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
A lot of food for thought at
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…>.
Particularly interesting IMHO the parts on app uploads to Commons
(started a month ago), WLM app (only 3000 uploads but lots of
experience), watchlist on mobile successful for recruitment («Currently,
mobile is the only vector for signup that has substantially changed to
bring more people in»[1]) and whether that's the right focus.
Nemo
[1]
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1GmCPP3SWvOZYRqzaJ9n…>
-------- Messaggio originale --------
Oggetto: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quarterly reviews of high priority WMF
initiatives
Data: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:32:54 -0700
Mittente: Tilman Bayer
Minutes and links to slides from this week's Quarterly Review meeting
of the mobile contributions team have been posted at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…
On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 6:49 PM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> to increase accountability and create more opportunities for course
> corrections and resourcing adjustments as necessary, Sue's asked me
> and Howie Fung to set up a quarterly project evaluation process,
> starting with our highest priority initiatives. These are, according
> to Sue's narrowing focus recommendations which were approved by the
> Board [1]:
>
> - Visual Editor
> - Mobile (mobile contributions + Wikipedia Zero)
> - Editor Engagement (also known as the E2 and E3 teams)
> - Funds Dissemination Committe and expanded grant-making capacity
>
> I'm proposing the following initial schedule:
>
> January:
> - Editor Engagement Experiments
>
> February:
> - Visual Editor
> - Mobile (Contribs + Zero)
>
> March:
> - Editor Engagement Features (Echo, Flow projects)
> - Funds Dissemination Committee
>
> We’ll try doing this on the same day or adjacent to the monthly
> metrics meetings [2], since the team(s) will give a presentation on
> their recent progress, which will help set some context that would
> otherwise need to be covered in the quarterly review itself. This will
> also create open opportunities for feedback and questions.
>
> My goal is to do this in a manner where even though the quarterly
> review meetings themselves are internal, the outcomes are captured as
> meeting minutes and shared publicly, which is why I'm starting this
> discussion on a public list as well. I've created a wiki page here
> which we can use to discuss the concept further:
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…
>
> The internal review will, at minimum, include:
>
> Sue Gardner
> myself
> Howie Fung
> Team members and relevant director(s)
> Designated minute-taker
>
> So for example, for Visual Editor, the review team would be the Visual
> Editor / Parsoid teams, Sue, me, Howie, Terry, and a minute-taker.
>
> I imagine the structure of the review roughly as follows, with a
> duration of about 2 1/2 hours divided into 25-30 minute blocks:
>
> - Brief team intro and recap of team's activities through the quarter,
> compared with goals
> - Drill into goals and targets: Did we achieve what we said we would?
> - Review of challenges, blockers and successes
> - Discussion of proposed changes (e.g. resourcing, targets) and other
> action items
> - Buffer time, debriefing
>
> Once again, the primary purpose of these reviews is to create improved
> structures for internal accountability, escalation points in cases
> where serious changes are necessary, and transparency to the world.
>
> In addition to these priority initiatives, my recommendation would be
> to conduct quarterly reviews for any activity that requires more than
> a set amount of resources (people/dollars). These additional reviews
> may however be conducted in a more lightweight manner and internally
> to the departments. We’re slowly getting into that habit in
> engineering.
>
> As we pilot this process, the format of the high priority reviews can
> help inform and support reviews across the organization.
>
> Feedback and questions are appreciated.
>
> All best,
> Erik
>
> [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Vote:Narrowing_Focus
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Request for help by Wikimedia Deutschland also posted on
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Toolserver#Request_for_help_to_al…>:
of relevance for all Wikimedia projects users.
-------- Messaggio originale --------
Oggetto: Information on Tool Labs/ Your help needed
Data: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 10:26:51 +0000 (UTC)
Mittente: Silke Meyer
Hello!
You are getting this e-mail because you have an active or expired
account on the toolserver.
As you might know, Wikimedia Foundation is building a cloud-based
infrastructure (Labs/Tool Labs) that - in the long run - will be a
replacement for the toolserver. Don't worry! The toolserver will be not
just be switched off. WMF and WMDE would like to support you as good as
possible when it comes to migrating tools. There will be enough time for
this process. We will offer different forms of support which you will
hear of soon.
Right now, Tool Labs is not ready. WMF staff, mainly Marc Pelletier is
building it. You might have seen the general list of needed and wanted
features [1]. For many of you crucial features are database replication
and user databases. Both are upcoming features in the nearer future.
Your tools and their dependencies are taken into account to build the
new infrastructure. This is why I am asking you for help:
Please provide information about your tools! I started an incomplete
list at [2] (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Toolserver/List_of_Tools,
based on the wiki and jira).
Personally I was really impressed about its length and diversity - how
cool! Several people said there was so much missing in this list - so
please help me to complete it!
Here is what I'm asking you to do:
* Please check if your tools are on the list (correctly).
* Please fill in your software dependencies, data dependencies, use
patterns (are they running continously? or webservices? Batch runs?
etc.), the license.
* If you have not given your software an explicit license, please note
that only free software can migrate to Labs. Consider putting your stuff
under a free license.
* If you have already migrated your bot or tool to Labs and it is in the
list, please say so in the last column "status".
* If your toolserver account has expired and/or your tool is not active
on the toolserver right now, please add it to the second table at the
bottom of the page. In the last column write that it is not running
currently and if you want to revive it. If you are considering to revive
it, please fill in all the details, too, so that your needs will be
taken into account.
* Please follow the toolserver-announce list for more information to come.
Thanks for your help! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate
to ask me, to ask on toolserver-l and/or on labs-l.
