This paper (first reference) is the result of a class project I was part ofalmost two years ago for CSCI 5417 Information Retrieval Systems. It buildson a class project I did in CSCI 5832 Natural Language Processing and whichI presented at Wikimania '07. The project was very late as we didn't sendthe final paper in until the day before new years. This technical report wasnever really announced that I recall so I thought it would be interesting tolook briefly at the results. The goal of this paper was to break articlesdown into surface features and latent features and then use those to studythe rating system being used, predict article quality and rank results in asearch engine. We used the [[random forests]] classifier which allowed us toanalyze the contribution of each feature to performance by looking directlyat the weights that were assigned. While the surface analysis was performedon the whole english wikipedia, the latent analysis was performed on thesimple english wikipedia (it is more expensive to compute). = Surfacefeatures = * Readability measures are the single best predictor of qualitythat I have found, as defined by the Wikipedia Editorial Team (WET). The[[Automated Readability Index]], [[Gunning Fog Index]] and [[Flesch-KincaidGrade Level]] were the strongest predictors, followed by length of articlehtml, number of paragraphs, [[Flesh Reading Ease]], [[Smog Grading]], numberof internal links, [[Laesbarhedsindex Readability Formula]], number of wordsand number of references. Weakly predictive were number of to be's, numberof sentences, [[Coleman-Liau Index]], number of templates, PageRank, numberof external links, number of relative links. Not predictive (overall - seethe end of section 2 for the per-rating score breakdown): Number of h2 orh3's, number of conjunctions, number of images*, average word length, numberof h4's, number of prepositions, number of pronouns, number of interlanguagelinks, average syllables per word, number of nominalizations, article age(based on page id), proportion of questions, average sentence length. :*Number of images was actually by far the single strongest predictor of anyclass, but only for Featured articles. Because it was so good at picking outfeatured articles and somewhat good at picking out A and G articles theclassifier was confused in so many cases that the overall contribution ofthis feature to classification performance is zero. :* Number of externallinks is strongly predictive of Featured articles. :* The B class is highlydistinctive. It has a strong "signature," with high predictive valueassigned to many features. The Featured class is also very distinctive. F, Band S (Stop/Stub) contain the most information. :* A is the least distinct class, not being very different from F or G. =Latent features = The algorithm used for latent analysis, which is ananalysis of the occurence of words in every document with respect to thelink structure of the encyclopedia ("concepts"), is [[Latent DirichletAllocation]]. This part of the analysis was done by CS PhD student PrafulMangalath. An example of what can be done with the result of this analysisis that you provide a word (a search query) such as "hippie". You can thenlook at the weight of every article for the word hippie. You can pick thearticle with the largest weight, and then look at its link network. You canpick out the articles that this article links to and/or which link to thisarticle that are also weighted strongly for the word hippie, while alsocontributing maximally to this articles "hippieness". We tried this query inour system (LDA), Google (site:en.wikipedia.org hippie), and the SimpleEnglish Wikipedia's Lucene search engine. The breakdown of articles occuringin the top ten search results for this word for those engines is: * LDAonly: [[Acid rock]], [[Aldeburgh Festival]], [[Anne Murray]], [[CarlRadle]], [[Harry Nilsson]], [[Jack Kerouac]], [[Phil Spector]], [[PlasticOno Band]], [[Rock and Roll]], [[Salvador Allende]], [[Smothers brothers]],[[Stanley Kubrick]]. * Google only: [[Glam Rock]], [[South Park]]. * Simpleonly: [[African Americans]], [[Charles Manson]], [[Counterculture]], [[Druguse]], [[Flower Power]], [[Nuclear weapons]], [[Phish]], [[Sexualliberation]], [[Summer of Love]] * LDA & Google & Simple: [[Hippie]],[[Human Be-in]], [[Students for a democratic society]], [[Woodstockfestival]] * LDA & Google: [[Psychedelic Pop]] * Google & Simple: [[Lysergicacid diethylamide]], [[Summer of Love]] ( See the paper for the articlesproduced for the keywords philosophy and economics ) = Discussion /Conclusion = * The results of the latent analysis are totally up to yourperception. But what is interesting is that the LDA features predict the WETratings of quality just as well as the surface level features. Both featuresets (surface and latent) both pull out all almost of the information thatthe rating system bears. * The rating system devised by the WET is notdistinctive. You can best tell the difference between, grouped together,Featured, A and Good articles vs B articles. Featured, A and Good articlesare