Talk:Learning and Evaluation/Program Toolkits/Photo Events

Hi! Use this page to share what you know about Photo Events.
Answer some of the questions below using your own words, or link to relevant resources you know.
The goal is to make it easier for new program leaders to find the resources they need, and the people that have experience to ask questions.
We will use the feedback on this page to create a new program toolkit, and facilitate conversation among program leaders once the toolkit is published.

Goals

What are the most important goals or outcomes you can achieve through photo contests and events?

• A Wiki Loves ... photo contest is organised to have the public participate in taking photos and having them upload on Wikimedia Commons. The goal of such photo contest is to get a better coverage (filling up a gap) of that certain subject the Wiki Loves contest is about. Besides this, organisers can have additional goals. Romaine (talk) 22:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Promotion

What are the best ways to promote photo contests or events in your context?

• Above everything, having a CentralNotice banner. Romaine (talk) 22:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Participant motivation

Metrics

What metrics or measures of success do you track for photo contests and events?

• The core measure of success is that the contest makes that there becomes a better coverage of the particular subject. Coverage is the key word, that is the primary goal of a photo contest and is thus the primary measure of success. Besides this goal, organisers can have additional goals they would like to achieve.
  Also I must make clear that a higher number of photos is considered to be nice, but if organisers have done their job, it is mostly a matter luck to have more or less photos. Also: the goals of WMF are not a measure of success for a photo contest, as a photo contest is organised by the community. Romaine (talk) 22:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Tools and bots

What, if any, tools or strategies do you use to track contest entries

• Special upload wizard that adds contest template to add photos in contest category. Romaine (talk) 22:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

What, if any, tools do you use in the judging process?

• A jury tool. Romaine (talk) 22:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Do you use any tools or bots to incorporate images into Wiki pages?

• For Wiki Loves Monuments we have Erfgoedbot which creates a list of unused images. The adding itself is manual, because there must be a visual human check to prevent problems. Romaine (talk) 22:07, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Learning Patterns

Help expand the photo event learning patterns by answering questions on the talk pages linked below and nominating topics for new learning patterns.

Organizing a Wiki Takes Event

Answer questions such as: how to choose a location, how to promote the event to new users and what challenges to anticipate.

Improve photo quality with better cameras

Expand this stub by sharing steps for how to start a program for community members to borrow high quality photography equipment.

Project roles for photo events

Give some examples of the time and skills needed to plan photo contests, wiki tours or other photography events.

How to start a Wiki Loves photo contest in a small or inactive community

Is this a topic that needs a learning pattern? Do you have experience in this area?

How to identify image content gaps

Is this a topic that needs a learning pattern? Do you have experience in this area?

Endorse learning patterns

Promote and improve learning patterns that have worked in your context by adding a brief statement about your experience.

• Photographing buildings
• Improving your building photography
• Expense tracker tool for easy processing of volunteer expenses. Can be modified for any group and makes photo expeditions/walk much easier to organize.
• Let the media know provides easy ways to promote your event so more people hear about it.
• Selecting winners of a large photo event includes criteria for judging quality and links to judging tools.
• The pre-jury as a tool for community engagement describes a strategy that WMAT has used to increase new-editor retention after photo contests.

Planning resources

Please share links to mailing list threads, talk page discussions, best practices, tools, blog posts, videos or other resources you think are helpful for planning Wiki Loves contests or photo events. After the link, please add a short sentence explaining what the resource is.

• WLM 2010 post mortem shares tips on planning timelines, coordinating volunteers, establishing partnerships and much more.

Concerns

I am concerned about the page this talk page belongs to. It can be handy to collect experiences, resources and methods. But something that is certainly not useful is the section Evaluation Reports, that contains the failure(s) of the year. Two highly problematic reports, and still used and advertised as "evaluation". The only conclusion I can draw from this, is that feedback provided by the community isn't taken seriously, or otherwise not seriously enough.

Photo contests are organised by the community with a specific goal, and that particular goal is not set by WMF. Such does not need to cause conflicts, but too many times I see that a activity by the community is judged/evaluated/etc based on the goals of WMF, which do not apply there. If the Wikimedia Foundation wants to support the community with its activities, WMF must recognize that the goals set by WMF are not the same as the goals from the community to organise a project. Romaine (talk) 22:30, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

First, thank you for contributing so many ideas and resources to this page Romaine. You pointed out that conflict can come up when outcomes from contests get evaluated or judged based on WMF goals instead of the goals that communities have set from themselves. Success looks different to all of us, and we know that photo contests or events can help communities achieve many different kinds of success. The purpose (or at least the intent) of program toolkit pages and learning patterns about setting goals is to document the different kinds of goals that communities may want to focus on and the different ways that program leaders can achieve and measure progress towards those goals. Thank you for the reminder in your previous comment. I will be sure to take closer look at the discussions that followed the 2015 WLM report to make sure the toolkit captures discussions on goals and metrics that came up in that forum. --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 02:18, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you! :-) I think multiple local organisers can give extra reasons for why they have organised Wiki Loves contests in their area. For some of them I have ideas about what reasons, but I would love to hear it from themselves. :-) Romaine (talk) 02:46, 11 August 2015 (UTC)