Grants:Project/Rapid/UG LV/Wiki Loves Earth Latvia 2017

Increasing number of freely licensed images of preserved areas and natural monuments in Latvia;
Raising awareness of nature protection through the photographs uploaded during the competition;
Improving the quality of the content on Wikimedia projects by providing images to the articles;
Creating and improving existing articles in Wikipedia by providing pictures;
Raising awareness of free licences among photographers in Latvia;
Recruiting new contributors to Wikimedia Commons;
Increasing local media coverage about Wikimedia projects.

Microgrants project

Increase participation of existing community members in offline activities or more active involvement;
Support users who create quality content for Latvian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons;
Introduce local community to available resources from WMF;
Promote donating to WMF by showing how funds are used locally.

Project Plan

Activities

Wiki Loves Earth Latvia 2017

1. What content will the contest focus on, and why is it important to your community?

The contest will focus on pictures of natural protected areas and natural monuments in Latvia. We have published a complete list of protected areas based on official lists by state agency.

2. How will you let people know about the contest?

The most important way to advertise the contest will be central notice banner arranged by the international team.
Posting announcements in local photo and tourism related forums and sites.
Writing a press release before and after the contest.
Communication through our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook) which have limited reach.

3. How will you judge the contest and award prizes?

The jury will consist of 4-5 people from mixed backgrounds and will judge photos in several rounds, using Montage jury tool which we used for previous edition of Wiki Loves Monuments. We will try to include photography and nature protection expert, as well as a wikimedian.

4. For photo contests, what is the strategy to get images used on projects?

The lists of objects contain links to already existing articles on the topic. The community will be encouraged to create articles about the missing topics (we will also run a small article contest). Social media will be used to promote quality images without an article on the topic.

5. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

The project will go on even if not funded. We have already prepared all information pages for the contest and posted first announcements. We already have agreed with people from Nature Conservation Agency (government entity) to promote contest and participate in jury work.

Time plan for activities:

Before May: Preparing announcement texts, promoting contest through social media, sending announcements to some media.
May: Running the competition, posting updates to social media, making pre-selection for the jury. Publicly announced photo expedition to a less covered region.
June: Jury work, deciding local winners. 10 best photos will be submitted to the international contest.
Start of July: Awards ceremony for local winners. Follow-up press release.
July: Evaluating the project and compiling the report. Showcasing best work in social media.

Wiki Loves Earth article contest

Aside from photo contest, there will be a small article contest to encourage creation of new articles about protected areas. In contrast to cultural monuments, protected area list is shorter and there is more reference information available. There will be a small award for biggest contribution. We will use a self-reporting points system to decide on winner.

Microgrants project second term

This project is submitted together with WLE project to simplify banking and administration.

A microgrants system was set up last September and had one successful and one canceled project (did not meet our goals set in last grant). Users were able to request funds for covering travel expenses, entry tickets to museums or events, necessary books or online database access. Interested people have to present action plan, the community will accept or reject it by voting and commenting.

Proposed projects should present clear goals like articles created or objects photographed. Money will be paid only after set goal is reached. Reporting is done in Latvian Wikipedia project pages. General structure is borrowed from a successful program run by Wikimedia Polska.

Learning from previous term, there is a plan to increase participation by promoting this opportunity during meetups, online and personal discussions. For photo expeditions a big difference is expected because of more favorable weather.

Funds are planned for a 4 month period. At the end of this period there will be a summary compiled for reporting.

Impact

Measures of success for WLE

1000 photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
30 participants uploading a photo
15 newly registered participants
15% distinct photos used in Wikipedia articles
mentions in 5 different noteworthy web sites

Measures of success for WLE article contest

5 users participating
25 articles created

Measures of success for microgrant program

8 microgrant projects submitted and accepted
4 distinct users completing a project

Resources

Team

Papuass (organizing, promotion)
Voll (WLE technical support, lists)
GreenZeb (WLE organizing team, jury, partnerships)

Budget

There is 715.49 EUR remaining from our previous grant. We are willing to spend it according to this plan:

Item	Cost (EUR)

Wiki Loves Earth 2017
Awards for participants	300
Gifts for jury members	60
WLE photo expedition	50
Venue for awards ceremony & snacks	60
Miscellaneous	45.49

Microgrants project second term
Funds for microgrants	200
Total	715.49

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!