also quite distinctive (Figure 1). Note that in this study we didn'tlook at Start's and Stubs, but in earlier paper we did. :* This isinteresting when compared to this recent entry on the YouTube blog. "FiveStars Dominate Ratings"http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-stars-dominate-ratings.html…I think a sane, well researched (with actual subjects) rating systemiswell within the purview of the Usability Initiative. Helping people find andcreate good content is what Wikipedia is all about. Having a solid ratingsystem allows you to reorganized the user interface, the Wikipedianamespace, and the main namespace around good content and bad content asneeded. If you don't have a solid, information bearing rating system youdon't know what good content really is (really bad content is easy to spot).:* My Wikimania talk was all about gathering data from people about articlesand using that to train machines to automatically pick out good content. Youask people questions along dimensions that make sense to people, and givethe machine access to other surface features (such as a statistical measureof readability, or length) and latent features (such as can be derived fromdocument word occurence and encyclopedia link structure). I referenced page262 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to give an example of thekind of qualitative features I would ask people. It really depends on whatfeatures end up bearing information, to be tested in "the lab". Each word isan example dimension of quality: We have "*unity, vividness, authority,economy, sensitivity, clarity, emphasis, flow, suspense, brilliance,precision, proportion, depth and so on.*" You then use surface and latentfeatures to predict these values for all articles. You can also say, when aperson rates this article as high on the x scale, they also mean that it hashas this much of these surface and these latent features.= References = - DeHoust, C., Mangalath, P., Mingus., B. (2008). *Improving search in Wikipedia through quality and concept discovery*. Technical Report.PDF<http://grey.colorado.edu/mediawiki/sites/mingus/images/6/68/DeHoustMangalat…> - Rassbach, L., Mingus., B, Blackford, T. (2007). *Exploring the feasibility of automatically rating online article quality*. Technical Report. PDF<http://grey.colorado.edu/mediawiki/sites/mingus/images/d/d3/RassbachPincock…>
Hoi,I have asked and received permission to forward to you all this mostexcellent bit of news.The linguist list, is a most excellent resource for people interested in thefield of linguistics. As I mentioned some time ago they have had a fundingdrive and in that funding drive they asked for a certain amount of money ina given amount of days and they would then have a project on Wikipedia tolearn what needs doing to get better coverage for the field of linguistics.What you will read in this mail that the total community of linguists areasked to cooperate. I am really thrilled as it will also get us morelinguists interested in what we do. My hope is that a fraction will beinterested in the languages that they care for and help it become morerelevant. As a member of the "language prevention committee", I love to getmore knowledgeable people involved in our smaller projects. If it means thatwe get more requests for more projects we will really feel embarrassed withall the new projects we will have to approve because of the quality of theIncubator content and the quality of the linguistic arguments why we shouldapprove yet another language :)NB Is this not a really clever way of raising money; give us this much inthis time frame and we will then do this as a bonus...Thanks, GerardM---------- Forwarded message ----------From: LINGUIST Network <linguist(a)linguistlist.org>Date: Jun 18, 2007 6:53 PMSubject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia VolunteersTo: LINGUIST(a)listserv.linguistlist.orgLINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831. Mon Jun 18 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia VolunteersModerators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar(a)linguistlist.org> Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry(a)linguistlist.org>Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project <reviews(a)linguistlist.org>Homepage:http://linguistlist.org/The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University,and donations from subscribers and publishers.Editor for this issue: Ann Sawyer <sawyer(a)linguistlist.org>================================================================To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form athttp://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html===========================Directory==============================1)Date: 18-Jun-2007From: Hannah Morales < hannah(a)linguistlist.org >Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:49:35From: Hannah Morales < hannah(a)linguistlist.org >Subject: Wikipedia VolunteersDear subscribers,As you may recall, one of our Fund Drive 2007 campaigns was called the"Wikipedia Update Vote." We asked our viewers to