Submissions/WikiAir Project

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2014 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no. 2528

Title of the submission

WikiAir Project

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Presentation

Author of the submission

Amos Meron

E-mail address

amoswikimedia.org.il

Username: Meronin

Country of origin: Israel

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Wikimedia Israel

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

WikiAir (VikiAvir in native Hebrew) is a collaborative project between Wikimedia Israel and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA Israel) aimed at creating a freely-licensed collection of aerial photos of Israel. As part of the project, civil aviators volunteer to take Wikipedians on their routine flights so they can take photos from the air and later on upload them to Wikimedia Commons, as well as integrate those photos into Wikipedia articles.

It took a while to get over bureaucracy, legal issues and even some AOPA politics to get the project started. We were able to have our pilot flight at the end of 2012 and regular flights began in May 2013. As of today (February 2014), we have 2,163 photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and around 300 Wikipedia articles illustrated with those photos (some of which previously didn’t have any photos). The project was voted by the participants of Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong (measured by decibels of applause) the coolest and most unique project of the year.

The session will include an introduction to the project and some lesson-learned that might be useful in creating similar collaborations around the world. With the help of the exposure of the project in Wikimania, this might be a starting point for other Wikimedia chapters and groups within the Wikimedia community to start a WikiAir in their own country or area.

Track

Legal & Free Culture

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

Kvardek du (talk) 21:55, 18 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Lionel Allorge (talk) 21:53, 24 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
NaBUru38 23:16, 25 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
~~Enock4seth (talk) 11:07, 23 May 2014 (UTC)~~[reply]
Add your username here.