2025:Program/Photo permissions for Muggles: creating efficient processes with VRT
Session title: Photo permissions for Muggles: creating efficient processes with VRT
- Session type: Workshop - 40 minutes
- Track: Partnerships
- Language: en
đ„ Session recording: https://w.wiki/F8cw đ„
Have you ever wondered how come Wikipedia does not have a picture of this or that really notable person? Or the picture we have is of a really poor quality?
Since December 2024 I have been on a personal #100photowikidays challenge of contacting at least one notable person per day to ask if they have a good picture of themselves to be released under a free licence. It was a condensed in time experiment to see if people who are not Wikimedians can follow our procedures â and my conclusion is â they cannot, and we should attempt to make changes on our end to have better pictures for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
Description
Since December 2024 I have been on a personal #100photowikidays challenge of contacting at least one notable person per day to ask if they have a good picture of themselves to be released under a free licence.
I have been involved in Wiki Loves Monuments in Ukraine since 2012, as getting pictures of the heritage felt like a very important task â they get destroyed, change etc. But it is also true of people, so I thought of reaching out to notable people themselves for them to connect me with a photographer they like to get permission to publish a picture of themselves they like. I started my challenge with reaching out to one of a russian prisoner of war who was then recently released, and I thought that though this was a longer way of doing thing than just contacting a photographer directly (like taking âa scenic routeâ, so to say) â this was also about dignity, as it allowed a person in question to select the picture they prefer, not me.
It does mean that by now I have communicated with at least 150-200 people (as you do need to also talk with the author and/or copyright holder of the picture itself), and there would be additional at least 50-100 people till the end of the challenge.
I have been contacting people and receiving permissions via VRT (Volunteer Response Team, formerly OTRS) since 2012, but this time it was a condensed in time experiment to see if people who are not Wikimedians can follow our procedures â and my conclusion is â they cannot, and we should attempt to make changes on our end to have better pictures for Wikipedia and other projects, and be respectful of the Biographies of Living People (BLP) resolution (stating that we should be âtreating any person who has a complaint about how they are portrayed in our projects with patience, kindness, and respect, and encouraging others to do the sameâ [1]), and not biased in how our media files portrays people we are writing about.
The session is aimed at talking through the issues of the existing processes, and brainstorming a set of solutions, so that interested communities can work on implementing them. People would be able also to learn how to replicate my project in their community / country.
Aims and objectives: participants learn how the photo submission process works now (if they do not know or are unsure of how it happens), and learn about insights and issues I have documented while implementing my projects. And they would take part in brainstorming how to improve the VRT processes, so we can have better pictures to illustrate our Wikipedias and other projects.
As a note: projects like WikiPortraits are very different in nature, and require having experienced/professional photographers, good equipment, and involve travelling. I was aiming to have a zero budget initiative.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Media_about_living_people [2] https://www.wikiportraits.org/
- How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 â Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
Having a more efficient and robust VRT process can be a way to both get good pictures and have a good outreach to our readers â if we can improve the experience people go through. We can have people reading our articles to help us, be a part of a solution. We can be more inclusive, if we show more respect to people we are writing about, and we can have bigger impact if we are believed to be more open to a dialogue. And we can be more sustainable over the years to come, if we do not have to rely only on getting good pictures only via grant supported projects or volunteers spending their own money to fund their trips or attending the events
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
Everyone can participate in this session
Resources
Speakers
- antanana
- Antanana (Nataliia Tymkiv) is a Ukrainian Wikipedia editor and administrator, member of Wikimedia Ukraine. She has been a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees since 2016, chairing it since 2021. She was a part of the Wiki Loves Earth international team, and organised Wikimedia CEE Meetings in 2014 and 2018 in Ukraine. Since 2013 she has been a member of Wiki Loves Monuments Ukraine organising team. From 2012 to 2016 served as a Board member of Wikimedia Ukraine, and as its volunteer Executive Director (2013-2015). An experienced editing workshop organiser, VRT agent