New subject: Launch of international coordination + discussion points

4 Mar 2014

Hi all, 

With this letter we are happy to announce that Wikimedia Ukraine is officially starting
international coordination of Wiki Loves Earth! 
We encourage you, if it is not done yet, to add your country to the list on 
https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_ Earth_2014#Participating_
countries 
We would like you to draw your attention to the following issues: 1) Dates you would like
Wiki Loves Earth to take place. As far as we can see, the best timing for most countries
will be either 15 April - 15 May or 1 - 31 May, but we are happy to discuss your
suggestion - please comment on  https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_
Loves_Earth_2014#Dates 2) Funding. If you are willing to organise Wiki Loves Earth in your
country, please by aware that Wikimedia Ukraine will not be able to provide national
prizes for your countries (except souvenirs). You may want to look for local sponsors or
apply for a grant - in this case, we will be able to support your request, but still you
have to write it yourself :) 3) Criteria. We want to be clear what kind of photos we want
to get. Obviously, this will include wide views of natural sites, but we have to decide
whether we want to include or not representative biotopes [species most specific to the
natural site]. Please comment on this at  https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_ Earth_2014#Scope 4) Prizes. We want to know what prizes you
expect to get in the international part. We expect to have the same budget as for Wiki
Loves Monuments 2013 - around 5000 US$. Last year there was one Wikimania scolarship (we
want to have one this year as well, BUT we have to come with the result by late June to
make it possible) and photography-related vouchers (should be something available in most,
if not all, participating countries). If you have any ideas, please leave your feedback
on  https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_ Earth_2014#Prizes 
On our side, the international team will be happy to help you with the following: 1)
technical coordination. Most of tools that were used for Wiki Loves Monuments last year
will be adapted for Wiki Loves Earth 2) support with list conversion. If you have lists of
natural monuments in any machine-readable format, we should be able to help you converting
them into a wiki format. If you have no idea where to find lists of natural monuments,
please contact us, but we do not guarantee we will be able to do it. 3) supporting your
grant requests - it's up to you to write them, but we can provide help with them 4)
providing souvenirs - e.g. calendars, postcards with best photos after the contest 
Please do not hesitate to write to this mailing list if you need any help or advice. 
Best regards, Mykola Kozlenko (aka NickK) for WLE international team 