consider earmarking theirdonations to organize an update project on linguistics entries in theEnglish-language Wikipedia. You can find more background information on thisat:http://linguistlist.org/donation/fund-drive2007/wikipedia/index.cfm.The speed with which we met our goal, thanks to the interest and generosityofour readers, was a sure sign that the linguistics community was enthusiasticabout the idea. Now that summer is upon us, and some of you may have a bitmoreleisure time, we are hoping that you will be able to help us get started ontheWikipedia project. The LINGUIST List's role in this project is a purelyorganizational one. We will:*Help, with your input, to identify major gaps in the Wikipedia materials orpages that need improvement;*Compile a list of linguistics pages that Wikipedia editors have identifiedas"in need of attention from an expert on the subject" or " does not cite anyreferences or sources," etc;*Send out periodical calls for volunteer contributors on specific topics orarticles;*Provide simple instructions on how to upload your entries into Wikipedia;*Keep track of our project Wikipedians;*Keep track of revisions and new entries;*Work with Wikimedia Foundation to publicize the linguistics community'sefforts.We hope you are as enthusiastic about this effort as we are. Just to help usallget started looking at Wikipedia more critically, and to easily identify anareaneeding improvement, we suggest that you take a look at the List ofLinguistspage at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguists. MMany people are not listed there; others need to have more facts andinformationadded. If you would like to participate in this exciting update effort,pleaserespond by sending an email to LINGUIST Editor Hannah Morales athannah(a)linguistlist.org, suggesting what your role might be or whichlinguisticsentries you feel should be updated or added. Some linguists who saw ourcampaignon the Internet have already written us with specific suggestions, which wewillshare with you soon.This update project will take major time and effort on all our parts. Theendresult will be a much richer internet resource of information on the breadthanddepth of the field of linguistics. Our efforts should also stimulateprospectivestudents to consider studying linguistics and to educate a wider public onwhatwe do. Please consider participating.Sincerely,Hannah MoralesEditor, Wikipedia Update ProjectLinguistic Field(s): Not Applicable-----------------------------------------------------------LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831
When you're running an event, sometimes you want to help lots of peoplecreate accounts on Wikimedia sites. To prevent spamming/vandalism,ordinarily there's a cap on the number of accounts that can be createdfrom one IP address in a single day. But there's a way to ask for atemporary removal of that restriction. The Foundation's Maggie Dennishas written a quick HOWTO:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/How_to_request_lift_of_an_IP_capand so please feel free to link to it in your outreach HOWTOs, eventplanning checklists, and so on. Thanks, Maggie!-- Sumana HarihareswaraEngineering Community ManagerWikimedia Foundation
Here's an opinion piece, "The Problem with Wikidata", by Mark Graham, who "is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute," which appears on The Atlantic's website. I'm not personally supporting or opposing his views but I found this to be an interesting read.http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-problem-with-wiki…
Dear all,I was the [[:m:User:555]], mainly active on the last years of my volunteersactions on Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource. I've left the Wikimediaprojects mainly because the lack of energy from my side to keep trying toget free time to work in projects fully neglected by the Wikimedia staff,developers team and some volunteers in the core of the Foundaction acts.A friend told me about thehttp://labs.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/ . I'vecheckedhttp://labs.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:SiteMatrixand...surprise! no Wikisource wikis with blue color links! I asked myselfrandom things about the [[bug:21653]] lasted for 26 months until getsPARTIALLY fixed and decided to check some 'Recent changes' pages and foundthis:http://pt.wikisource.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=233269Come on guys! What is the point to run a bot spamming on all wikis if thetests are only to the Wikipedias? Attempt of a 'politically correct' actionto these worse guys from others projects get's 'socially included'? Like inthe real life, those worse guys aren't in need of assistencialism [1]actions...Well, I don't expect any change on the Wikipediocentric actions in short,medium or long time (in fact the Foundation and some local chapters aretrying to make things for the Wikimedia Commons project, but only becausethat project is the central media source for Wikipedias), this was only amutter.Despite my apparently hatred on this message, I really hope that the 3-4extensions only enabled on Wikisources wikis don't get's any aditional bugsthan the current ones in the new version of MediaWiki in the same intensitythat your guys hopes that focusing in a project that only describes theknowledge in an encyclopedic way fully meets thehttp://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mission_statement[1] - wow, a concept from social sciences yet not defined neither onen.wikpedia or en.wiktionary? O_OAs on all of my previous messages, sorry for my limited English skills.Best regards,[[:m:User:555|Lugusto]]
