Wiki Covers Events

Wiki Covers Events is an effort within the Wikimedia community to share best practices for documenting events as they happen (festivals, sports, concerts, awards, etc) and improve content on Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikipedia, and beyond. While the primary motivator of this effort is in-person work such as event photography or videography, it is also inclusive of Wikipedia article editing, Wikidata contribution, or other on-wiki activities.

Prototype of a logo (generated via ChatGPT-4/DALL-E

Some of the activities include but are not limited to:

  • Photographing events for Commons such as awards ceremonies or sporting competitions.
  • Capturing comprehensive portrait photos of politicians or public figures at conferences or gatherings.
  • Enriching Wikidata and Wikipedia with verifiable information for notable individuals, films, or literary works during a film or book festival.

The goal is to foster a community of practice around covering events and enriching Wikimedia content as they happen.

While these activities overlap with existing efforts to enrich Wikimedia content, the focus of this group is to share best practices and coordinate around capturing an "event" as best as possible, be it remote or in person.

History

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While many different chapters and user groups have been doing event coverage in their own communities, the idea to formally assemble a community of practice around event coverage was discussed in a 2024 thread in the Wikimedia Commons Telegram group.

Examples

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There have been some well-known efforts supported by chapters or individuals over the years:

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Resources and documentation

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Tools and technology

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Tools that may be useful for systematic coverage and contribution to Wikimedia projects.

Commons

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Besides the main Upload Wizard for Commons, there are a number of tools for uploading at Commons:Upload_tools. Of particular interest are:

  • Pattypan – Bulk upload of images from local computer to Commons using an Excel spreadsheet to define metadata, Commons categories, etc.
  • flickr2commons – Bulk upload images from flickr albums (with the appropriate Creative Commons license) to Wikimedia Commons.
  • flickypediadescription and alpha testing tool page – A new 2023 effort from Flickr Foundation to create a new upload tool.
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See also

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