Every year the Wikimedia Foundation runs Wiki Loves Monuments – the world’s largest photo competition. Throughout September there is a push to take good quality images of listed buildings and monuments and add them to Wiki Commons where they will be openly licensed and available for use across the world – they may end up featuring on Wikipedia pages, on Google, in research and presentations worldwide and will be entered into the UK competition where there are prizes to be had!
Below you’ll see a map covered in red and blue pins. These represent all of the listed buildings and monuments that are covered by the Wiki Loves Monuments competition, blue pins are places that already have a photograph and red pins have no photograph at all. The aim of the campaign is to turn as many red pins blue as possible, greatly enhancing the amazing bank of open knowledge across the Wikimedia platforms.
The University of Stirling sits within the black circle. The two big clusters of red pins on the map are Stirling and Bridge of Allan – right on your doorstep! We encourage you to explore your local area. Knowing your surroundings, finding hidden gems and learning about the history of the area will all help Stirling feel like home to you, whether you’re a first year or returning student.
Of course, this year we must be cautious and safe while taking part in this campaign and you should follow social distancing rules and all government coronavirus guidelines, such as wearing facemasks where appropriate, while you are out taking photographs. We encourage you to walk to locations you wish to photograph, or use the NextBikes which are situated on campus and in Stirling rather than take excessive public transport purely for the purposes of this project. Walking and cycling will help you to get a better sense of where everything is in relation to where you live and keeping active is beneficial to your mental health and wellbeing.
We hope you’ll join us for this campaign – we have a session planned for 4-5pm on Thursday 17th September on Teams where we’ll tell you more about Wiki Loves Monuments and show you how to upload your images. Sign up to the session on Eventbrite.
If you cannot make our own University of Stirling session then Wikimedia UK have their own training session on the 21st September which you can join.
Please note that if you want your photographs to be considered for the competition prizes then they must be submitted before midnight on the 30th September. Photographs in general can be added at any time so you can carry on exploring for as long as you like!
Finally, just to add a little incentive, this year we’re having a friendly competition between the University of Stirling and the University of St Andrews students to see who can make the most edits so come along to a training session, pick up some brilliant digital skills and let’s paint the town green!
