Wiki Loves Monuments is an international photo contest for monuments running this September, organized by Wikimedia globally, as well as FLOSSK in Kosovo and Open Labs Albania.
Cultural heritage is an important part of the knowledge that Wikipedia collects and disseminates. Everybody can contribute images as well as write articles. An image is worth a thousand words, in all languages at once, and enthusiastic people can (re)discover the cultural, historic, and scientific significance of their neighborhoods by uploading photos to Wikimedia.
In 2012, Wikipedia volunteer communities in 35 countries joined this initiative. In 2014 nearly 40 countries all over the world are participating through national contests organized with their national monuments, partners, rules, events and winners.
The organizers – FLOSSK from Kosovo and Open Labs from Albania – through digital access to cultural monuments, want to promote the cultural heritage of the respective countries to the world.
Every national contest, including the ones in Albania and Kosovo, will be able to nominate some of their winning pictures for the international contest. These nominated pictures will be judged by an international jury, which will then award extra prizes to the best images from all participating countries.
The list of monuments of both countries is already published in the official website of the project, including the rules, requirements and the detailed description of this competition at wikilovesmonuments.al. After a month, starting from 1 September, 10 best photos will be selected from each country – Kosovo and Albania. These photos, in December, will be sent to the international competition and will be judged by the global community.
FLOSSK (flossk.org) in Kosovo and Open Labs (openlabs.cc) in Albania are non-profit organizations, established in order to support, promote and develop, among other things, free access to knowledge and culture, which is similar to the mission of Wikipedia.
Illustration photos:
Altin Ukshini 