Identified the best illustrations of Wikipedia 2006

The final vote at the Commons Picture of the Year 2006 ( POTY 2006 ) contest ended , in which members of the Wikimedia media repository community selected the best, in their opinion, illustrations from those added in 2006.

Since its birth in September 2004, the Wikimedia Commons media archive (or simply Wikicommons), managed by Wikimedia and replenished by the user community, has already accumulated more than 1 million images, video clips and audio recordings that can be used by anyone. without any restrictions on a completely free basis.

Within the framework of the project, the daily elections “ Images of the Day ” are held, as well as the constant selection of candidates for the annual competition “Image of the Year”. The winners of the year 2006 were both the works of the participants themselves and the illustrations of third-party authors donated to the community.

The first place was taken by an impressive photograph of the Northern Lights, captured in the sky over Bear Lake in Alaska. It is already included in almost all Wikipedia articles about this amazing natural phenomenon.

In the second place was a snapshot of a Parisian homeless, which seemed to many to be an excellent example of socially conscious art, reminiscent of the troubles of modern society.

The third place, with an equal number of votes, was shared by two naturalistic photographs: the North American Blue Jay, wintering in Algonkinsky National Park in Canada, and masterfully shot courtship dragonflies.

Also, badges were awarded to photographs that were a bit short of reaching the pedestal, but still being examples of excellent material for Wikipedia articles and not only. Without a doubt, the altruistic community of free authors has once again shown that it is capable of producing true pearls.