Grants:Project/Rapid/WMROMD/Wiki Loves Monuments 2020 in Romania/Report

Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2020-21 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Goals

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Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went? Just like last year, we managed to successfully achieve two of our goals and the other two not that well. We surpassed our target of 3000 images and got 3162 images in the end and the number of photos used in the wikis was 479 (15%), with 179 more than we thought. On the other hand, the number of participants was a little bellow our target, 75 instead of 80, and lower than last year (109 participants in 2019). What was really disappointing was the number of videos uploaded which is declining year by year. Only one video this year. Based on the numbers above, we managed to be on the 15th place from 51 participating countries, meaning that in generally things went well. As each year, we succeeded in increasing the number of freely licensed images of Romanian cultural monuments, even though some of them are landmarks that are popular each year. Also we succeeded in raising awareness of cultural heritage through the photographs uploaded during the competition and improving the quality of the content on Wikimedia projects by providing images to some of the existing articles.

Outcome

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Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.


Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
80 participants 75 Our communication was targeted towards people already following our Facebook and Instagram pages or familiar with WLM competition, which reduced the potential pool of participants. Because of that, we always try to find new participants, so as each year we got in contact with some heritage associations, including the National Heritage Institute in Romania and photography groups to help us spread the words about the event. From all 75 participants, 47 were newcomers.
3000 images 3162 We met our expectations with 162 above the target. There was only 1 user with uploads above 100 images.
330 pictures used in Wikimedia projects 479 The number of images used on Wikipedia projects looks promising. Compared to previous year, it was higher but it did not overpass the 2018 achievement.
10 movies 1 We had only one participant. Not what we expected.


Learning

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Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

  • What worked well?
    • Infrastructure was good. The whole wiki-part of the contest (uploader, list, robot, judging tool) worked very good and we didn't encounter any difficulties or problems.
    • The support and the collaboration with the National Heritage Institute was perfect. Besides being one of the jurors, they have helped us in promoting the contest throughout the month of September on their social media pages and not only. The best part this year was that, on their initiative and proposal, we have organized a webinar with the Director of the Institute, Stefan Bâlici, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga from the WLM international team and Diego Delso, WLM finalist and jury member. The Webinar took place on Wednesday, August 26, and covered some of the following subjects:
- Wiki Loves Monuments concept, history & relevance
- How does the WLM competition work?
- What makes a winning WLM photo? Tips from jury members
- What can WLM Competition do for the cause of cultural heritage - in Romania & worldwide
  • The full video can be watch here [1]
  • Judging process worked well once again; we used Montage. This year we had two new jurors: Gikü, wikipedian and organizer of Wiki Loves Earth in Republic of Moldova and well known photographer, Diego Delso, as a special guest.
  • All the prizes were won by various participants and we were happy again to have among them an international winner. I really want to mention the contribution and help received from ST Serb who helped us getting in contact with the winners and assuring that the prizes were received.
  • Although gadgets are cool as prizes and as this year was a bit difficult to manage to have this kind of prices too, cash prizes in vouchers are more appealing to the participants and is was easier to be received by the winners.
  • This year we have decided to offer more prizes to participants. We have created more categories beside largest number covered of monuments by a single user and best photo by a newcomer like: the best photo of a funerary historical monument; the best photo of a castle; the best photo of a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had a different user for each photography.
  • Based on the survey conducted last year, I we were really glad to discover that 10 previous participants wanted to help in the organisation of this year's contest. Most of them have helped with the promotion of the contest on different social media channels. A promotion video was created by Andrei Lucian Vaida and has been displayed on our social media pages. Video can be seen here [2]
  • Regarding the online writing contest, with the help of FoamBubbles we were able to create a bigger list with monuments that don't have articles on Wikipedia Romania.
  • What did not work so well?
    • We encountered some difficulties in communication and organization with other members from our communities. Due to this fact, the grant was funded after the beginning of the contest so it was too late to promote the event through our social medias pages. It was also too late to promote it in the last week before the end of the contest.
    • Compared to other online contests, the contest focusing on monuments had some poor results (only 5 new articles written by 6 users). We didn't have any newcomer in this contest.
  • What would you do differently next time?
    • One thing for sure would be to prepare the contest in advance. This is each year's number one on the list but it has always been a challenge in fulfilling it. As last year, collaboration with other organisations has lead us to a new audience and hopefully new future contributors (47 newcomers from 75 uploaders). Although, in this case, the amount of monuments will not grow, it will always bring higher quality images to Wikimedia Commons. We should consider a way to motivate newcomers / wikipedians to photograph and to cover other monuments from other regions.

Finances

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Grant funds spent

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Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

  • Prizes = 4800 RON (1180 USD)
  • Online writing contest = 400 RON (99USD)
  • TOTAL SPENT = 5200 RON (1279 USD)

Remaining funds

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Do you have any remaining grant funds?

Remaining funds are due to WMF. The grantee should return these funds to WMF by bank transfer. Contact grantsadmin at wikimedia dot org to let WMF know to expect the funds. Instructions for returning funds to WMF are at Grants:Return unused funds to WMF.

Remaining funds = 480 RON (118 USD) that we proposed to be used for the Wiki History 2021 project.

Anything else

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Anything else you want to share about your project?

Winning pictures

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Winning film

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The winner of the video competition in Romania

Special prizes

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  • the largest number covered of monuments by a single uploader: Țetcu Mircea Rareș
  • the best photo by a newcomer:
  • the best photo of a funerary historical monument:
  • the best photo of a castle:
  • the best photo of a UNESCO World Heritage site: