Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of media freely licensed and available for anyone to use and repurpose. Every year the Commons community highlights the best media submitted over the course of the previous 12 months, in what has become the Picture of the Year Contest. This year, German Wikipedian Heinrich Pniok is the winner of the Sixth Annual contest for his picture of Lake Bondhus in Norway. You can read the complete story behind the 2011 Picture of the Year in this excellent article by User:Tony1 from the 25 June 2012 issue of the Wikipedia Signpost.
The Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year voting process consists of two Rounds: Round 1 includes pictures promoted to Featured Picture status during the contest period and leads to the final pool of 32 images to be voted for in the next round. Round 2 voting determines the winner from the pool of 32 finalist pictures. Wikimedia Commons currently contains over 13 million freely licensed files and these 3 finalists for Picture of the Year provide us a glimpse of some of the best work available on the database. Anyone can contribute to Wikimedia Commons and you are encouraged to upload your own work to our ever-growing database. Who knows? Maybe your picture will be featured in a blog post like this one next year!
Jordan Hu, Communications Intern
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