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
Greetings, everyone!
The WMF Inuka team [1] is exploring having the Wikistories tool [2] on
Commons, so we want to get your feedback.
*Our proposal*
The Inuka team believes the Wikistories tool would significantly increase
our projects' visual form of knowledge if we introduce a Wikistories
workflow in WikiCommons. The above is because the Commons is a repository
of freely licensed media files that is discoverable across other projects
and languages. We have outlined our goals for this initiative on the
project page [3], and we are optimistic about a good outcome. However, the
Wikistories on Commons initiative is still a proposal that will require the
WikiCommons community's feedback/ input on our design explorations before
we commit to the work.
*Our request *
In the next three weeks, the Inuka team would want you as a member of the
Commons community to:
- Read more about the initiative.
- Attend our proposed office hours, where we will present our design
exploration and discuss our plan with this proposal.
- Give feedback on this initiative and share your input about the design
exploration on the talk page [4] we have created.
We have provided three spots for office hours.
- Wednesday, 26th October at 10:00 UTC [5]
- Saturday, 29th October at 15:00 UTC [6]
- Monday 31st October at 06:00 UTC [7]
Please click on the date that works for you and register to attend the
office hour. If you can't attend, that is fine. However, we will appreciate
your feedback about the design exploration [8] and the Wikistories on
Commons proposal on the talk page.
We, the Inuka team, are excited about this work's possibilities, and we
look forward to having you all onboard at every phase.
Thank you!
Uzoma Ozurumba
On behalf of the WMF Inuka team
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Inuka_team
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikistories
[3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikistories_on_Commons
[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wikistories_on_Commons
[5]
https://wikimedia.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvdemprDsiE93WQgjs9i-EIEaXe4tR…
[6]
https://wikimedia.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModuqpqTspHdA3bB25tL07XqKoXkcn…
[7]
https://wikimedia.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtcumhrzooH91PC2B0MZAKzpz1Ymuv…
[8]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikistories_on_Commons_-_WMF_Inuka_…
Hello friends
We have just released a new version of the ISA tool on the Test Server.
The new version propose semi-automatic tagging of images, which seeks to
assist community in identifying and labelling depicts statements for
Commons files.
*
*
*We are currently looking for feedback with regards to the look, feel,
and usability of the tool*with the machine vision / metadata-to-concept
enhancements in place.
In a second stage, we will be testing the quality of the recommandations
provided.
We deeply appreciate your feedback, since it will help us determine the
next steps of the project.
Please sign-up to indicate interest, test the tool, and simply provide
feedback in the talk page.
More information on the new feature and test campaign:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:ISA_Tool/Image_to_Concept
Thank you in advanceǃ
Florence and the team