Commons:Commons Photographers User Group/Annual Report for 2022
The year 2022 was an incredibly busy year for the Commons Photographers User Group. We had more activities than at any point in the history of our group.
Most memorable shot 2021[edit]
As usual, the year started with Your most memorable shot 2021. This year, we had 25 Commons photographers (2021: 40) from all over the world sharing their special photo and story behind it. In their comments, many photographers pointed to the fact that 2021 was another difficult year for them. But despite the ongoing pandemic and the travel restrictions that came with it, people still had interesting photos to share.
Virtual meetings with presentations[edit]
In 2022, we had two virtual meetings with members' presentations via Zoom. The first one in June featured four speakers: OtuNwachinemere talked about "Photography in Nigeria", MB-one shared his insights on "Photographing vehicles", Alexis Lours presented about "Wildlife photography and citizen science", and Frank Schulenburg shared what he learned when he started printing his photos for the first time. The second Zoom call of the year took place in August. User group member Ziko presented about "Suitable! Unsuitable! How to choose photos for a Wikipedia for children, “Klexikon”", XRay talked about "The aperture and its (less known) effects", DarwIn shared his thoughts on "Copyright pecularities in the Lusophone world (and some cool sources of imagery & files for Commons)", and Filipinayzd provided a report about "Wiki Takes Nueva Caceres: a Commons Photographers User Group's Wikimania 2022 local event in the Philippines".
Open letter to the Wikimedia Foundation[edit]
A conversation among members of our group at the end of the second Zoom session sparked the idea to write an open letter to the Wikimedia Foundation. The writing of the letter and the coordination of the discussion about the document was led by Photographers user group member Ziko. Wikimedians were invited to sign the letter starting in mid October. By the end of the year, the letter titled "Think big!" had garnered 428 supporters.
Local events[edit]
Also in August, user group board members Shreya and Irvin organized two local events. Irvin led a gathering in the Philippines that targeted local photographers and photography enthusiasts in Naga City. After an introduction to Wikimedia Commons participants engaged in a photo walk within the city. Shreya organized an online event in India. Under the title "Wiki Commons: An Overview for Newbies" the event targeted engineering students, local photography club members. The online session provided an overview of Commons, its policies and explanations about how the site works. In order to keep track of local events, Frank created a new local events page where user group members can inform others about their activities.
Online training workshop[edit]
In October 2022, user group member XRay taught the basics of post processing to participants of an online training workshop. Shreya organized this workshop that covered topics like "How to organize photos", "Basic development techniques", and "Way of printing".
2023[edit]
- Your most memorable shot 2022 (January / February 2023)
- Women's Month Datathon on Commons: CIS-A2K & CPUG (21–31 March 2023)
Board meetings and reelections[edit]
During 2022, board members met five times via Zoom:
- Board meeting January 23, 2022
- Board meeting May 14, 2022
- Board meeting July 16, 2022
- Board meeting November 12, 2022
- Board meeting December 30, 2022
In December, the existing board asked all members for feedback on whether they should serve for another year. Based on the input from its members, it was decided to extend the board's term until December 2023.
Membership development[edit]
In 2022, our user group grew further. Between January and end of December, 20 new members joined our group.