Edit 2019/Taking Wiki Loves Monuments in the US to the Next Level: 2024/Main Page

This submission has been accepted for WikiConference North America 2019.

Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual international photo competition that lasts through September. Each year, thousands of individuals around the world upload tens of thousands of photos of local historical and heritage sites to the Wikimedia Commons, which have helped illustrate thousands of Wikipedia articles.

The United States has participated in Wiki Loves Monuments in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. However, the contest has remained fairly static with no major changes happening in the last few years. Given 2019's slow down in participation, the question is: how do we take the U.S. competition to the next level?

This session will start with a quick overview of the contest and how it works (~10 minutes). After that, we'll dive into a workshop to discuss the following ways to advance the competition, and how we can get individuals and local user groups involved in the process.

• Historic sites on Wikidata let us do awesome visualization and discover, such as the Wiki Loves Monuments Map that lets people find NRHP sites on an interactive map. The next step is to get historical sites on state registries onto Wikidata to enable the same level of discovery. How can we do this efficiently for up to 50 states? Can we delegate individuals and user groups to cover various regions?
• On the English Wikipedia, we have lists of historic sites on various historic listings (e.g. United States National Register of Historic Places listings and List of California Historical Landmarks). Tons of states have their own historic listings, but lack lists on Wikipedia.
• How can we promote the event on a local level? There are thousands of historical organizations throughout the U.S., including local historical societies,
• What exciting sub-contests can we have to excite participants and bring new types of submissions?
  • Ideas include: best panoramas, best photos of Native American sites, best photos taken by unmanned aerial vehicle.