Call for applications: Wiki Loves Africa competition on music and dance

To illustrate the theme, participants are required to contribute media material in form of photographs, videos, and sound files. In a further celebration of music from across Africa, the project is asking musicians to donate a track to the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist​.

Now in its third edition, the competition has opened for submissions; it closes on 31 January. Entries are welcome from anywhere in Africa and beyond. Specific actions, including training, photo-walks and upload events, are held in focus countries by national organisers. The competition will focus on ten countries namely Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

All entries to Wiki Loves Africa will be directly uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (a digital repository of the Wikimedia projects) with the intention to begin new articles on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The teams will also be working with existing photographic groups to encourage their members to use their photographic skills, learn about licensing and contributing media to Wikipedia, and win prizes.

Competition Rules:

Images submitted to the Wiki Loves Africa contest may win prizes. Participants should take note of the following rules:

• All photos must be taken by the person submitting them. They can be either self-uploaded or uploaded during a registered mass upload session.
• Uploading can only be done in January. Participants can however enter media that was taken at any time, even historical photographs (as long as the participant owns copyright on these photographs).
• Images must be free of watermarks or embedded signatures to be eligible. All entries will automatically be submitted under a free license such as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA 4.0) (or in the public domain). Read more about the cc-by-sa license here.
• All eligible pictures will be categorised under Images from Wiki Loves Africa, this will be automatically assigned during the upload process.
• Participants should enable e-mail on Wikimedia Commons so they can be contacted should their image be chosen for a prize.

Here are the four steps to follow when entering Wiki Loves Africa Music and Dance:

• Take some photos
• Select the best
• Create an account on Commons to take part. Register here.
• Use the Upload Wizard to enter the photographs.

The main prizes for the competition are first prize: ​US$600, second prize:​ US$400, third prize:​ US$200, Community prize:​ US$200 and the awesome prize:​ US$400.

In addition, each winner will also receive a year’s subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan, and a portable power pack. The first, second and third prizes will be selected by a jury of international Wikipedians and professional photographers. The Community Prize is chosen by the Wikipedia Community from the Jury’s short list. The Awesome Prize will be awarded for outstanding media contribution to the project, and will be chosen by the two organisers.

For the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist, the teams will partner with music and cultural organisations like Music in Africa and Goethe-Institut in each focus country to encourage the contribution of photographs, sound files and videos to Wikipedia during the competition. Musicians will be encouraged to release an example of their work under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 licence to be part of the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist.

For any English enquiries regarding this competition, please contact Isla Haddow-Flood on +27 76 077 3135 or email her isla@wikiloveswomen.org. French queries should be directed to Florence Devouard on +33 645 60 62 77 or email her on fdevouard@anthere.org.

For more information about this project, please click here.