Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Art/US-UK/V&A rules

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Wikipedia Loves Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum is a free content photography contest organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Wikimedia UK and other Wikipedians. It is due to take place in February 2009 and is part of the wider Wikipedia Loves Art project that month.

The objective for the V&A is to compile a public digital collection of the major art pieces held at the museum. For Wikipedians, the objective is to collect images and use them to illustrate articles throughout Wikipedia.

V&A Information[edit]

General Guidelines[edit]

Shoot on your own or create a small team (10 people, tops) and sign-up online. Use the scavenger hunt list posted here to take shots and cross off as many subjects on the list as possible. Upload shots to the Wikipedia Loves Art group on Flickr with the correct Creative Commons license required by Wikipedia (either Attribution Creative Commons or Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons, see here for details) and we will tally the scores. Images uploaded to the Wikipedia Loves Art Flickr group be used to illustrate Wikipedia articles and you'll get full credit when an image is used. Teams with the most points at the end of the month will get a prize. Shots must be taken and uploaded during February 2009.

Specific Guidelines for Shooting at the V&A[edit]

Get This Number, Label Accession Number: "Every object in our galleries has a label where you'll find that object's accession number. Please make sure the number is clearly printed on the index card."
First Shot, Shot With Index: "First time photograph the object with an index card in the frame that displays the object's accession number, your team name, and category name so we can assign points. Please make sure the information on the card is clearly written. Please use a Sharpie marker or similar so we can read the card. Please note that when shooting with the index card, the card must be held and not set or attached to the wall or work of art's case or stand."
Second Shot, Clean Shot: "Second time shoot the object again, but this time without the card."

You are welcome to take photographs with flash (but no tripods) throughout the V&A, with the exception of the Raphael Cartoon Court and special exhibitions. As per the qualification guidelines, please do not shoot objects created after 1923.

We ask that you shoot each work twice. First time shoot the object with the museum label in the frame that displays the caption and object number so we can assign points. Second time shoot the object again, but this time without the label. Submit both shots to this group. V&A staff will use the information on the label to properly caption the image with the correct object information and credit line and the second, clean shot will then be used for Wikipedia.

Shots must be tagged VANDA and your.team.nam and category.name so we can easily sort them. V&A staff may add other tags as needed to help keep track during the hunt.

Questions? Contact Lorna V&A via Flickrmail.

Qualification Notes[edit]

1) Shots submitted must be licensed with the correct creative commons license required by Wikipedia. That's got to be either "Attribution Creative Commons" or "Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons". There is no resolution requirement.

2) You can only shoot works of art in the public domain, so as a general rule, only works of art created prior to 1923 will be able to qualify. However, copyright law will differ from country to country and there is no hard and fast rule. We recommend you contact the V&A if you have questions. Please note, if you happen to capture something that is not in the public domain you may be asked to remove it.

3) Images must be your own work, submitted by you.

4) You must register by signing up online.

5) In order to properly score everyone's entries administrators will be adding machine tags [they:look="like this"] to your photographs. So, please don't delete these tags, even if they look a little weird. Also, this means you need to have tagging turned ON in your Flickr account in order to qualify. To do this, go to your account settings, the privacy & permissions tab, and make sure "Add notes and tags:" is set to "Any Flickr user".

6) In order to properly score entries, the clean shot must be "public" on Flickr and in the Wikipedia Loves Art group. See this thread for more info.

Point Scoring[edit]

Score 1 point for each photograph submitted to a category. Multiple photographs can be submitted to a category as long as they represent different works of art (each photograph will earn you 1 point). At the close of the competition, User:Cary_Bass, from the Wikipedia Foundation, will assign bonus points for each photograph that he thinks is awesome. Remember, Wikipedia is looking for quantity and quality. See this thread for clarification.

Prizes[edit]

(Sponsored by Wikimedia UK): The photographer with the most points (who shot at the V&A) will win a prize to be announced from the V&A gift shop.

V&A's Scavenger Hunt List[edit]

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Art/V&A rules/list

What Wikipedia needs[edit]

General areas where Commons is very weak are:

  • Japanese Ceramics are bizarrely weak (Chinese and Korean are much better covered)
  • Islamic & Indian miniatures: Persian/Indian/Turkish
  • Indian sculpture
  • Medieval Treasury gallery
  • Furniture - often weak
  • Sculpture in general (no glass either, which makes life easier)
  • Old master prints (special access needed usually, but this is an ideal opportunity)
  • Generally out-of-copyright paintings are pretty well covered, thanks to Corel v Brightman. Unless specific artists are known to be weak, shooting these is unlikely to be very helpful frankly.
  • Generally 3-dimensional objects are much less well covered, and are outside the Corel v Brightman ruling, so the museum's own photos have a derivitive copyright belonging to the photographer/museum and cannot be used freely. Under UK Freedom of panorama law, if they are displayed publically in a museum, artist's copyright does not apply either (at least for works of sculpture).

Specific items:


How can I help?[edit]

We need your help as follows:

Before the event
  • If you can come to the museum during February to take photographs, please sign up at the participant list
  • Please nominate categories for the prizes (see below)
  • If you can think of any ways of publicising this event, please add your suggestions below
During February, in person
  • The event will be launched at the museum on Sunday 1st February; if you can spare even just half an hour that day, please come down and join in the project.
  • V&A are holding a brief launch event at 1pm at the main entrance to welcome everyone - but you can also turn up and start taking photos whenever you like!
  • If you can come down any other time during February, please come and take photgraphs. Have a look at this page to see what other people have done so far to cover the Gallery.
  • Once you have taken the photographs, please upload them to the Flickr group here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikipedia_loves_art_at_the_v_and_a/ using a license compatible with Wikipedia (preferably CC-BY-SA and please no "No-Derivs" or "Non-Commercial" as these aren't wikipedia compatible)
During February, online
  • help compile an index of the files uploaded
  • help identify articles that could use the uploaded files
  • once nominated files are agreed, transfer nominated files to Commons
  • add transferred files into relevant articles
  • nominate images for the prizes

List of participating Wikipedians[edit]

Wikipedia editors who will participate in this event can additionally sign below: