Scotland has been voted the most beautiful country in the world in a Rough Guide readers’ poll.
Yet, we who live and work here can take it for granted that our beautiful locations, listed buildings and monuments will always be there… something that can never be fully guaranteed. That’s why it’s so important that we take the opportunity to document our cultural heritage now for future generations before it is too late.
Wiki Loves Monuments
The world’s largest photo competition, Wiki Loves Monuments, takes place for the whole of September each year but you can take pictures all year round. After days out, weekend breaks and holidays at home & abroad, there will be gigabytes of pics taken in recent months and years. These could remain on your memory card or be shared to Commons in September and help illustrate Wikipedia for the benefit of all. This is because articles with pictures are at least 20-30% more likely to be read. Entry is free and the best pics will win a prize.
The handy Wiki Loves Monuments UK tool which shows you places near you, indicated with a red dot, that require a pic.
Wiki Loves Monuments – dynamic map of Edinburgh showing listed buildings requiring an image (in red).
You just take a quick look at the map, take a pic and upload. It takes seconds and is the easiest way to take part in this year’s competition.
WLM map tool – Use this tool if you want to search for addresses, either in UK or further afield.
Don’t wait till it’s too late, do your bit today! Click here to view a map of your local area to get started.
More to play around with:
- View the 1,257 images uploaded for Wiki Loves Monuments in this year’s competition in Scotland.
- The Wikidata Game – Missing Images – An item of data on Wikidata has no image but the Wikipedia page does. This game just asks you to check the image depicts what the item is about.
- Crotos – find images that depict, for example, ‘pink candles‘ in this data-driven image viewer. Display the information in different languages. Then create image fragments with IIIF URL for Wikimedia Commons image files, and to provide values for the Wikidata property relative position within image / P2677.
- Examples: for fragments on an artwork, Virgin among the Virgins, Gérard David – Ancient Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panin.
- For an item depicted by several artworks. Search. Example: Jesus Christ
- WikiShootMe – find places near you that are not represented online with a pic.
- Explore local cultural heritage with Monumental.
- Use Flickr? Why not try the Flickr2Commons tool to import your images easily into Wikimedia Commons on an open licence? That way they can be shared for an audience of millions to enjoy with detailed metrics on their reuse.