Commons-l November 2017

commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org

9 participants
10 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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Hirtle at December 7 CopyTalk: Where oh where is the public domain?
by Federico Leva (Nemo) 30 Nov '17

30 Nov '17

Meet the human behind https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Hirtle_chart ! <https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20171207T110000&p…> Federico -------- Messaggio inoltrato -------- Oggetto: [SCHOLCOMM] December 7 CopyTalk: Where oh where is the public domain? Data: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 16:36:17 +0000 Mittente: Yuan Li Apologies for cross-posting Join us for the next CopyTalk on Thursday, December 7. We have another cool CopyTalk planned for December 7th! Mark your calendars for 2pm Eastern/11:00am Pacific time for our one-hour session on the public domain. We often assume that older works are in the public domain, but how can we know for sure? Peter Hirtle, the author of the frequently cited resource, "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States <https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain>", will provide an overview of the public domain: what it is, how works rise into it, what is copyright renewal, and some of the common mistakes he has made when trying to determine the public domain status of a work. Peter Hirtle is an Affiliate Fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Until his retirement from Cornell in 2015, he served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Cornell University Library with a special mandate to address intellectual property issues. He is an archivist by training with an MA in History from Johns Hopkins and an MLS with a concentration in archival science from the University of Maryland. Hirtle is a Fellow and Past President of the Society of American Archivists and is a member of its Working Group on Intellectual Property. He was a member of the Copyright Office's Section 108 Study Group and a contributing author to the LibraryLaw.com blog. Day/Time: Thursday, December 7th at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific for our hour long free webinar. Go to <http://ala.adobeconnect.com/copytalk/> and sign in as a guest. You're in! This program is brought to you by OITP's copyright education subcommittee. Regards, Yuan Li Scholarly Communications Librarian Firestone Library Princeton University YL7 (at) princeton.edu Tel: 609-258-1227

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Ombuds Commission now accepting nominations
by Karen Brown 27 Nov '17

27 Nov '17

Hello all, Please accept my apologies if you are receiving this a number of times today. We have sent it out to multiple mailing lists in order to reach as many community members as possible. It's coming close to time for annual appointments of community members to serve on the Ombudsman commission (OC). This commission works on all Wikimedia projects to investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, especially in use of CheckUser tools, and to mediate between the complaining party and the individual whose work is being investigated. They may also assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the Board of Trustees in investigations of these issues. For more on their duties and roles, see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki /Ombudsman_commission This is a call for community members interested in volunteering for appointment to this commission. Volunteers serving in this role should be experienced Wikimedians, active on any project, who have previously used the CheckUser tool OR who have the technical ability to understand the CheckUser tool and the willingness to learn it. They are expected to be able to engage neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when to recuse when other roles and relationships may cause conflict. Commissioners are required to identify to the Wikimedia Foundation and must be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation board policies (such as the access to non-public data policy[1] and the privacy policy[2]). This is a position that requires a high degree of discretion and trust. If you are interested in serving on this commission, please write me an email off-list to detail your experience on the projects, your thoughts on the commission and what you hope to bring to the role. The commission consists of nine members; all applications are appreciated and will be carefully considered. The deadline for applications is end of day on *18 December, 2017*. Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think may be qualified and interested. Thank you! -Karen Brown On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Support & Safety team 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy 2. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy -- Karen Brown Community Advocate Wikimedia Foundation kbrown(a)wikimedia.org

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"method not allowed" when trying GWTtoolset on beta server
by Dafna Hirschfeld 23 Nov '17

23 Nov '17

I did a simple experiment to upload two images of maps, with the map template using this tool. I am able to get the images using a browser and "wget" My xml file is: *<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>* *<data>* * <record>* * <filename>* * map1.jpg* * </filename>* * <title>* * Afbeeldinge der Stad Jerusalem* * </title>* * <url>* * http://iiif.nli.org.il/IIIFv21/FL7070748/full/300,/0/default.jpg <http://iiif.nli.org.il/IIIFv21/FL7070748/full/300,/0/default.jpg>* * </url>* * </record>* * <record>* * <filename>* * map2.jpg* * </filename>* * <title>* * Ierusalem* * </title>* * <url>* * http://iiif.nli.org.il/IIIFv21/FL7071077/full/300,/0/default.jpg <http://iiif.nli.org.il/IIIFv21/FL7071077/full/300,/0/default.jpg>* * </url>* * </record>* *</data>* my mapping is: https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/GWToolset:Metadata_Mappings… I get the error: The media file URL could not be evaluated. The URL delivers the content in a way that is not yet handled by this extension or there was an HTTP request issue. URL given was " http://iiif.nli.org.il/IIIFv21/FL7070748/full/300,/0/default.jpg". HTTP request error "There was a problem during the HTTP request: 405 Method Not Allowed".