Hi all,we are about to prepare the April issue of the monthly WikimediaHighlights (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights ),which as usual combines a few of the most notable aspects of theWikimedia Foundation report and the Wikimedia engineering report witha brief selection of other important events in the Wikimedia movement.For the latter part, suggestions are welcome athttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_ite…until this Saturday, as are comments on the existing suggestions:*Israel edit-a-thon*Oregon Archives mass upload*Monmouthpedia Charles Rolls Challenge concluded*CCCB workshop*Wikipedians in Residence updates?*Tamil contest*HighBeam collaborationA main purpose of the format is to reach those Wikimedians who don'tfollow international movement news regularly (for example, don't readthis mailing list), in particular for language reasons. All items arekept brief and limited in number - in the movement news section tothree to five - so as to facilitate translations and avoid TLDR. TheHighlights are regularly translated into up to 12 languages, the lastedition into Russian, Dutch, Macedonian, Italian, French, Arabic andDanish.-- Tilman BayerMovement CommunicationsWikimedia FoundationIRC (Freenode): HaeB
-------- Original-Nachricht --------Betreff: Report to Board: Chinese Internet Research ConferenceDatum: Sun, 27 May 2012 18:07:54 +0200Von: Ting Chen <tchen(a)wikimedia.org>An: Board list <board-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>Hello dear all,at Mai 21st and 22nd I attended the 10. Chinese Internet ResearchConference at the University of Southern California and this is myreport on this conference.At the begin of the year Andrew Lih, who as you know is maybe one of thefirst researchers who took Wikipedia as a research topic and certainly alongtime Wikimedian, asked me if I can give a keynote on the 10. ChineseInternet Research Conference that he was organizing. And I said yes. Hewanted me to talk about the Chinese Wikipedia, which is a relativelyeasy topic for me.The first CIRC took place in USC and this is their anniversary and itagain went to USC. It was organized by the Annenberg School forCommunication and Journalism. Andrew is currently an assistant professorthere. There were about 150 attendees of the conference from all arroundthe world. According to Andrew the number of attendees vary in theyears. Last year for example there were only 50 attendees and this yearthere were more than 100. The attendees are mostly researchers, souniversity professors, doctoral and graduate students, and a fewjournalists.The topics of the conference can mainly be grouped in two: The influenceof internet on chinese politics and the situation of less previlegedpeoples and their use of internet in China. On the first topic there area lot of papers about the microblogging [1]: The community, theinfluence of the microblogging on the politics (especially on thecurrent events), how the government and the party regulate themicroblogging, how they use microblogging as an instrument forthemselves, etc. On the second topic there were a handful papers onfield studies about the use of internet by the migrant workers, and howinternet influenced their work and life, and studies about the use ofinternet in the rural areas of China in different provinces.To my surprise the papers are all very bold and direct in internetcensoring and GFW (Great Firewall). Before I planned my speech I askedAndrew if I should mention the blocking and he said yes, and itsinfluence on the project. I was a little skeptical because meanwhile allWikipedians I know in China were visited by the National Security there.So in my presentation I didn't mention blocking directly by said that wehad connectivity problems. But actually almost all papers on the firsttopic mentioned censoring and blocking and deleting of blog entries assuch. Some of the papers have these topics as their main research area.There were no paper about Wikipedia (my speech doesn't count), but allattendees I spoke with use Wikipedia, independant of where they live andwork (US, the Netherlands, France, Singapur, mainland China, Hongkongand Taiwan). To my surprise most of them don't know that we are anonprofit organization. There were a few questions about if we payGoogle to get a high ranking.My speech was the closing speech of the conference. I organized it inthree sections: A brief history of the chinese Wikipedia, the currentstate of the project and what we can