Commons-l August 2013

commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org

19 participants
13 discussions

Video skills and equipment
by Lars Aronsson 16 Apr '25

16 Apr '25

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

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Status of upload wizard for Flickr uploading
by Bryan Tong Minh 18 Sep '13

18 Sep '13

Hi, With the pending toolserver shutdown, I was thinking about retiring Flickr Upload Bot. However, this bot is apparently still used about 2000-4000 times per month. I was under the impression that the upload wizard would replace this bot, however, I couldn't find any references to this. Does anybody know what the status of uploading from Flickr using the upload wizard is? Bryan

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Wiki Loves Monuments begins again, please watch out for our biggest ever crop of newbies
by WereSpielChequers 31 Aug '13

31 Aug '13

Just in case anyone on this list wasn't already aware, Wiki Loves Monuments <http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/>is about to start and will be running throughout September. WLM is running in more countries than ever before and hopes to break new records. As usual we anticipate a flood of newbies, please don't be surprised at their number. Commonistas in countries that aren't participating this year are welcome to join in, the UK and I suspect other countries will need volunteers to sift entrants and pick ones for the judges to consider. Regards WSC

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Fwd: Nicer, more useful Campaign pages coming soon!
by Yuvi Panda 30 Aug '13

30 Aug '13

Relevant, I'd like to think :) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yuvi Panda <yuvipanda(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 3:10 AM Subject: Nicer, more useful Campaign pages coming soon! To: Wiki Loves Monuments Photograph Competition <wikilovesmonuments(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hello everyone! I've been working on making Campaign pages more useful over the last few days. Details about the system are at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Yuvipanda/Campaigns_namespace_proposal, but even better - you can see a live demo! http://blue-dragon.wmflabs.org/wiki/Campaign:show-off-campaigns The idea being that you can pass on links to the Campaign page itself and people can upload from there. They can also see a description, and other images that have been uploaded (it currently shows the last 50 images). This is far more useful than the current version, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaign:wlm-nl, which is just a JSON structure. Suggestions / Comments for improving the feature are welcome! While initially I expected this to take longer to finish, things moved much faster than expected and the patch is very close to being merged now! I'll try to get this deployed next week. Thanks! -- Yuvi Panda T http://yuvi.in/blog -- Yuvi Panda T http://yuvi.in/blog

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Sending pictures to Commons from a mobile app
by Gilles Bassière 30 Aug '13

30 Aug '13

Dear all, We've recently released ImageInOsm [1], a mobile application designed to help OpenStreetMap contributors to better document OSM object using pictures. The process is currently very simple: - a user is nearby a real-life "object", - using his smartphone, he picks the corresponding OSM object on a map - he takes a picture of that object - this picture is then shared on an online repository (Flickr at the moment) with the OSM object id in the metadata Have a look at the screenshots on the app website [1] to get an idea. I can also play with the Android test package [2]. The main advantage of ImageInOsm over a classic camera application is the attached OSM object id. It will allow other contributors to find and use these pictures. For some reasons, the unique supported picture repository is Flickr at the moment. We would like to offer an alternative and we think that Wikimedia Commons might be a good one for the following reasons: - the process of taking a picture to document this object [3] is quite close to documenting this object [4] - we feel like the philosophy of both Wikimedia projects and OpenStreetMap are compatible (and indeed, there is already some collaboration) Since I'm new to the Wikimedia ecosystem, I have many questions on how to do that: - first of all, is it acceptable to associate one (or several) external links to a file/picture stored on Commons? - is there any existing format to point an OpenStreetMap resource? Should I create a template for that? and/or use other_fields in the Information template? - apart Title and Description, is there any required or strongly encouraged fields that the user should enter? Technically speaking, I'm planning to use the Mediawiki API to send the picture and related data. If you know about a JavaScript wrapper for this API, I would be happy to try it. Another request, a little embarassing... Yesterday, I've tried to send a dummy picture to Commons [5], just to see how it works, but now I'm not sure how to undo this... I've found the {{speedydelete}} tag, is it the way to go? By the way, is there any dev instance of Commons where I can play safely with the API? If not, is there a procedure somewhere to set up a similar instance (we already have a mediawiki instance but I believe the instance configuration has an impact)? [1] http://naturalsolutions.github.io/ImageInOsm/ [2] http://depot.natural-solutions.eu/ImageInOsm/ImageInOsm-0.1.apk [3] http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/69137913 [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_la_Garde [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_gbassiere_1.jpg Please also note that I've already had a discussion with Kolossos about that matter on the OSM Talk list, the thread is available at: http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2013-August/068079.html Best regards Gilles Bassière NATURAL SOLUTIONS http://www.natural-solutions.eu