Cheers, Silke
[1]
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Labs/Toolserver_features_needed_in_…
[2] List of Tools:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Silke_WMDE/Documentation/List_of_Tools
--
Silke Meyer
Systemadministratorin und Projektassistenz Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 260
http://wikimedia.de
FYI
_____
*Béria Lima*
*Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter
livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. Ajude-nos a
construir esse sonho. <http://wikimedia.pt/Donativos>*
---------- Forwarded message ----------
*From: *Yuvi Panda <yuvipanda(a)gmail.com>
*Subject: **[WikimediaMobile] Android Commons app "Stable" and "Beta"
channels*
*Date: *4 March 2013 5:53:48 PM GMT+05:30
*To: *mobile-l <mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*Reply-To: *yuvipanda(a)gmail.com
Hello everyone!
The Wikimedia Commons app on Android has been on play store([1]:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikimedia.commons) for a
week now,. I just pushed out an update - the app will be updated every
week. The app on the play store uploads directly to Commons and should be
considered the 'release' channel.
There is now also a 'beta' channel, available by installing the apk from
http://bit.ly/commons-beta
(expanded URL
https://integration.mediawiki.org/nightly/mobile/android-commons/android-co…
)
This is very close to a nightly - will be updated every day or so. It also
has a menu item 'Update App' which will blindly get you the latest version.
This will *always* upload to testwiki, so you can feel free to upload
whatever.
This is to make sure that people who want to test the app (and hence
testwiki) also have a way of actually uploading pictures to Commons! The
iOS app has a 'toggle' in the app itself to fix this, but due to how the
app is architected this is not possible in Android. Hence two apps.
Test on!
--
Yuvi Panda T
http://yuvi.in/blog
_______________________________________________
Mobile-l mailing list
Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l
On 3 March 2013 12:10, Jane Darnell <jane023(a)gmail.com> wrote:
...
> In that discussion, the whole category for the Washington, DC Vietnam
> memorial was nominated for deletion, see here:
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Category:Vietnam_Ve…
> The last word on that discussion was "I called the Smithsonian and the
> Park Service about this. Aside from laughing, they were confused why
> anyone would assume that the copyright was owned by anyone except the
> USGov, or that it wan't in the PD. I can't get anyone on the record
> about this."
>
> I would go so far as to assume that the same is true for Dutch WWII
> memorials, and if we cannot come up with a good way of preserving
> Dutch WWII memorial images for the Dutch Wikimedia community to use in
> any Wikipedia project (so not just the NL wiki), then I propose a
> Dutch Wikipedia blackout on May 4th out of protest, since obviously
> the only hindrance is the fear of Wikimedia Commons users that they
> will be legally pursued, and I assume that this fear is real enough
> that we can go public with it.
>
> On a personal level, as a Dutch citizen, I would be willing to be the
> first to be tried legally on such an issue, and after my discussion
> this morning, I believe I could crowd source my legal fees with
> support from the Dutch Wikipedia community.
Hi Jane,
I know it's all rather frustrating. I suggest a common sense approach
to the Commons community. There are a few rather good copyright
wikilawyers that dominate the discussion on Commons, the primary way
of handling them (us?) is to make sure that there is (i) clear policy
or agreed guidelines and (ii) legal clarification and external advice
where this would be helpful. Our critical wikilawyers do not make the
law, but they do help highlight how daft it can be at times. :-)
Now, in the *real world*, there is unlikely to be any issue were the
GLAM project you envisage to upload 1,000 or 100,000 images. A tiny
percentage will be deleted for various reasons, as a matter of course,
no matter how hard you try to run detailed guidelines. The idea that
such a project either must not proceed, or would be judged a failure
by the Wikimedia community, were a single image to be a potential
copyright problem, is not feasible, and we do not want such great
projects to be paralysed for fear of criticism because we have not got
full answers to every possible risk. The key Commons policy to
consider is the Precautionary Principle, so long as there are no
*significant* doubts with regard to copyright, then this indicates it
is perfectly okay to upload images where one has taken simple and
obvious precautions.[1]
Commons benefits from another great community approach, that of
staying mellow, you may want to take the Smithsonian's approach and
laugh most of this away. I suggest rather than brinkmanship and
calling for black-outs and legal cases, you consider different avenues
of community consultation, such as relevant questions on the village
pump, the copyright noticeboard and set up a GLAM Commons WikiProject
page for long term guidelines for your project members to discuss and
improve. With such consultation banked, it would be hard for anyone to
come along later and criticise you for not trying to address the issue
and reach a practical conclusion.[2][3][4][5]
My viewpoint is as a well known Wikimedia Commons contributor with
40,000+ image uploads, 600,000+ edits and over 1.2 million further
edits by bot. Oh, and I do other more important stuff too. :-D
Links
1. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Project_scope/Precautionary_princ…
2. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Staying_mellow
3. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GLAM
4. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Copyright
5. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump
Cheers,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm
Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae
Hello,
Apologies for cross-posting, but WMNL was recently approached for
helping start a photo contest for WWII monuments. Based on this
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_NC.svg
We assumed that these photographs could be used on Wikipedia, but the
recent discussions about the DMCA takedown notice for this
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Houseball_(Oldenburg_and_van_Bru…
indicate that FOP in Europe is not really FOP.
To be careful, we have decided to cancel the photo contest idea,
though people are of course terribly disappointed about this.
Does anyone know the status of this discussion? Of course, WLM has
brought in several thousand of these "possibly-not-FOP" sculptures, as
they are often WLM monuments themselves, or are situated directly in
front of buildings that are WLM monuments.
Thanks in advance for any info you have - we need a short and sweet
way to inform the WWII monument committee and WMNL volunteers why we
are cancelling.
Jane
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