Press:Wikimedia DC Launches Wikipedia Summer of Monuments Campaign

Three-month campaign to focus on improving coverage of American historic sites on Wikipedia, with cash prizes for the best submissions

July 1, 2014—Wikimedia DC is pleased to announce the launch of “Wikipedia Summer of Monuments”. We invite all photographers and historians, individuals and institutions, to join us in documenting the history of the United States by visiting summerofmonuments.org.

The campaign is focused on growing Wikipedia’s collection of photographs of National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) sites. Wikimedia DC operates a map tool that allows contributors to find NRHP sites in their neighborhood. Submissions can be uploaded through the map tool. The best three submissions will win cash prizes of $500, $300, and $150.

Wikimedia DC is also reaching out to cultural and historical institutions, especially in the American South, to share their large collections through mass uploading. These contributions promote the work of the institution and help to make these resources available to people around the world. The institution that submits the best collection will win a cash prize of $1,000. The project manager is available to travel as needed to help carry out mass-upload efforts.

The campaign is modeled after the “Wiki Loves Monuments” photography contests, held by Wikimedia DC in 2012 and 2013. The campaign also builds on Wikimedia DC’s successful outreach to GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) institutions. Major past initiatives include a donation of over 125,000 digitized records from the National Archives and Records Administration, which received over 1.2 billion hits on Wikimedia projects in 2013.

About Wikimedia DC: Wikimedia DC is an official affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation, serving Washington, D.C., and the surrounding states of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Delaware. A nonprofit educational organization, Wikimedia DC is dedicated to the advancement of general knowledge and the collection, development, and dissemination of educational content under a free license or in the public domain. Our projects seek to benefit Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, as well as other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. To learn more about Wikimedia District of Columbia, visit wikimediadc.org.

Contact: Leo Zimmermann, Project Manager, monuments@undefinedwikimediadc.org

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