I just tried to watch some presentation videos from Wikimania.
Some had very weak sound, some had no sound in the first minutes,
some only played the first minute and then stopped. I don't think
the Wikimania videos are unique in having such problems. Video is
new to Commons, and the expert contributors are more familiar with
still images.
How can we learn to make better videos? Are there some good
instructions? Perhaps a free instruction video (Wikibooks, but a
video instead of a book) on how to produce good videos is what we
need. In fact, the English Wikibooks has a title on "Video
Production", http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Video_Production but it
doesn't have a clear focus (pun not intended). It starts out with
discussing satellite TV and has long sections on file formats in
different operating systems.
There is a help page on Commons for converting video to the Ogg
Theora format, but that is only the last step in a long chain.
Given that video is new, how can we find and rate videos, nominate
"good/featured videos", and give advice on how to improve quality?
Is the Commons village pump enough for this? Commons has a
separate graphics village pump. Do we also need a separate video
village pump?
Current digital video cameras use hard disks or memory cards,
instead of tape cassettes. Many new models cost less than 300
euro (or dollars), some as little as 120 euro (memory card perhaps
not included). Some have a special "Youtube mode", and I guess
that kind of usage is what drives the price down. What models are
good, and what should one watch out for?
We can find free still photos on Flickr and copy them to Commons.
Is there somewhere we can find free videos and copy them? Yes, at
the Internet Archive. Somewhere else?
--
Lars Aronsson (lars(a)aronsson.se)
Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Administrators%27_no…
During/after one presentation in Haifa (Wikimania 2011) there was a
talk about http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Overwriting_existing_files
which one year after become guideline.
I'm happy about that, as that will hopefully solve a lot of problems.
But I remember when I started talking about problems on commons and
inability to solve it in a way that will benefit the project, I was
instructed to send
a mail to the mailing list.
So I saw above complaint of pretty harsh passive-aggresive behaviour
which spans almost a year (maybe more), and when finally user made
complaint,
everybody is looking another way and nobody reacts.
I'm just user on commons, I'm not an admin, but I'm asking is job of
admin on commons only deleting copyvios (and there is an BLATANT
copyvio) to which
nobody reacted, and there is also blatant case of harrasment to which
also nobody reacted.
I'm admin on another WIkimedia project and I know that user vs user
bickering is sometimes better left to die of itself, but sometimes
that is not the case.
If there is an report of copyvio somebody should react, or at least I
think it should be so. Please tell me that I'm wrong and I'll shut up.
Kind regards
P.S. When harrasment complaint and copyvio complaint is moved to
archive as nobody reacted for a 4 days after which MiszaBot archived
it, I think something
is not right. Either admins are not doing their job, or MiszaBot is
too fast archiving topics which NEED be taken care of.
Please correct something, react to complains before MiszaBot archive
it, or put bigger delay to MiszaBot. :)
Hi,
I'd like to start a discussion about the merits and challenges of
enabling the Translate and UniversalLanguageSelector extensions on
Commons.
The Translate extension (
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate ) is super useful
to translate content; it's already used for translations on Meta,
mediawiki.org and other non-Wikimedia wikis. In my experience, this
extension usually increases the amount of translations and
multilingual content on a given wiki, which Commons would benefit
from.
The UniversalLanguageSelector extension (
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector )
allows users to easily switch the interface language; it also embeds
an interface to enter text in non-Latin languages even if your
keyboard doesn't allow it.
My feeling is that both these tools would dramatically improve the
user experience on Commons for people who don't use English. As a
multilingual wiki, Commons even seems like the perfect audience for
these tools.
There would probably be some adjustments to make to transition from
the current way we handle multilingual content and interface, but I
don't perceive them as insurmountable.
Are there drawbacks I'm not seeing, or challenges to enabling these
tools on Commons?
--
Guillaume Paumier
[[m:User:guillom]]
http://www.gpaumier.org
Dear Wikimedians,
Wikimedia Commons is happy to announce that the 2012 Picture of the Year
competition is now open. We're interested in your opinion as to which
images qualify to be the Picture of the Year for 2012. Voting is open to
established Wikimedia users who meet the following criteria:
1. Users must have an account, at any Wikimedia project, which was
registered *before Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000*[UTC].
2. This user account must have more than *75 edits* on *any single*
Wikimedia
project *before Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000* [UTC]. Please check
your account eligibility at the POTY 2012 Contest Eligibility
tool<http://toolserver.org/~pathoschild/accounteligibility/?user=&wiki=&event=27>
.
3. Users must vote with an account meeting the above requirements either
on Commons or another SUL-related Wikimedia project (for other Wikimedia
projects, the account must be attached to the user's Commons account
through SUL <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Unified_login>).
Hundreds of images that have been rated Featured Pictures by the
international Wikimedia Commons community in the past year are all entered
in this competition. From professional animal and plant shots to
breathtaking panoramas and skylines, restorations of historically relevant
images, images portraying the world's best architecture, maps, emblems,
diagrams created with the most modern technology, and impressive human
portraits, Commons features pictures of all flavors.
For your convenience, we have sorted the images into topic categories. Two
rounds of voting will be held: In the first round, you can vote for as many
images as you like. The first round category winners and the top ten
overall will then make it to the final. In the final round, when a limited
number of images are left, you must decide on the one image that you want
to become the Picture of the Year.
