Wikipedie:WikiProjekt Fotografování/Foto českých obcí/Overview 2012

Getting to Czech Municipalities Photographs Project

In February 2007 WikiProject Taking Pictures was founded by user:Chmee2 to group all Wikipedia photographers. At the same year starts Project Photo Prague initiated by user:Packa, who created a map of Prague highlighting the level of pictures per quarters. The aim was to get some pictures to the articles about such quarters. Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, where many Wikipedians had camera. There were about 13 contributors to this project.

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  April 21, 2007
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  3 months later
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  another 3 months
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  May 24, 2009

Similar project was taken in the second town of the Czech Republic Brno. Brno is smaller than Prague and also the number of active wiki photographers was smaller.

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  May 28, 2007
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  3 months later
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  1 year later
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  May 2, 2010

With the success of Project Photo Prague, Prague based Wikipedians have opened Project Prague Neighborhoods in March 2008. This project had attracted several new Wikipediands and it was a way to Czech Municipalities Photographs Project.

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  April 2008
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  4 months later
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  another 3 months
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  June 2012

Czech Municipalities Photographs Project

The project started in June 2009 and was covered by Wikimedia Czech Republic with money awarded for one year from Wikimedia Foundation. These funds were to cover travel expenses. There were 3 runs and we are in the 4th one.

Project goal

The goal of this project was to provide freely licensed photos of Czech municipalities, castles, nature reserves, rivers, creeks and other landmarks that were not available on Wikimedia projects at the time when the project started.

Description of activities

Several Czech Wikipedians went around the Czech Republic using various modes of transport (own cars, buses, trains). During their trips, they were taking images of selected targets that could be used for various purposes on Wikimedia projects. Obtained images were then uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, described, categorized and complemented with a GPS template showing the position of their photographer. Such images have a high value for Wikipedia and related projects because they present the current state of various objects and also they help to make better photo coverage of the Czech Republic.

We used the grant money to cover travel costs (bus tickets, train tickets or petrol), however, other expenses (for food or accommodation etc.) were not covered. Wikipedians usually used they own cameras, but several of them cooperated with Camera project after this grant project started.

Run

(1^st run) Originally, we thought that this grant would be used by ~10 Wikipedians each of whom would make ~10 journeys. At the end, 10 Wikipedians participated in the project, however, our estimate of the number of trips they would make proved to be overrated due to time-consuming activities necessary after each trip (processing the images, uploading, describing, categorizing etc.). For this reason, most participants have made smaller number of journeys. Moreover, most of participants went on shorter distances than we originally thought. That is why we were not able to make use of all the grant money.

(1^st run) Main goal of this grant - number of photographed objects - was accomplished already in April 2010 (end of grant was 30th of June 2010) when we reached 400 objects and until the end of grant we managed to take photographs of another 163 objects.

Results

(1^st run) We set that this project will be a success if we got free photos of 400 new municipalities/landmarks (that will be 1000-1500 photos in total), or corresponding numbers while using proportionally less money.

Project status on June 30, 2010

Map showing the photographers' journeys as of June 30, 2010

• Spent: 22,810 CZK = ~1,128 USD - we used 52.53% of amount
• Total photos: 4,418 photos (the plan was to take between 1,000 and 1,500 photos) - ~353% of our plan
• Total objects (villages, monuments, etc.): 563 (the goal was 400 objects) – ~141% of our plan
• Average cost per one photo: 5.16 CZK = 0.255 USD

38 journeys were made by car, 20 by using public transport. From 563 total objects were: 457 settlements (villages, towns, town districts), 37 natural monuments or reservations, 4 geological locations and 25 historical objects (castles, ruins, palaces and churches standing not in the villages).

(2^nd run) From 10 000 CZK awarded by DUKAN PRAHA, s.r.o. 10 Wikipedians made 23 journeys, where they have taken about 2000 pictures in 280 municipalities. This run underwent for 2 month and half in the summer of 2010.

(4^th run) Actually there are about 3 583 in 4th run of the project. Most of the participants travel, when the weather conditions allow (from spring-autumn).

All images taken for this grant are marked by the templatse and are available in a corresponding categories.

The usage of images was as follows:

• 1^st run: 33.25 %, 1474 used from 4433 (see: commons:Category:First year of the Czech Municipalities Photographs grant)
• 2^nd run: 29.81 %, 638 used from 2140 (see: Second year of the Czech Municipalities Photographs grant)
• 3^rd run: 24.46 %, 726 used from 2968 (see: Third year of the Czech Municipalities Photographs grant)
• 4^th run (not closed): 19.23 %, 689 used from 3583 (see: Mediagrant:Foto českých obcí)

The usage percentage might seem to be low but we need to keep in mind that in most cases, only one picture (mostly the best one) of an object was used in the articles for illustrative purposes.

Evaluation

(1^st run) We find this grant fairly successful, despite the fact, that only about a half of the money available was used. We have fulfilled all the main goals of this project and also we made the Czech Wikipedia community aware of the possibility of taking pictures of all the places around the Czech Republic so that this activity is not a matter of a small group of people any longer. We also believe that we have created a community of photographers who will continue with the same activity after this grant is over.

(1^st run) It is important that Wikimedia projects have a community of photographers who are willing to take pictures everywhere they appear. It is also important to work on improving their skills so that they are able to obtain better images. We tried to familiarize the participants with what we considered wrong in their pictures to give them an opportunity and a stimulus to work on their skills. Several participants of this project have also attended a photography workshop which was led by user:Packa and which was covered by another grant of the Wikimedia Foundation.

How to continue?

(1^st run) An organization "Dukan Praha" took interest in supporting the project by an amount of 10,000 CZK (~470 USD) starting the beginning of the second half of 2010. We are therefore able to prolong the run of this project for another four to six months. We would also like to use the unspent funds for another run of the project after October 2010, because we believe that this grant has a high impact on Wikimedia projects and that the money we received are used effectively. We think that the unspent funds from the first year (20,615 CZK/~1,028 USD) will be enough for the next year's run.

4 years taking pictures of Czech municipalities

Czech Municipalities Photographs Project was evaluated as the most successful project of Wikimedia Czech Republic evaluated positively also by Wikimedia Foundation. It enriched Wikipedia by 3 528 images. Other about 9 596 images are waiting the time, articles about the Czech villages will be extended. At that time these images might be already valuable as old. Hundreds of villages were photographed, but thousands of others are still waiting. During the last years several new Wikipedians with cameras were attracted to become part of the projects and contribute by their work. Wikimedia Czech Republic organized also several "photo workshops" to teach people, how to work more effectively and get quality pictures. Also two DSLR cameras with equipment are available to participants from the grants of WMF. For example, these cameras has already contributed to Wikimedia Commons more than 8 204 high quality free to use images, GPS locator was used to 288 images, etc.

Even several other similar grant projects focusing to gather images of the different areas where opened (folks and customs, vernacular architecture, Jewish settlements, waters, etc.), Czech Municipalities Photographs Project is still the second most import project to gather images by the number of images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and by the number of journeys done by Wikipedians. On the first position is actually (October 2012) project Protected Areas managed by user:Chmee2.