offer researchers and howresearchers can help us.There were two high-lights for me personally on this conference. One isthat I met our Advisory Board member Jing Wang [2] there. When we meteach other two years ago in Gdansk Jing just started her work on herproject NGC 2.0 in China and she told me that she is very successful inthe last two years. Her work there is concentrating on bringing thelocal NGOs (mostly not registered as organizations, but more grassrootgroups) and enterprices together so that entrepreneurs who want to fundcharitable works and NGOs who do social works can find each other. Inher opinion the central government is more open and progressive then theprovincial and local governments. She experiences more troubles with theprovincial governments than the central gorvernment (which she stated isvery supportive to her work). She believes that between the two thereare a lot of room and freedom which one can use and thinks that the artto work in China is to explore that room and freedom. She repeated thatwe should try to get our chance there. She expressed her sorry about notbe able to attend Wikimania this year because at that time she will bein China again, and not be abled to do any work for the Foundationbecause she is so busy.The other high-light for me I had already mailed you. It was the keynotespeech by Jenova Chen [3]. Jenova is a game designer and some of themost remarkable games he designed were Flow [4], Flower [5] and Journey[6]. Especially the design principle of Journey impressed me most. SoJenova said in online games in most cases gamers try to kill each otheror try to group with each other to kill something. And he thought thisis a very poor social interaction. He thinks that most games exploreonly one emotion: the power, to be a superhero is in most cases themotive of a game. But the human emotion is more complex. To be able toexplore and induce the complex emotion of an attendee for example is thedifference between a good movie and a bad movie, or a good book and abad book. He thinks that the emotion of want to be powerful is a veryadolescent one, that is why most mature adults won't play games anymore, because they are beyond that level of emotion. So he has twodesign principles, the first one is to explore the emotionalpossibilities of a game. The second one is the to create a specialenvironment of communication between the gamers. He says that internet(game, forums, Twitter, whatever<and I can add mailing-list, talk pagesand villege pumps>) are mostly hostile. And he wanted to create anenvironment where gamers can interact with each other, but don't havethe possibility to be hostile to each other. So for example by designingJourney he decided to not give the gamers the possibility to chat witheach other, but only to interact with each other in a non verbal way.When he was talking I could not help as to think about Wikipedians andhow they interact with each other. Naturally, language is the essentialof our projects we cannot avoid Wikipedians talking with each other. Butthen again, people always thought that games can only be successful ifthey are violent, and Jenova proved that this is not the case. And whathis speech told me is, even when we always think that something have tobe done in a certain way and only in that way, there are always chancesto explore other possibilities. And we should not stop to think aboutthose trying and being innovative, and being innovative in anunconventional way.This is why I think we should invite him as a keynote speaker ofWikimania, or at least for the staff retreat. And why I was so excitedafter his speech that I mailed you immediately.GreetingsTingReferences:[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging_in_China[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jing_Wang[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenova_Chen[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28video_game%29[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_%28video_game%29[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_%282012_video_game%29
(This release is also posted athttps://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimania_comes_to_Wash…)*Wikimania, the global Wikimedia/Wikipedia conference, comes to Washington,DC, July 12-14, 2012*WASHINGTON, DC -- May 30, 2012 -- Wikimania 2012 is coming to Washington,DC, this summer. Wikimania has been, since 2005, the premier annualinternational gathering of the Wikimedia community, including experts,academics, and enthusiasts whose vision is to empower people around theworld through free access to global knowledge. Wikimania has beenpreviously held in Frankfurt, Germany; Boston, Mass.; Taipei, Taiwan;Alexandria, Egypt; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gdańsk, Poland; and Haifa,Israel. Expected attendance this year is 1000+ global participants.*WIKIMANIA’S OPENING SESSION*On July 12, Wikimania’s opening session will feature Mary Gardiner,co-founder of the Ada Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated toincreasing participation among women in open technology and culture; andJimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopediawith over 21million articles in 285 languages.