*To see the candidate images just go to the POTY 2012 page on Wikimedia
Commons<http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/…>
.*
Wikimedia Commons celebrates our featured images of 2012 with this contest.
Your votes decide the Picture of the Year, so remember to vote in the first
round by *30 January 2013*
Thanks,
User:Mono on behalf of the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year committee
Three days left! This is also about new user groups and thematical
organisations for individual projects, so forwarding.
(Plus, it's been a while since our last all-projects mass-crossposting.
;-) )
Nemo
-------- Messaggio originale --------
Oggetto: Re: [Wikimedia-l] The Affiliations Committee is looking for
candidate members
Data: Tue, 8 Jan 2013 16:46:05 +0100
Mittente: Lodewijk
A: Wikimedia Mailing List
Hi all,
this is the last reminder that the call will be closing on January 12 -
this is four days from now.
Please share the call for candidates on relevant fora.
Best regards,
Lodewijk Gelauff
2013/1/2 Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org>
> Dear all,
>
> I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all that the
> Affiliations Committee is still looking for candidates! Applications can be
> sent in until 12 January as explained below.
>
> Do you understand how Wikimedia works as an organization, and would you
> like to help new organizations to get started? Then please apply! I hope
> for many high quality applications!
>
> Best,
> Lodewijk
>
> 2012/12/12 Bence Damokos <bdamokos(a)gmail.com>
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> The Affiliations Committee [1], the committee that is responsible for
>> guiding volunteers in establishing Chapters, User Groups and Thematic
>> Organizations ("affiliates" in short) and approving them when they are
>> ready is looking for about 6 new members.
>>
>> The main focus of AffCom is to guide groups of volunteers in forming
>> affiliates. We make sure that the group is large enough to be viable
>> (and advise them on how to get bigger), review bylaws for compliance
>> with the requirements and best practices, and advise the Board of the
>> Wikimedia Foundation on issues connected to Chapters, Thematic
>> Organizations and User Groups.
>>
>> This requires communication with volunteers all over the World,
>> negotiating skills and cultural sensitivity and the ability to
>> understand legal texts. We try to get a healthy mix of different skill
>> sets in our members.
>>
>> Key skills/experience that we are looking for in candidate members,
>> are typically:
>>
>> * Excitement by the challenge of helping to empower groups of
>> volunteers worldwide
>> * Willingness to work in a sometimes bureaucratic, sometimes political
>> process
>> * 4 hours per week availability[2]
>> * International orientation
>> * Very good communication skills in English
>> * Ability to work and communicate with other cultures
>> * Strong understanding of the structure and work of affiliates and the WMF
>> * Communication skills in other languages are a major plus
>> * Experience with or in an active affiliate is a major plus
>>
>> With the help of the Affiliations Committee, 2012 has been an exciting
>> year of transformation for the movement with the introduction of new
>> types of affiliation. This means that the workload of the Committee
>> has increased and diversified and help is wanted! Currently many
>> applications to become a Chapter, Thematic Organization or User Group
>> are in the pipeline and can use your attention and dedication!
>>
>> You can send your applications with your name, contact data (e-mail,
>> wiki username), experience and motivation to join to the AffCom email
>> address, affcom AT lists DOT wikimedia DOT org by January 12, 2013.
>> You will get a confirmation that your application came through.
>>
>> Members are usually selected every twelve months for staggered two
>> year terms. The applications will be considered by the current members
>> and outgoing members and Committee advisers, who are not seeking
>> re-selection.
>>
>> Since I will be a candidate for re-selection myself, this process will
>> be managed by another committee member, Lodewijk Gelauff. I hope for
>> many suitable applications. If you have any questions, please don't
>> hesitate to email me or Lodewijk[3] privately. We are happy to chat or
>> have a phone call with anyone about our work, if this helps them
>> decide to apply.
>>
>> Please distribute this call among your networks, and do apply if you
>> are interested.
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Bence Damokos
>> Chair,
>> Affiliations Committee
>>
>>
>>
>> [1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee (please
>> follow the links and familiarize yourself with our work)
>> [2]: Our member standards of participation are at:
>>
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Standard_…
>> [3]: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:EmailUser/Effeietsanders
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list
>> Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
>>
>
>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Chunked uploading is a feature (should work in Firefox and Chrome)
that splits an upload into 1MB chunks to ensure that a large file can
be transferred reliably. With chunked uploading enabled you can upload
up to 500MB files.
See the experimental preference in the "Upload Wizard" section:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-uploa…
You need to use Upload Wizard in order to use this feature.
This has required some significant changes to the way uploads are
handled by the API to avoid timeouts, so it's likely to still be
fragile. Do play with it, and in particular comment on these bugs if
you have useful observations to share:
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36587https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36599
All best,
Erik
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Apologies for cross posting - your efforts help make the Picture of the
Year contest accessible to people everywhere!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mono <monomium(a)gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 7:06 PM
Subject: Call for POTY translations
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hello,
The 2012 Picture of the Year committee on the Wikimedia Commons is looking
for help translating the Picture of the Year contest into additional
languages. We need to translate the text *in all three tables* at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2012/Translat…
Your help is really appreciated and we'd like to take this moment to remind
you that Round 1 of the contest is scheduled to begin on January 16, 2012.
We will announce more details around that time.
Thank you,
User:Mono & the entire POTY 2012 committee