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Hi
by Dafna Hirschfeld 22 Nov '17

22 Nov '17

I'm Dafna Hirschfeld, under user Shavtay <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Shavtay> in Wikimedia and under dafna3.bot bot I am going to a hackaton tomorrow held by the National library of Israel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Israel>. I plan to write scripts to batch upload images and media they have to wiki commons. I would like to get a permission to use the GWToolset tool on the beta server (https://commons.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Main_Page) Thank you, Dafna

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Reminder: Structured Commons IRC office hour starts in a bit more than an hour
by Sandra Fauconnier 21 Nov '17

21 Nov '17

Hi all! In a bit more than an hour - at 18:00 UTC - the IRC office hour about Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons will start in the IRC channel #wikimedia-office. We plan to give many updates about the project, and of course there is also room for questions. The log will be published afterwards. Hope to see you there! Sandra -- Sandra Fauconnier Community Liaison for Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation sfauconnier(a)wikimedia.org

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TOOLS
by Bryan Neil Jones 20 Nov '17

20 Nov '17

I am writing to request access to the GWToolset. I am a librarian at Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Myself and archivists from Metro Archives (http://nashvillearchives.org/) are hoping to batch upload Archives' photos to Wikimedia Commons. Here's my Wikipedia user page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Librariabryan; my library's GLAM page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Nashville_ Public_Library. I am a member of Tennessee Wikipedians User Group and have Commons-Beta and MetaWiki accounts. Any help would me much appreciated. Thanks, Bryan

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IRC office hour about Structured Commons: Tue Nov 21 @ 18:00 UTC
by Sandra Fauconnier 14 Nov '17

14 Nov '17

Hi everyone! If you are curious about Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons: we have a IRC office hour planned next Tuesday, November 21, at 18:00 UTC in #wikimedia-office <irc://irc.freenode.net/wikimedia-office> (connect <https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wikimedia-office>). Amanda Bittaker, Ramsey Isler and I will update you on the things we are working on, and on the upcoming plans and roadmap. If you are unable to be there: the log of the office hour will be published afterwards. But of course, when attending live, you can ask us all your burning questions :-) Hope to see you there! Sandra More (freshly renewed!) info about Structured Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data Newsletters (+ subscription link): https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Structured_Data_on_Commons/Newsletter -- Sandra Fauconnier Community Liaison for Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation sfauconnier(a)wikimedia.org

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3D model support coming soon to Commons
by Chris Koerner 08 Nov '17

08 Nov '17

Hello! Just a quick note to let you all know that support for 3D models is coming to Commons! [0] The plan is to have the feature enabled by the end of November. There are a few technical items left to address. The feature will support the STL file format, one of the most common file formats for 3D models. [1] You can see an example of how a 3D model will appear on the test wiki. [2] (.gif) [3] This feature has been discussed in the Wikimedia community for a long time. Most recently the feature was #11 on the 2015 Community Tech Wishlist and was previously discussed on Commons in April as development progressed. [4] [5] There will be a blog post on the Wikimedia Blog once the feature is enabled. You can read more about the technical details of the feature and the help documentation on MediaWiki.org. [6] [7] [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#3D_model_support_co… [1] https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/STL_(file_format) [2] https://test.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Programmatically_created_crystal.stl [3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Demo_of_3D_model_in_MediaViewer.gif [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2015_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Commons#3D_m… [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2017/05#Pre… [6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:3D [7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:3d Yours, Chris Koerner Community Liaison Wikimedia Foundation

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Fwd: Museum fees for images
by Fæ 06 Nov '17

06 Nov '17

Cross posting from the UK list, as I know there are many Commoners interested in "sweat of the brow" type claims by national collections in the UK, even if not resident in the UK. Some may wish to join in on the Twitter discussion :-) https://twitter.com/Faewik/status/927492123288592384 Fae ---- Volunteers interested in GLAM may be interested to read the letter to The Times today from an extensive list of highly respected academics and museum directors, lobbying against arbitrary image fees charged by UK national museums and their doubtful claims of copyright.[1][2] Quote: "Fees are also charged despite the fact that the artworks in question are not only publicly owned, but out of copyright (that is, made by artists who died more than 70 years ago). Museums claim they create a new copyright when making a faithful reproduction of a 2D artwork by photography or scanning, but it is doubtful that the law supports this. Museums' rules for using images are confusing and inconsistent, and do not raise meaningful funds once costs are taken into account." Copyfraud used by GLAMs has been discussed within the Wikimedia community many times in many forums. This letter may be a useful model for the UK chapter to follow and to have a stronger public position on. The potential of GLAM projects using WMF funding may take the requirement correctly to license public domain images as public domain, as an ethical precursor for any GLAM partnership to be proposed. Links: 1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae/Museum_fees Letter text and summary article for research purposes 2. http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/4810_Museum_image_fees__a_call_to_ar… Bendor Grosvenor's article "Museum image fees - a call to arms" 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyfraud Definition of copyfraud Thanks, Fae -- faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae

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Commons-l November 2017