*WIKIMANIA PROGRAM*The theme this year is “Explore. Engage. Empower.” More than 100presentations out of 400 global submissions have been selected.Presentations are divided into five categories: Wikis, Collaboration, andthe Public Sector; GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, & Museums);Culture & Community; Research, Analysis, and Education; and Technology &Infrastructure. More information is available atwww.wikimania2012.org.*WHERE*George Washington University, Foggy Bottom CampusPlenary Sessions: Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St NWBreakout Sessions: Marvin Center, 800 21st St NW*WHEN*Wikimania Hackathon: July 10-11,Conference: July 12-14,Unconference: July 15*PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS*Wikimania 2012 is organized by Wikimedia District of Columbia inpartnership with the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland.Collaborators for Wikimania 2012 include the US Department of State, Officeof eDiplomacy; the Library of Congress; and the Broadcasting Board ofGovernors.*SPONSORS*Wikimania 2012 is sponsored by Google,Ask.com, Wikia, WikiHow, The SaylorFoundation, The Lounsbery Foundation, and the Encyclopedia of Life. IreneLynch, a 78-year-old great grandmother from New Jersey, is also a sponsor.*PRESS PASSES*Press passes are available. Journalists interested in obtaining PressCredentials should contact press(a)wikimediadc.org.*About Wikimedia DC*http://wikimediadc.org/ <http://http//wikimediadc.org/>Wikimedia District of Columbia is the official regional chapter of theWikimedia Foundation in the District, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,and Delaware. A non-profit educational organization, Wikimedia DC isdedicated to the advancement of general knowledge and the collection,development, and dissemination of educational content under a free licenseor in the public domain.*About the Wikimedia Foundation*http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.orgThe Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operatesWikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundationreceive more than 473 million unique visitors per month, making them thefifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, April 2012).Available in 282 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 millionarticles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is anaudited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations andgrants.***Press contact*Nicholas Michael BashourPhone: (313) 377-4589, press(a)wikimediadc.org_______________________________________________Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l:https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l_______________________________________________WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing listWikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.orghttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Dear Wikimedians,Wikimedia Commons is happy to announce that the 2011 Picture of the Yearcompetition is now open at last. We're interested in your opinion as towhich images qualify to be the Picture of the Year for 2011 (not for 2012).Any user registered at Commons or a Wikimedia wiki SUL-related to Commonswith more than 75 edits before 1 April 2012 (UTC) is welcome to vote. Checkyour eligibilitynow<http://toolserver.org/%7Epathoschild/accounteligibility/?user=&wiki=&event=…>! If you meet the criteria, you are eligible to vote.Nearly 600 images that have been rated Featured Pictures by theinternational Wikimedia Commons community in the past year are all enteredin this competition. From professional animal and plant shots tobreathtaking panoramas and skylines, restorations of historically relevantimages, images portraying the world's best architecture, maps, emblems,diagrams created with the most modern technology, and impressive humanportraits, Commons features pictures of all flavors.For your convenience, we have sorted the images into topic categories. Tworounds of voting will be held: In the first round, you can vote for as manyimages as you like. The first round the top 32 images , by number of votes,from any category will go to the final round - the categories areirrelevant when it comes to counting the votes. If no picture of one topiccategory is not in the top 32s, that will be also promoted to the Final toguarantee a diverse final. In the final round, when a limited number ofimages are left, you must decide on the one image that you want to becomethe Picture of the Year.To see the candidate images just go to:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2011/GalleriesWikimedia Commons is interested in hearing your opinions on our featuredimages of 2011. The deadline for first round voting is 2012-06-04 at 23:59(UTC).Thanks,Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year committeehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:POTY/2011