Wikipedia wants photos of your country’s monuments

What better way to get all of the world’s monuments in one library than run a contest. Wikipedia has launched a global version of “Wiki Loves Monuments” an initiative that crowdsources cultural heritage monuments through a photo contest.

The project started two years ago in the Netherlands and a European project was run in 2011 this year the user curated encyclopedia has decided to go international.

The project will run throughout September and anyone can take part:

Everybody can participate and improve Wikipedia in their local and regional neigbourhood. Cultural heritage is everywhere around you, you just need to look and learn!

In every participating country you can win awards, and the best photos in each country continues to the international jury – which will select the best monument photos in 2012.

The winners will be determined by a jury panel made of of seven people. The jury’s decision will be determined using the following criteria:

• Technical quality (sharpness, use of light, perspective etc.);
• Originality;
• Usefulness of the image for Wikipedia.

Currently 73 403 photographs have been submitted for the contest. Participating countries include: Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa and many more. Those who countries aren’t featured in the contest’s current list are encouraged to contact the “heritage organisations and authorities, create monuments lists in Wikipedia, contact partners and sponsors, and motivate the general public to participate”.

The winners from the national contest will then be submitted to the international contest which will be judged by the seven-strong jury.

So got a great pic of a monument in your country? Cool make sure it is a freely-licensed image and upload it to Wikimedia Commons. There is also an Android app.