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Fwd: [OSM-talk] ImageInOsm: a photomapping mobile application
by Andrew Gray 28 Aug '13

28 Aug '13

Perhaps of some interest! Note that Commons support is apparently planned for future. Andrew. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gilles Bassière <gbassiere(a)gmail.com> Date: 28 August 2013 15:58 Subject: [OSM-talk] ImageInOsm: a photomapping mobile application To: talk(a)openstreetmap.org Hi All, I'd like to introduce ImageInOsm [1], a photomapping mobile application. The app is intended for on-the-field users. It is very easy to use (see screenshots [1]): 1. the user select an OSM object that he is seeing on the ground 2. he takes a picture of this object 3. the picture is sent to Flickr with the OSM id in the tags You can already try it: - for Android, just download and install this test package [2], - for iOS, we are unforunately not aware of any easy solution to publish a test package, you will have to build and install from the source code (you will need a Mac with the XCode software). Compared to traditionnal photomapping process, ImageInOsm promotes collaboration. Indeed, the pictures will not remain on a hard/flash drive, they will immediately be shared on the Web with metadata allowing others to find and use them. Please note that (as the name does NOT imply) pictures will not be stored on any OSM server. Instead, they will be sent to a 3rd-party server (Flickr, ...) under your own account. The sole innovation consists in linking the picture to the OSM object that it references. So far, the application only works with Flickr as a backend. The tagging convention used makes the pictures compatible with LizPOI [3] and OsmFlickr [4]. We hope that one day these pictures will be easily available in your editor (a JOSM plugin would do the job but we this is not on our roadmap, if anyone is interested). We are grateful to Jean-Louis Zimmermann from "Ville d'Orange" for having initiated and supported this project. Technically speaking, this app is built upon: - Cordova 3.0 - JavaScript + BackboneJS - HTML/CSS + Bootstrap 2.x Source code is available on Github [5], distributed under the Apache license 2.0. Of course, any contribution will be happily received: code, documentation, bug report, propositions, etc. We are aware that the project is not completely mature but the code is under active development. We are already planning the following updates: - support Wikimedia as a picture backend (ongoing development) - configurable filters for OSM objects so that users can make thematic campaign - improve user experience (see issues on GitHub) [1] http://naturalsolutions.**github.io/ImageInOsm/<http://naturalsolutions.github.io/ImageInOsm/> [2] http://depot.natural-**solutions.eu/ImageInOsm/**ImageInOsm-0.1.apk<http://depot.natural-solutions.eu/ImageInOsm/ImageInOsm-0.1.apk> [3] http://lizpoi.3liz.com/demo/**index.php/lizpoi/map/?tree_id=**1<http://lizpoi.3liz.com/demo/index.php/lizpoi/map/?tree_id=1> [4] http://www.3liz.com/blog/**rldhont/index.php?post/2013/** 02/18/OsmFlickr-:-Gestion-des-**liens-OpenStreetMap-Flickr<http://www.3liz.com/blog/rldhont/index.php?post/2013/02/18/OsmFlickr-:-Gest…> [5] https://github.com/**NaturalSolutions/ImageInOsm/<https://github.com/NaturalSolutions/ImageInOsm/> Best regards Gilles Bassière NATURAL SOLUTIONS http://www.natural-solutions.**eu <http://www.natural-solutions.eu> ______________________________**_________________ talk mailing list talk(a)openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.**org/listinfo/talk<http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk> -- - Andrew Gray andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk

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A notable contribution in Malayalam Loves Wikimedia event
by praveenp 23 Aug '13

