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
Hi all! I have a new announcement to make, this time regarding
MediaSearch:[1] research with the new engine will now be easier, since
now also English synonyms can be used to find results.[2]
MediaSearch already leverages Wikidata items to find images that
depict entities that match the search criteria. Now, MediaSearch will
make another step forward, by including also those items that match
English labels or aliases on Wikidata for the original search term. We
expect this to be helpful in discovering media for subjects known
under multiple names (for example, scientific and common names), as
well as in other languages where we often don’t even have
descriptions.
Just to make an example: when a user searches for “bat”, MediaSearch
will also show media where searchable text includes the word
“Chiroptera” (their scientific name, and also an alias on
{{Q|28425}})[3] - and this even if the text doesn’t include “bat”.
Another example would be a Somali user searching for “fiidmeer” (the
Somali word for “bat”) that will get media, through {{Q|28425}},[2]
that include either “bat” or “Chiroptera” - again, even if the text
doesn’t include “fiidmeer”.
For the time being, the feature will include only English labels and
aliases, because of the possible clash in meanings between words
across languages, increasing the odds of false positives. For the same
reason, the current implementation will be very conservative in its
searches, when using aliases.
I am here in case you have any questions or requests for more information.
[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaSearch
[2] Phabricator ticket for reference: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T290652
[3] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28425
--
Luca Martinelli [Sannita] (he/him)
Community Relation Specialist
Hello everyone,
Reminder: tomorrow (Tuesday, February 22 at 15.00 UTC) you are all welcome
at the online community meetup about OpenRefine's work on Structured Data
on Commons. No need to sign up, you find the Zoom link here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:OpenRefine/Community_meetup_22_F…
Looking forward!
Sandra (User:Spinster / User:SFauconnier)
Hello everyone!
Over 2021-22, OpenRefine is being extended with Structured Data on
Wikimedia Commons (SDC) support. This project is funded by a Wikimedia
Foundation Project Grant [1].
The OpenRefine team has made quite a bit of progress in the past months. We
warmly invite you to a community meetup [2] with updates and a first demo
of the newly developed SDC editing functionalities in OpenRefine. Bring
your questions!
** When? *Tuesday, February 22, at 15:00-17:00 UTC (check the time in your
timezone) [3].
** For whom?* For anyone who is curious about the current status of SDC
support in OpenRefine!
** Where?* Online, via Zoom. The event's info page [2] has the link.
* The meeting will be recorded and the recording will be published to
Wikimedia Commons afterwards.
Check the event page [2] for more info. We hope to see you there!
Sandra (User:Spinster / User:SFauconnier)
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/CS&S/Structured_Data_on_Wiki…
[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:OpenRefine/Community_meetup_22_F…
[3] https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1645542013