Originally published at: Inside the Jury Room for Wiki Loves Africa – OEGlobal
I was honoured and excited last year to be invited by my colleague Isla Haddow-Flood to be one of the judges for the Wiki Loves Africa photography contest where the theme was all about food, from Farm to Table. Wiki Loves Africa is a monumental effort that elevates the visual representation of Africa people and…
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Right before I wrote this post, I did complete Round 2 of the judging process in the Montage tool. In this round, I was assigned around 320 photos that are presented one at a time.
The method in this round is a 1-5 rating of how good we feel the photos are in terms of composition/quality but also for it supporting the theme. while viewing the photo, I simply type the number for my rating, it registers and displays the next one. I can say I was able to go through these in about an hour, again, once I start I find a good rhythm, and I feel more consistent in doing them all at once.
I can see the photo quality and level of interestingness rises in round 2. I’d say maybe 50% of the photos I saw in round 1, so many feel new.
Looking forward to round 3.
This week was round three, and it too was a big challenge. All the voting members of the Jury were assigned the same 73 photos and we had to drag and move them around in order from our perspective from 1 to 73rd ranking.
It was a lot of work sliding the previews up and down the page, much less making the call for the top photos. There was a good number I had seen in rounds 1 and 2, but a few that were new.
The pool of photos are really good this year.
What are your thoughts fellow jury member @bdelosarcos ?? Was this one as hard as it felt to me?
The fourth and final round of reviews is done for the jury (this particular one getting done just at the deadline) and again was a joy as a serious challenge. In this assignment, we had to pick our favorites from 29 photos that made it to the final round (it is hard not to share any details!).
In this case, we received a link to a Google Sheet to copy, with a preview and links to the finalists. We are given 100 points to allocate across at least our top three rates photos, distributing the larges number for our 1st choice (no more than 50 points), then our second (no more than 35). We had the option to add comments.
I could not reduce my votes to 3 photos, so I spread my points across 6 photos. I included comments for more than my six as there were many striking images worth noting for their composition, storytelling, and just appeal.
I understand that the Wiki in Africa Team is now working to be able to announce the winners at Wikimania 2026, July 21-25 in Paris, stay tuned there for the big announcement.