23 Aug '13

Hi, Inspired by the Malayalam Loves Wikimedia event's 3rd edition, gifted wildlife photographer N.A. Naseer contributed some of the images (including some famous ones) shot by him (those images immediately available to him while ml.wikimedians contacted him) to Commons. He also expressed his wish to share more photos. Praveen P http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.A.Nazeer http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:N_A_Nazeer%27s_uploads http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:Malayalam_loves_Wikimedia_3

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[Wikimedia-l] Breaking bots // HTTPS for logged in users on Wednesday August 21st
by Fae 21 Aug '13

21 Aug '13

On 21 August 2013 07:49, Terry Chay <tchay(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: ... > Luckily, the standard for the Movement is consensus, not catering to every extremist view with 100% buy-in. As a Commons user responsible for over 2.5 million edits, I would hope that the WMF do not label or quickly dismiss me as an "extremist" if I raise some questions about this notification. I am concerned about how many valuable bot activities a mandated move to https might break. Some will be fixed by operators such as myself changing account preferences to force an opt-out or re-writing code, however many useful bot activities have semi-retired operators, particularly on Commons, and some are bound to just never be fixed and their value will be lost. In planning this change, has some support effort been allocated to fixing or re-hosting the bots that break (such as taking the option of 'remotely' setting community-identified useful bots to opt-out of https, at least for a test period, rather than forcing an opt-in) and has there been a survey of this impact? Though I agree we don't expect "100% buy-in", as an active volunteer, batch uploader and bot writer, I would have expected to have been given a friendly, non-confrontational and relaxed opportunity to raise and consider these issues in a RFC or other consensus building discussion on my home project and engage in discussion there, rather than, apparently, no buy-in needed from us unpaid volunteers and content creators. Thanks, Fae -- faewik(a)gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm

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Wikimedia Commons mobile photo uploader app updated on iOS and Android
by Brion Vibber 21 Aug '13

21 Aug '13

We have just released Commons for iOS (version 1.0.8) and Android (1.0beta11), with *major* UI and performance improvements on iOS and minor bug fixes on Android. This is our first release in a couple months on iOS -- we hoped to have one out before Wikimania but were delayed due to problems with Apple's online developer tools being offline for a while. There are huge UI improvements and lots of bug fixes, thanks to our new mobile developer Monte Hurd. Thanks Monte! We've been releasing smaller updates on Android in the meantime, so the updates have been more incremental there. Both versions now include a quick 3-screen acceptable-use tutorial on first login. iOS includes featured photos as examples as well; this will come to Android in a future version. Downloads and release notes: * Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikimedia-commons/id630901780 * Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikimedia.commons * Android direct download: http://download.wikimedia.org/android/wikimedia-commons-1.0beta11.apk -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com / bvibber @ wikimedia.org)

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Multimedia Mailing List - Join our IRC Chat this Thursday
by Fabrice Florin 21 Aug '13

21 Aug '13

Greetings! If you are interested in the Wikimedia Foundation's new multimedia initiative, we would like to invite you to join our Multimedia mailing list, which we started earlier this month. The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss software tools that support the viewing, contribution, curation, discovery and use of multimedia content on Wikipedia, Commons and other MediaWiki projects. Click here to learn more and subscribe to this multimedia list: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/multimedia Participants include team members from the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as volunteers from the Wikipedia, Commons and other wiki communities. We all share an interest in adding images, sounds and videos to our free knowledge base. And if you would like to chat live with our team, we also invite you to join our multimedia IRC discussion this Thursday, August 22 at 18:00 UTC (11:00am PDT), on this 'office hours' channel: #wikimedia-office . During this one-hour chat, we will talk about our plans for multimedia in the coming year, as discussed during this Wikimania 2013 roundtable: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Roundtables/Roundtable_3 We would also like to discuss this proposed Media Viewer, as described here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Media_Viewer For more information about our new multimedia initiative, visit this project hub: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia Thanks for your interest. We hope to speak with you soon! All the best, Fabrice and the Multimedia Team P.S.: For more info on how to join this IRC chat, check this IRC office hours page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours _______________________________ Fabrice Florin Product Manager, Multimedia Wikimedia Foundation fflorin(a)wikimedia.org Wikipedia Profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)

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Commons-l August 2013