Wiki loves monuments: 40k to go

 

 

Huis Landfort, in Oude IJsselstreek municipality

 

In September 2010, Wikimedia Nederland asked photograph enthusiasts to send pictures of rijksmonumenten, national monuments in the Netherlands. Uploading happened via flickr or directly to Wikipedia Commons. (Shortcut there: COM:WLM.)

September was chosen by the Dutch chapter because amidst September the foundation Open Monumentendag organizes a weekend when houses, castles and churches are open to the public.

235 different people uploaded, 207 on Commons, 28 on flickr. The latter is important, thus, but it does not attract such a huge number of (new) contributors as we may wish.

 

Church organ, from behind / above.

 

According to Andre Koopal, 12,227 pictures were uploaded that month to Commons, and 274 to flickr. 7,854 different objects were covered. This means, different objects in the register of the Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed (a national agency) that provided us with the basic data. An object may be an old church, and its church tower another object with a number of its own.

In Dutch Wikipedia, every article about a municipality links to an article ‘Lijst van rijksmonumenten in…’, and often to lists of monuments for parts of a municipality (when there are more than eight).  (Example.) We now have pictures of ca. 20k monuments, but the total number is 60k. So, 40k to go…

The worst coverage we have in the province of Flevoland, with 5 monuments on picture, out of 87 (5,75%). The best we are in Zuid-Holland, nearly 60% of the 8,966 monuments there.

The jury will need some time to find the best photographs…