Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Organise

This page explains what local organizers should do to organize Wiki Loves Earth in their country/area.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Requirements for local teams
Funding
- Applying for a rapid grant from the Wikimedia Foundation
Landing page
- Rules for participants
Upload wizard
CentralNotice banner
Lists of protected areas
Jury & winners
- How to find jury and organize its work
- How to submit local winners
Promotion, visual templates

Introduction

Wiki Loves Earth is a photo contest devoted to local nature protected areas in participating countries. Under Wiki Loves Earth, participants upload photos during the contest to Wikimedia Commons. The international photo contest takes place around the world. It is a federative contest that consists of numerous local contests held in different countries.

A local photo contest takes place throughout May and July or dates close to this timeline; it typically lasts for one month but can last for longer. Local contests are organized by volunteers from Wikipedia and/or the local Wikimedia associations with the support of the international team.

After the contest period, a local jury judges the participating photos and chooses up to 15 best photos of that country/area. At least the number-one winner, and in most cases several winners, receive prizes, which are often distributed during an award ceremony. In some local contests, there is an additional special prize category for photos on a certain subject, areas not pictured before, etc. Up to 15 winning photos of a country/area participate in the international round of the photo contest.

In case you have any questions after reading this guide, email them to wle-team wikimedia.org.ua

Requirements for local teams

Requirements for organizing a local Wiki Loves Earth in your country/area are:

You are a team of Wikimedians willing to devote enough time throughout a few months to organize the contest.
You have added your country/area to the page Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Participating countries + provided information on how the international team can reach the local team. Please reach out to the international team via wle-team wikimedia.org.ua once you have decided to organize the contest.
You have created a website or landing page with the required information, and you added a link to it on Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023.
Translations have been provided for the CentralNotice banner on Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/CentralNotice.
You have a jury that judges the photos and selects up to 15 winners with not more than 10 from each contest category (landscapes and macro/close-up). You can choose not to divide local winners into categories and/or can submit fewer photos (such as 10). You announce local winners on Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Winners or privately to the international team before 1 September 2023.
It is preferable that you give one or more winners a prize because having prizes will help increase participation in the contest; it is not mandatory though.

Funding

Although it is possible to organize a local contest without financial means, having some funding for promotion and prizes would help draw attention to the contest.

The international team does not have a budget for financing local contests. That is why there are three ways to acquire funding for the contest:

You can develop partnerships and work with sponsors to receive financial and in-kind donations that would fund your local contest.
If the contest is organized by a Wikimedia chapter or user group which applies for an annual grant from the Wikimedia Foundation or has other sources of funding, you can include Wiki Loves Earth in your budget.
You can apply for Rapid Funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for Wiki Loves Earth in your country specifically. The WMF disburses funding for between 500 to 5 000 USD in this program. See a detailed guide in the section below.

Applying for a rapid grant from the WMF

Please note that most of the Wikimedia Foundation's Covid-19-related restrictions on funding offline public events have been lifted. More info and recommendations are available at Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2022/COVID19 response.

The Rapid Fund program funds Wikimedia community members – individuals, groups, or organizations contributing to Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia or Commons, to organize projects throughout the year with a budget of 500 USD up to 5,000 USD.

Who can apply for Rapid Funds

Any individual, group, or Wikimedia organization can apply for Rapid Funds, and applicants should fulfill eligibility criteria, divided into basic and specific criteria. Yet, there are some exceptions:

Groups and organizations that maintain an Annual Plan Grant, Simple Annual Plan Grant, or General Support Fund from the Wikimedia Foundation are not eligible to apply.
Due to their local restrictions or US sanctions, organizations and people from certain countries might face issues in receiving money transfers from the Wikimedia Foundation, which is a nonprofit based in the United States.
- On meta:Grants:Administration/Countries, you can find a list of countries that have already been funded successfully with no or few issues.
- If your country is not on that list, check for two things:
  - In case your country is one of the US-sanctioned countries, it is likely you will not be able to get funding.
  - If you are not sure about your country's eligibility, it is better to check with the Wikimedia Foundation beforehand by emailing grantsadmin wikimedia.org. See instructions on meta:Grants:Administration/Countries.

Where to apply

Use the landing page for Rapid Funds to learn the process of application. Applications are submitted on the Fluxx Grantee portal.

When to apply

For 2023 there are two available cycles for submitting proposals:

Cycle 8 : 20th March – 5th May 2023, deadline: 20.03.2023;
Cycle 9 : 5th May – 1st July 2023, deadline: 05.05.2023.

It is better to apply as soon as possible. Please note that applications take some time to get reviewed and approved, and then there will be some time for the money to be actually transferred to your account.

So, if you are planning to start contest activities in May (such as running ads throughout the contest), it is recommended and needed that you submit an application by March 20th; if you are starting in June, submit it by May 5th (though submitting it earlier would be a plus, of course).

What to include in the application

Common expenses supported through previous grant programs are such (but not limited to):

Working space, services, prizes, outreach, and other common costs needed to support edit-a-thons, contests, photo walks, and promotional campaigns;
Data costs to support access to online events;
Project-related travel for organizers.

An important part of your expenses might be prizes for your country's winners.

When it comes to prizes, please note that you cannot use money as a prize. If possible, you can use gift cards for online shops as a substitution, as well as come up with something more original.

Examples of other good prizes which are eligible for Rapid Funds.

Photography-related books or publications
Travel vouchers
Merchandise from the Wikipedia Store
Large prints/posters of winning photographs
Calendars of winning photographs from current or past year’s competitions
Photography equipment or accessories that are not disproportionately expensive, for example:
- Camera stabilizer
- External hard drive
- Photo printer
- Less expensive GoPro models
Customized trophies

It is not advised that you include a lot of T-shirts in your application (as T-shirts are generally not the best souvenir you can offer).

Before you include funding certain expenses in your application, consider whether free options are available instead (for example, in some cases, you can arrange to hold an award ceremony in a local library or museum instead of renting a venue). See also learning pattern on partnerships for contests.

If you have questions about your Rapid Fund application, please contact your regional program officer at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Other points to notice

Make sure that you have completed all reports for the previous grant application from you or your organization. Problems with your previous application, no matter whether it is connected with Wiki Loves Earth, may prevent you from being able to receive a grant for WLE.
You can also request free swag from the Wikimedia Foundation which can be distributed as prizes to winners. See the project page. These requests for approved Rapid Funds can include a small number of T-shirts, tote bags, and other merchandise aside from the accessories listed on the Meta page; please note that the swag is dependent upon availability, so the Wikimedia Foundation may not be able to fulfill highly specific requests.
You can use the number of uploaded images, participants, and newcomers as your application's metrics. "Wiki Loves" tool is helpful in measuring them after the contest.
Please note that the Wiki Loves Earth organizing team does not run the Rapid Funds process and does not decide on which applications get funded. Yet, the international team can help guide you through the process. This section provides basic information on applying for Rapid Funds for local Wiki Loves Earth contests. If you have any additional questions on funding or need advice, contact the international team at wle-team wikimedia.org.ua.

Where to learn more

Make sure to follow general guidelines for Rapid Funds;
For more information, where you can find application forms, budget templates, application guides, and reporting forms, please look at the following link;
Examples of good applications for Wiki Loves Earth — 1, 2;
Useful guides for Rapid Funds applications for similar projects and programs: QuickGuide to Funding for Art+Feminism Events.

Landing page

As a landing page, you can create your own website (like www.wikilovesearth.xx), a project page on Wikipedia, or a project page on Commons (Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023 in Xxx). Creating a page on Commons or Wikipedia.

Requirements for a website or landing page:

It contains contest rules, see below.
It contains a link to the international Wiki Loves Earth website: http://www.wikilovesearth.org/
It contains a link to one or more of these options:
1. A link to the upload form of your country/area; and/or
2. A link to the protected sites list(s) (with the eligible nature areas) that contain a direct upload link; and/or
3. A map where participants can find a link to start uploading.
It contains an English-language page or summary in English for international participants.
It contains information about the selection of the winners (jury) and the prizes.

Good examples of landing pages: Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Azerbaijan, Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Georgia.

If your main landing page is on Wikipedia or a separate site, create a page on Commons (Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2022 in Xxx) with a soft redirect or a link to the landing page (examples: 1, 2).

Rules for participants

There are a few rules for photos to participate in both the local and the international contests. Every submission should be:

Self-taken and self-uploaded;
Uploaded in May-July 2023 or close to this timeline within dates agreed between local and international teams (dependent on the dates of your local contest) and available on Wikimedia Commons;^{1, 2}
Freely licensed;³
Contain an identified nature monument and\or specified species;
Participating in a national Wiki Loves Earth contest.

If your country/area has nature-protected areas with unique identifiers (IDs), this identifier must be provided on every participating photo.

Participants can participate in the contest with multiple photos.

To be eligible to win a prize, participants in the contest must provide a way to contact them. It is recommended that the participant has an activated e-mail address in his/her preferences and has the receiving of e-mails enabled.

If no way of contact is provided or known to the organizers, or no reaction is given, the photo(s) stay part of the contest, but the uploader can't win a prize. In case no way of contact has been provided or no reaction is given after contacting, it is up to the local team to decide if a winning photo stays in the top 15 of winning photos or not.

1. The contest should last around one month, eg. 1-31 May, 15 May — 15 June, or 1-30 June.
2. The local time in the country counts. If a country is situated in multiple time zones, the contest starts when the first time zone is on 1 May and ends when the last time zone has left on 31 May.
3. This can be CC BY-SA or any other free license, including CC0.

Upload wizard

Wiki Loves Earth uses a customized version of the upload wizard to have participants upload their photos. By using the customized upload wizard for your country during your contest, all uploaded files will contain a template saying that the photo is uploaded as part of Wiki Loves Earth 2023 and automatically will be added to the category of images in your country.

For countries/areas where natural heritage monuments have unique identifiers (IDs), the upload wizard will automatically add a template to contain the identifier.

If the local team would like to have a check category added to every uploaded photo, we can have the upload wizard add this category for you.

We will create a customized upload wizard for your local team, but you need to provide some translations and information. See for more information at Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Upload campaigns.

For existing campaigns see the wle-xx links in the list of participating countries.

CentralNotice banner

To get attention for Wiki Loves Earth in your country, the international team will create a banner that will be shown to visitors from your country on top of the page on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons during the month. This banner will link to your website or landing page. The banner will be activated only if you meet the requirements and have provided a link to the landing page on Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Participating countries and translation(s) of the banner text in your local language(s) on Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/CentralNotice.

We can activate the banner in time only if you have provided us with all the translations and information in time. If provided in time, the banner will be activated in your country within an hour after the start of the contest in your country. (In the IRC channel #wikilovesearth at Freenode live status, updates will be provided with the start of the contest.)

Using the CentralNotice banner is not mandatory, but it is the most effective way for the contest to be noticed on the wiki, and that's why we strongly recommend using it.

Lists of protected areas

Wiki Loves Earth has been set up to have all the nature-protected areas in the world visible on Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, and their sister projects.

The United Nations Environment Programme has collated lists for almost every country on earth through their Protected Planet project, which is provided on our main lists page. However not all these lists may be complete and in some countries, it takes a lot of time to obtain the information from the state register(s) and/or to create the lists on Wikipedia. It is also highly recommended to have also a list(s) of nature-protected areas for your country on Wikipedia. For this reason, we recommend having the lists ready on Wikipedia before the start of the contest, but we understand that this is not always possible.

An ideal list is a table that contains the following elements:

The name of the protected area;
A link to uploading new pictures of the area (which leads to an automatically pre-filled the upload form, which makes it easier for participants to upload photos);
A picture of an area (if exists);
Wikimedia Commons category (if exists);
Coordinates/location;
Wikidata item (if it exists).

Additionally, local organizers can add their types, maps or other information. But it's not advised to make lists too complicated; participants should be able to easily navigate the list. The purpose is to have a page where a participant can clearly see what and where to upload. You may also choose to link users to Protected Planet which has an interactive map available for each country with the list of sites that they index.

Here's an example of a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate list — Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in France/List.

Jury & winners

When the contest period ends, your local jury should start judging the photos that have been uploaded (if your contest ends earlier, you can start judging photos earlier as well).

The jury should determine the winners of the contest taking into consideration the criteria (in no particular order): technical quality (sharpness, use of light, perspective, etc.), originality, and usefulness of the image for Wikipedia.

The local jury has time until late August for judging the photos (it's better that you set a deadline for the jury at least a few days before September 1st so you have time to check winners and submit them). On 1 September, the international team needs to know which 15 photos are the winners in your country; you can find detailed instructions on how to submit local winners in the section "How to submit local winners" below.

