months Wikimedia Nederland will be hosting photography & Wikimedia Commons workshops, including a private tour in different parks across the country. The kick-start was last Saturday on the 3rd of May and was very successful!

People in a canoe in the Weerribben. Author: Ter-burg. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license.

More information you can read at the official site ot at the Facebook page.

A good start in Spain&Andorra and Austria

The contest is opened only 4 days, but we have two leaders: Austria and Spain&Andorra.They are constantly changing places in the ranking. At this moment Austria has 1442 photos and Spain&Andorra – 1425.

Malh deth Melic. Author: Amadalvarez. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

For Andorra & Spain the contest has had a good start with 1 out of 5 of all photos. They have also a dedicated Flickr group that works well with currently 100 more photos pending to transfer to Commons. 80% of the photos were uploaded by one user known as a very active participant in previous editions of Wiki Loves Monuments. The bad news is that almost all photos are from Catalonia, only one from Andorra and none from other Spanish regions. The spanish team has an active partner for promotion and press releases, but only for Catalonia. Now they should improve outreach in other regions.

One of the uploaded photos from Spain. Author: Mikipons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

We wish new achievements and the huge amount of beautiful photos from the each region of Spain and Andorra.

Contest’s progress

We have the first statistics of uploaded photos.

The largest number of them is in Austria – 1117.

View from the wine bill to the north, upper and lower Schwarzsee, Frauennock (2678m). Author: Gerdsch. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Austria license.

Andorra&Spain ranks second place with 1003 photos.

Photo from Spain. Author: Mikipons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

And Macedonia ranks the third position with 528 photos.

View of Matka, April 2014. Author: MacedonianBoy. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Then we see:

4. Ukraine with 428 photos

5. Germany with 379 pictures

6. Armenia and 214 photos

7. 84 photos in Azerbaijan

8. 69 in Brazil

The other counties have less then 50 photos.

Sudak. Crimea. Ukraine. Author: Olena Ilnytska. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

More photos from each country you can see at the official Facebook page, Vkontakte or at Instagram.