Britain Loves Wikipedia – ‘gives you wings’ – come join us at the Museum of Army Flying in Hampshire this weekend

Join Wikipedia in photographing and celebrating Britain’s cultural heritage in museums, galleries and archives nationwide

 ‘Britain Loves Wikipedia’ is a month-long  competition and series of events to be held in participating museums nationwide running from 31 January till the end of February 2010. People from all ages, backgrounds  and communities can take part in the competition, which encourages  the public to photograph the treasures of our nation’s museums and  galleries, actively involving them in digitally recording the  collections. All of the photos entered into the ‘Britain Loves  Wikipedia’ competition will be made available under a free license on  Wikimedia Commons, and can then be used to illustrate Wikipedia  articles.

This weekend, on the 6th/7th February, the Museum of Army Flying in Hampshire will be offering free entry to photographers as well as free tea or coffee, and will be allowing flash and tripod photography. For futher information please call 01264 784421and ask for information on the Wikimedia Photography Competition.

Join in by bringing your digital camera to any of the participating museums anytime during the month of February. Use the list of objects for inspiration and take your best shots of the museum’s collections. Enter your images in the competition anytime during the month with Wikimedia UK’s easy-to-use uploader. Prizes will be awarded for the best photos.

Chair of Wikimedia UK, Michael Peel, said, “Museum collections hold a  vast range of objects that have great cultural significance and  enhance our knowledge of our origins but are not as well covered on  Wikipedia as they deserve to be. With ‘Britain Loves Wikipedia’, we  hope to increase the number of photographs on Wikipedia for the world  to share, enjoy and learn from.”

Throughout February, you can visit the following museums to take part  in the Britain Loves Wikipedia competition:

     * Astley Hall, Chorley
     * Caithness Horizons, Thurso, Scotland
     * Ceredigion Museum, Wales
     * Horniman Museum, London
     * Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
     * National Football Museum, Preston
     * Old Operating Theatre, London
     * Royal Air Force Museum, London and Cosford.
     * Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum
     * ThinkTank Birmingham
     * Victoria and Albert Museum, London
     * Working Class Movement Library, Salford

Prizes include a WikiReader – a copy of the entire English Wikipedia  in your pocket. The best photograph from each RAF Museum site will  receive £100 worth of goods from the Museum’s shop. The best  photograph taken at The British Postal Museum & Archive’s Museum  Store will receive a trio of DVD box sets celebrating the work of the  acclaimed GPO Film Unit, valued at £75. More prizes will be announced  at the launch event on the 31st January.

Britain Loves Wikipedia is organized by Wikimedia UK in collaboration  with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Collections Trust,  Culture 24 and Museums Galleries Scotland.

Full information is  available at http://www.britainloveswikipedia.org/. An initial event  in February 2009 at the Victoria and Albert created over 300  photographs now available on Wikipedia. In June 2009, Wiki Loves Art  in The Netherlands created over 10,000 photographs taken at 46 Dutch  museums.

http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2010/01/britain-loves-wikipedia/