WLE 2016

Wiki Loves Earth took place for the first time in 2016. When I set out to make WLE work this year after a false start in 2015 one the first issues I identified was that in 2015 too large a group of people step forward to help make it work and that appeared to have been a hinderance. This year I decide that as President of WMAU I would run the whole process as as possible by myself leaving some the organisational and participant by the way side. The upload dtes were that of most other participants being 1st May until 31st May.

Setup

This process was first to indicate we were an interested party in this years event, and start the creation of WLE-au pages on Commons. Copy and paste was my friend following the way 2015 pages were designed, when I ran into some minor issue due to the complexity of templates and the upload tool to sort help from WMAu member Sam Wilson with the creation of these. In creating the pages we had to find Protected areas in Australia fortunately en.wikipedia had this already organised within its category structures, my thanks to those contributors over the years who had made that happen, especially as one the hinderances for WLM has been the lack of heritage register information and the amount of work necessary to get that running.

Next step was to approach the committee with the concept and ensure we have some incentive for those who enter to contribute their best work. The committee concluded that 10 prizes/gift vouchers of $100 each would be offered along with the overall winner getting a print of their image. When I put this to the committee I thought 500 images would be a good target for identifying success, with a stretch target being that of 1000 images submitted.

Submission period

Come the 1st of May the first images start to trickle in, we get something really special the first image uploaded to any WLE national competition was from Australia it wasnt just of any random place it was of Uluru. Seeing this I really felt that something special had happened and was about to happened it just seemed so right. It was nervous start watching the image come in, comparing the numbers to other countries checking out that the images were within scope and unfortunately deleting a few copyright violations. I also was posting to Wikimedia Australia Facebook page promoting and keeping people informed, I shared the program far and wide through every network I could find.

over 100 images uploaded on day 1
- from Uluru to fish at Stradbroke Island they were already a diverse
late on day 4 we passed 400 submissions
- we had snow on Perisher, not something people normally associate with Australia
day 5 - 500 image submission success target reached
- Blue mountains in NSW
day 8 the number of uploads starts to drop off
day 10 and the stretch target looks a little further away
- still surprises being submitted, like the Barnett Range in the Kimberley region which didnt even have an article
uploads slow down a bit more though 1000 is still looking possible
day 20 and the stretch target is passed with 1100 images now uploaded

Its around here the ABC take an interest first up is a request to talk to someone in Melbourne, committee member Steve Crossin takes this on. It's then followed up a few days later by a live on-air TV interview. As we near the end the ABC interviews tak eeffect with more images flowing in first we pass WikiTakes Waroona 1900 image mark which was our previously largest event contribution. The quickly the upload roll past 2000 twice our stretch target this is looking great. The WLE in Australia finishes with a flurry of uploads on the penultimate day 3000 is passed. Yet the contributors arent finished yet theres more magic to come when late on the 31st we pass 4000 by the end we have 4126 images submitted time for the judges to do their thing.

Judging

Finding judges was one challenge for WLE that was easy firstly as President and orgnaisor I took the first seat at the table. Within Perth area Wikimedia Australia has access to many amazing through the projects that have taken place and the partnerships we have made. As I approached people to judge WLE it most done before the upload period commenced so when talking to them my vision of hopefully 500 images and maybe 1000s at a stretch was what I was describing with an expectation that 60% would be eliminated as not meeting the criteria. First up I looked not for a photographer but for some who has the task at the State Library reconstruction information on its hundreds of thousands of images of Indigenous Western Australians through the Storyline project of the State Library of Western Australia, step forward Damien Webb SLWA Community Liaison Officer (Indigenous Engagement). Next up I sort out Freopedia co-founder, former President of the Fremantle Society, professional photographer and former news photographer in Europe and Australia - Roel Loopers. The fourth person is Bob Litchfield, Master Photographer, prefessional photographer over 30 years also lecturer in photography at University of Western Australia and brand ambassador for Pentax Australia. At the end of May I went back to each of them personally and gave them the opportunity to withdraw because of the number of entries was nothing near what I had originally envisaged as the task ahead was more than what I would expect of volunteers to take on.

Off we start with the WLE jury tool I did a first past of the 4126 images eliminating those that didnt meet the basic criteria, that took me the best part of week to do. Setting for the next round of judging I found an error in the tool meaning that the first past images couldnt be carried forward after a number of unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue I had to abandon the tool and find an alternative solution. This process caused a lot of delays in the end I had to use just category tagging on Commons, so again I wade through the 4126 images except this time I also give a heavy assessment of the images visually and their chances of progressing into the final round. It's here I counter my first thought about the images I see so many good images but alot are very similar to each other after viewing a few like I notice that the image subject loses impact because they arent as unique as they could have been. Anyway I continue along ultimately I have a selection of 318 images for the final day of judging.

On the morning 11 July the four of us meet at the State Library of Western Australia ready to search for the final 10. We begin by a process of elimination looking more closely at the individual images what we note is that so many images had great potential but that they never achieved the potential because of poor or lack of cropping to focus on the point of interest, other were very flat with little contrast and lack of highlights. We were delighted with the diversity of images from Lord Howe Island to Tasmania to the Kimberley, from the peak of Mount Kosciuszko in winter to the depths of the Great Barrier reef. That diversity is reflected in the final ten images while will be submitted for judging in the international section all up the images are a truly amazing collection of images that showcase the diversity of this great land.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of Wiki Loves Earth in Australia without your input this wouldnt have happened. oops I almost forgot the work of Robert Myers who has been quietly working on commons improving the image descriptions and fixing other little bits like geocoding, its this gnome work that adds to the value of the collection.