Free Culture @ NYU

Wikipedia Takes Manhattan!

Thursday, 04.03.2008  –  Category: Events & Recaps

On Friday, April 4th, rain or shine, join Free Culture @ NYU and Free Culture @ Columbia on a quest to get the best shots of NYC. Bring your camera and a way to get around town for the biggest scavenger hunt in Free Culture’s history.Each member of the winning team will receive an iPod shuffle loaded with Creative Commons music! Second and third place teams will win copies of “Wikipedia, The Missing Manual” donated by O’Reilly.

All photos will be uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons for inclusion into Wikipedia articles about NYC that need photos. We’ve got hundreds of locations, sites, and things to document for Wikipedia and it should be a really fun day.

YOU MUST REGISTER HERE AND SHOW UP:
NYU
Friday, April 4th
12pm until 7pm
Union Square Whole Foods, Café on the 2nd Floor, Northeast corner.
SUBMIT PHOTOS: 10:30pm-11pm

OR

Columbia
Friday, April 4th
11:30am
The Sundial
(free bagels)

Rules for Participation:

1. Please use one memory card per team.
2. Please start with an empty memory card.
3. Index Cards:
   1. You will be given a handful of index cards
   2. Bring a pen or marker to write with
   3. Please take a “context shot” before every target location
      1. Context shot: photo of you holding the index card (with the location number written on it) in front of the target location
4. List of locations visited:
   1. Please put a check next to each location on the target sheet as you photograph it
5. Helpful tips:
   1. Keep photos in focus and avoid shadows
   2. Show the whole subject in one shot, if possible; avoid cutting off tops of buildings.
   3. Avoid having yourself or your friend in your photos
6. Finished taking pictures?
   1. Columbia Campus:
      1. Please bring your memory card and this handout to the lobby of Lerner Hall to submit your photos.
      2. Lerner is located at Broadway and 115th St. (Note: you should enter from campus, not from Broadway.)
   2. NYU Campus:
      1. Please submit your photos between 10:30pm-11pm at the Union Square Whole Foods, Café on the 2nd Floor, Northeast corner.

Code of conduct:

• Respecting personality rights: You should not make persons on the street the focus of your photographs, without their permission. If someone is in the background, or part of a crowd, or happens to be standing in front of a building in an inconspicuous way, it’s OK. But, you shouldn’t focus on an individual.
• Respecting the rights of artists: Artists have the right to restrict photography of their artwork, such as public statues (this does not apply to architecture, for which there exists a “freedom of panorama” exception under US law). Don’t photograph copyrighted public art (created after 1923). If it is necessary to include public art in the frame to photograph something else, the public art should not be the focus of the photograph.
• Respecting the rights of property owners: Property owners have the right to restrict you from taking a photograph while standing on their property. But, you can take any photograph as long as you are standing on public property. If someone asks you to stop, stop.
• Respecting the police: If the police ask you to stop, stop.

Ending party and prizes:

The ending party will be held in the J.D. Satow Room (5th Floor, Lerner Hall at Columbia) at 11:30 PM. If you do not have a Columbia ID and are not on the list of registered participants, please contact Nick or Boris (phone numbers below) Each member of the first place team will get an iPod Shuffle packed with Creative Commons licensed music. Other prizes include copies of the newly-published Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, generously donated by O’Reilly Media, barnstars and frisbees. Questions? Call: Nick at (610) 348-7428 or Boris at (732) 476-784