Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2023/Jury process
Over the last 8 years, the Wiki Loves Africa team has finely tuned the international jury process. Below, will give you insight into how the selection goes from thousands of images to 5-6 special winners.
The Jury process for the Wiki Loves Africa competition is elaborate and complex, as with all international photographic competitions. The process is sectioned into the efforts that are explained below. Please note that there are three separate, unrelated judging elements
- the national juries, and
- the international jury for photo prizes
- another international jury for audio/video prizes
The national juries select images from their country categories to review and reward. The international jury process is entirely separate, with all images being reviewed, and a select few making the short list and final cut. We do not rely on the national teams or juries for their selections. This is intentional and due to the fact that not every country that contributes has a national team or jury process.
Image Checking[edit]
First, there is an initial effort during the competition timeframe and the month after to ensure that all images are categorised properly and are vetted for copyvios and other issues. This process is undertaken by a few dedicated and tireless Wikimedia Commons contributors who are incredible (thank you!). You can see the range of the work at this year's Image checking page.
National jury process[edit]
National organising teams select their own juries. Guidance with regards to this process is supplied in the National Judging Charter, however the management and organisation - and final results - are entirely independent of the International team. You can view the national winners here.
International Jury process[edit]
- See also Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2023/jury
The international jury is a made up of professional photographers and committed Wikimedia Commons contributors.
This year’s jury was collaboratively compiled and arranged by Wilson and Nonny. The process is conducted on Montage and has two specific sequential parts.
- First Review Team
Once the images have all been checked, a call is put out to the Wiki Loves Africa organising community and on Wikimedia Commons for volunteers to do a first pass. As over 80% of contributors to the competition are new Wikimedians, a wide variety of images that are uploaded are not suitable or eligible for the contest. These range from not being relevant to the theme to selfies and everything in between. The first review team this year amounted to 36 reviewers, the list is here.
- International Jury Team
For the International Jury this year we have been cognizant of bringing together a team that honors the range of diversity that we value as a project. A balance was sought between several sometimes-conflicting criteria: Wikimedia Commons contributors and professionals, Africa-based and global, male or female. This year, we feel that the balance has been found. We are grateful to all the members, new and experienced, for bringing their expert eyes to choose the best of the best.
- First review 2023
This year, we again asked the community to participate in a clean up of the images submitted to Wiki Loves Africa 2023. The call for First reviewers went out in mid-April.
The aim of the First Review round is to reduce submitted images to a manageable number for a more in-depth selection by the international jury. The First Review Team chose yes (to keep) or no (to drop) each image assigned to them according to the following criteria:
- Images must be relevant to the theme.
- The obvious quality of the image - is it obviously blurred, pixellated, etc.
- The deletion of any selfies, very small images or blurred and unclear works.
International audio/video jury process[edit]
This year, due to the number of quality audio and video submissions, we constituted this new jury category to help select winning submissions in the audio and video categories. The jury was compiled and arranged by Wilson and Isla.
To be completed