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
(cross posted from Commons talk:Village Pump
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#Wikimedia_Commons_g…>
and Commons talk:Flickr files - Wikimedia Commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Flickr_files#Wikimedia_Comm…>
)
I'm an admin of the Wikimedia Commons Group
<https://www.flickr.com/groups/30009679@N00> on Flickr, a group that has,
up until now, had no moderation for numerous years. Given my uptick in
activity on Flickr (resulting from my uptick on Commons) I'm hoping to
change that.
Photographs in the group ought to be able to be readily able to be ported
to Commons, thereby having a free license. People who sign up for the group
agree to that rule. However, currently numerous people are just sharing
photographs that they share on numerous other groups for exposure.
I do not have the bandwidth to moderate completely on my own. Is anyone
else currently a regular Flickr user that would be willing and able to help
out?
Cary Bass-Deschenes [[User:Bastique]]