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.
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 edit
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 edit
There have been some well-known efforts supported by chapters or individuals over the years:
- Germany
- Berlinale film festival – see c:Category:Berlin Film Festival
- music festivals and concerts – see de:Festivalsommer and c:Category:Festivalsommer
- regular coverage of professional sports events — e.g., see c:Category:European Championships 2022
- United States
- WikiPortraits project
- South by Southwest Festival
- 2024 - WikiPortraits at SXSW
- National Book Festival
- 2022 – CC0 files imported from flickr – c:Category:2022 National Book Festival
- Sundance Film Festival – c:Category:2024 Sundance Film Festival
- Pulitzer Prizes – c:Category:2018 Pulitzer Prizes
- Project Korikath (c:Category:Events covered by Project Korikath)
- Ghana
- 2023 1st African Para Games
- Parliament of Ghana politicians
- Wikimedia Ghana User Group – 500 Notable People Photo Project
- Greece
- Political events and demonstrations
- Argentina
- 2018 Youth Olympic Games – see c:Category:2018 Summer Youth Olympics
- Sweden
- Eurovision Song Contest: 2013, blog at diff, 2014 (Swedish photographer in Denmark), 2016
- Melodifestivalen (Swedish ESC qualifier): 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Göteborg Book Fair: Images from 2005 and forward, 2023 project page (in Swedish)
- Sports: Drag race, GGN, soccer HIF-DIF, soccer SWE-SLO, alpine skiing, SIHS, floorball
- Politics: New government 2022, opening of parliament 2016
- Events: Royal wedding, Nobel week dialouge,
- WMSE support:
- Accreditation, images (using Template:Wmse-GemenskapensProjekt)
- Tech pool, list of loans, images (using Template:WMSE-teknikpool)
- Community support grants, grants for WMSE members and community to support activities
- Czech Republic
- European Union
- Spain
Gallery edit
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a Paraguayan archer competing at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina (
photo by DerHexer) -
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Ron Livingston at SXSW 2024, as photographed by WikiPortraits, Andrew Lih -
Jen Guyton, Ph.D. and National Geographic photographer, SXSW 2024, by WikiPortraits, Andrew Lih
_10.jpg)
Resources and documentation edit
- Category:Photo events learning patterns
- File:Workshop YOG 2018-en.pdf (presentation on sports photography in the context of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics)
Tools and technology edit
Tools that may be useful for systematic coverage and contribution to Wikimedia projects.
Commons edit
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.
- flickypedia – description and alpha testing tool page – A new 2023 effort from Flickr Foundation to create a new upload tool.