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
On behalf of the 2012 Picture of the Year committee, I'm proud to announce
the seventh Picture of the Year. About 4,000 Wikimedia editors helped
select this marvelous image, shattering previous turnout records.
You can view the top 12 results right now on Wikimedia Commons at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2012/Results.
Stay tuned for a blog post on the Wikimedia blog and an upcoming 2014
calendar from the top 12 images.
The contest is a fun and enjoyable event that not only celebrates our
excellent photographers and illustrators, but everyone who contributes to
Wikimedia. You are encouraged to donate your own work to the Wikimedia
Commons as our library of freely licensed media files grows past 16 million
files.
Thank you for your participation!
User:Mono
POTY 2012 Committee
Dear Wikimedians,
Wikimedia Commons is happy to announce that the 2012 Picture of the Year
competition is now open. Click here to vote right now! 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<https://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 <https://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 voted for as many
images as you like. The first round category winners and the top ten
overall have made 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.*
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 *February 14, 2013*.
To see the candidate images just go to the POTY 2012 page on Wikimedia
Commons at *
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2012/Introdu…
*
Thanks,
the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year committee
The Wikimedia OTRS team[1] is receiving an increasing number of
emails, with almost 55,000 general information and permissions tickets
responded to in 2012 alone.[2] We are greatly in need of more
volunteers to catch up and help prevent continued backlog. OTRS
volunteers have the benefit of choosing how much time they'd like to
commit and share a wide variety of tools to help when responding to
inquires. Your private information would not be exposed to the public;
replies are issued from a shared Wikimedia email address.
We are looking especially for people who are strong in any or all of
the following areas:
* Familiar with processes on any Wikimedia project and able to answer
routine questions about them (some common responses include reference
desk referrals; explanations of deletion processes or how to edit. The
kind of thing you might run into at the Teahouse or Help desks);
* Familiar with acceptable licenses for images and text and willing to
handle correspondence related to permissions (many routine, but some
issues include unclear statements of permission or permissions issued
by people who can't be clearly connected to the source);
* Familiar with policies regarding living people and organizations and
able to assist article subjects with lightweight needs (updating
logos, correcting small information) or serious concerns (allegations
of gross inaccuracy; bias).
For more information about volunteering, please see the recruiting
page[3] on Meta. Being a member of the OTRS team is a great chance to
be part of the public face of Wikimedia. We can't always help people,
but we do our best to leave them impressed with our professionalism
and responsiveness. If this sounds like something you'd be interested
in, we encourage you to consider applying[4].
While the English queues are the busiest, the info queues for all
languages could use help, and we are always looking for new
volunteers. Please translate this message and pass the word along to
those in your local communities who may wish to apply.
We look forward to seeing your applications on Meta-Wiki. If you have
any questions, please feel free to contact myself or any other
administrator of the system.[5]
For the OTRS admins,
Casey Brown
[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS
[2]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Reports/2012
[3]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Recruiting
[4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Volunteering
[5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS#OTRS_administrators
--
Casey Brown (Cbrown1023)
caseybrown.org