WLX Jury Tool

Technical tools help to organize the process, grade photos and select your winners.

The international WLE team can help you with WLX Jury Tool. It has different levels of access: admin, organizer, and juror. On the gallery page, you can browse the images, see the rating or selection status of each image, and filter them. It's a convenient way for your jury to vote for pictures and choose winners.

Please email wle-team wikimedia.org.ua to gain access to the tool and for questions.

How to find a jury and organize its work

See m:Learning patterns/Selecting winners of a large photo contest

How to submit local winners

After your local jury has finished judging the photos, please make sure that:

You have double-checked that the winning images are indeed picturing a nature-protected area from your local contest;
You have double-checked these pictures do not violate copyright (pay attention to the size and use TinEye, Google Images tools, etc. for checking);
You have double-checked that the winning images include coordinates (if it is a landscape photo), the right species are specified (if it is a macro photo), and a description is provided;
You are in contact with all winners: they have activated their emails, or you have another way of reaching them (Facebook, some other messenger app, etc.), and you will be able to provide their direct contacts if and when the international team requires them.

Local winners have to be submitted by September 1, 2023. If you do not submit the winners by September 1, the international team reserves the right to disqualify your country from the international competition!

There are two ways to submit winning photos of your local contest: add them to page Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Winners or send them to the international team via wle-team@wikimedia.org.ua

Important points to note:

Only up to 15 winning pictures of your local contest will go to the international part. You can select more pictures as winners, but you will need to choose which 15 (or fewer) will take part in the international part.
The international jury does not take into account what place a picture has in the local part, so you do not have to specify that if you do not want to announce that before your press release or awards ceremony.

If you are submitting local winners openly to Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Winners, please:
- Add English descriptions to the pictures (if there is no description in English) themselves on Commons. Please be sure to link the objects pictured to a Wikipedia article (if it exists).
- Publish your local winners on the page Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Winners. Please be sure to be logged in to the international team is able to verify your edit.
- Send a letter to the international team at wle-team wikimedia.org.ua with a confirmation that you have completed all the requirements above (photos indeed picture a protected area and do not violate copyright, and you are in contact with winners).

If you want to keep the 15 winning photos secret until a press release or an award ceremony, please:
- Add English descriptions to the pictures (if there is no description in English) themselves on Commons. Please be sure to link the objects pictured to a Wikipedia article (if it exists). You might want to add descriptions in English to more pictures from your contest, so you do not reveal the winners ahead of time.
- Send links of your local 15 winning photos to the international team at wle-team wikimedia.org.ua and:
1. confirm that you have completed all the requirements above (photos indeed picture a protected area and do not violate copyright, and you are in contact with winners)
2. specify when you are going to publish them openly.

Promotion

It's important to spread the word about the contest to attract potential participants. Some of the ways to do that include:

CentralNotice banner is one of the most powerful promotion tools. See the relevant section above for more information.
Mass inviting participants of previous years' contest editions in your country (and / or participants of similar photo contests like Wiki Loves Monuments or Wiki Loves Africa). This can be done quickly and efficiently with the use of MassMessage tools; you can contact the international organizing team to get technical assistance with this, or read this guide if you'd like to try yourself).
Social media posts, including social media ads if you have the budget for them. The international team created visuals for local organizers to use in their social media posting. Please, open this Google Drive folder to download the templates. You can see png files as examples, and use corresponding psd files for editing in the Adobe Photoshop. Also you can find template in Canva. Please, make a copy of it or download a file and feel free to use.
Building partnerships and leveraging your partners' audiences. One of the options for a successful partnership is organizing joint special nominations with partners devoted to their thematic expertise. (For example, Ukrainian local team in 2021 had “Nature monuments protection” and “Best photo of wetlands” special nominations, each in partnership with a leading Ukrainian nature protection NGO).
Contacting relevant government institutions and NGOs and asking them to help promote your contest. For example, gather email addresses of major national parks in your country and send a press release about the start of your contest to them. They might have their own social media channels, newsletters or other means of distrubution where they can promote your contest.

Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2023/Organise

Wiki Loves Earth 2023

Participating countries

Rules and FAQ

Organise

Winners

Contact us

Report