It looks like a solution to bug 4547 is on the horizon.
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4547
See also [Wikitech-l] Reasonably efficient interwiki transclusion
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/wikitech/197322
This will be very useful for templates which Commons has developed,
especially language related templates, however I am concerned that
people are also planning on using Commons as a repo for Wikipedia
infoboxes, and including the *data* on Commons rather than just the
template code. e.g.
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Peter17/GSoc_2010#Interest
This centralisation of data makes sense on many levels, however using
Commons as the host of this data will result in many edit wars moving
to the Commons project, involving people from many languages. Even
the infobox structure can be the cause of edit wars.
I think it is undesirable to have these Wikipedia problems added to
Commons existing problems. ;-)
Tying Wikipedia and Commons closer together is also problematic when
we consider the differing audience and scope of each project,
especially in light of the recent media problems. If the core
templates and data used by Wikipedia are hosted/modified on Commons,
it will be more difficult to justify why Commons accepts content which
isn't appropriate on Wikipedia.
A centralised data wiki has been proposed previously, many times:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/historicalhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidatahttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata_%282%29http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiDatabank
Non-WMF projects, such as freebase, dbpedia, etc., have been exploring
this space.
Isn't it time that we started a new project!? ;-)
A wikidata project could use semantic mediawiki from the outset, and
be seeded with data from dbpedia.
A lot of existing & proposed projects would benefit from a centralised
wikidata project. e.g. a genealogy wiki could use the relationships
stored on the wikidata project. wikisource and commons could use the
central data wiki for their Author and Creator details.
--
John Vandenberg
Hi guys,
I keep coming across http://www.addthis.com/ . It's an easy way to share
things on allmost 300 websites.
Would be great if we had something like this on our image pages at Commons.
You click it, select your site where you want to reuse the image and
you're done. Clicking the image should bring you to the image page at
Commons.
This would be a great way to promote reuse of our content!
Maarten
Lately I've been building a photo collection that's referenced to
"linked data" terms, which, for the most part, correspond to pages in
wikipedia.
I've developed some other sites based on a process that uses flickr
and paid crowdsourcing, but I was having trouble with people who
thought that the NYSE was the "American Stock Exchange" -- so I got the
idea of building a database of reference images from wikipedia +
commons... That turned into a bigger project than I expected, and I
figured that I might as well (a) put those images in my collection, and
(b) develop my import system to the fullest extent.
Right now,
http://ookaboo.com/
is a photo-geo mashup that combines photos from Wikimedia Commons
with maps from Open Street Maps. Although it's not hard to find
coordinates that are off, it provides a really fun browsing interface.
We're working on improving the browsing interface, doing data
cleaning and such -- for at least the six months, I think we'll still
primarily getting images from Commons, but we eventually expect to
restart an improved version of our old pipeline, as well as allowing
volunteers to contribute content. I hope that there's a day that
Commons will be getting images from Ookaboo rather than the other way
around.
Any thoughts?
Hoi,
Blogger is the platform I use now for many years to blog about the subjects
that are important in my appreciation of a Wiki world. At first I did not
illustrate my blogposts but thanks to Pfctdayelise I started to pepper my
blog posts with illustrations.
At this moment it is no longer possible for me to upload pictures to
blogger. The message that I get is that I have to ensure that I have a
license for the pictures that I upload. This is true for pictures that I
have downloaded from Commons and cropped, it is for screen shots of the
interaction with the Blogger user interface..
It is possible for me to get pictures displayed when I refer to the upload
page of a Commons picture but that does me no good when it is a svg picture.
Obviously I can download the picture and save it as an png ... but that does
me no good.
There are several "solutions" to this problem. I can upload the png, I can
use Wordpress instead. The obvious solution is for Google to get its act
together.
The solution that I like best is for Commons to become a true repository of
images that is not only intended for the illustration of Wikipedia and its
sister projects but also for the illustration of blogs like mine. Commons is
my first choice for illustrations for my blog but for some topics it just
does not provide me with the illustration that I am looking for.
I think that Commons has already many images that are usable, what would be
needed is just a different kind of pictures or more pictures that are
grouped by subject and easier to find.
Thanks,
GerardM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Farsi.svg The svg I would like to use as a
png
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2010/08/big-boost-for-mediawiki-localis…
blog post that needs an illustration
Dear commoners
We see an increasing number of spherical panoramics on commons [1],
which makes me happy. Those pictures are best viewed in a panoramic viewer.
Unfortunately when I compare our panoramic viewer [2] with the one i.e.
on 360cities [3] - they use krpano [4] - I conclude:
-Our Java system requires a faster computer than the Flash player
resulting in slow loading or errors.
-Our system is not able to progressively display the current view. That
means it takes a longer time until you can start browsing.
-The User Interface looks rather spartanic compared to the smooth one of
krpano.
So the question is why not switch to a better system if it's available?
After a quick look I got the impression that krpano is currently state
of the art but you may know another program.
I'm interested to hear your opinions.
Regards
Robin
[1]
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/Category:Spherical_pano…
[2]
http://toolserver.org/%7Edschwen/pano/index.php?f=Spitzkoppe_360_Panorama.j…
[3] http://www.360cities.net/
[4] http://krpano.com/
As promised, the draft report on our study of Controversial Content on
Wikimedia projects is now available at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2010_Wikimedia_Study_of_Controversial_Content.
We're actually planning to release the study on that page in three
segments, with a day or two in between This first one discusses the
general principles that animated our observations and recommendations.
We are very interested in your comments, and will be monitoring them
carefully. Your feedback will be built into the report we eventually
make to the Board in early October. And thanks to all for the welcoming
reception we've been given since our appearance in late June. These are
difficult questions to deal with, as you all know -- your openness has
made it easier for us to do so. Robert Harris and Dory Carr-Harris.
Hi,
i got this error uploading a file to Commons:
"Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data.
Please try again. If it still does not work, try logging out and
logging back in."
It seems to happen pretty irregularly. I'm using Chrome 6 / Mac OS X.
Is this a known bug?
Regards,
-- Hay
Reminder: we are having an open meeting in an hour on #wikimedia. -SJ
On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 4:29 PM, Samuel J Klein <sj(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> In an annual effort to welcome new Board members with an informal
> chat, the newest Wikimedia Trustees (Phoebe and Bishakha) are taking
> part in an open meeting on IRC this Saturday. This is a forum to
> discuss Wikimedia issues and anything else that's on your mind.
>
> Where : #wikimedia on irc.freenode.net
> When : Saturday September 11, 1600-1700 UTC
> (That's 0900 PST / 1200 EST / 1800 CEST / 2130 IST)
>
> All are welcome - please join the meeting with ideas or questions
> about Wikimedia and the Projects, or simply with good cheer! If you
> have a topic to add to the agenda, please add it on Meta:
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_meetings#September_2010
>
> We will keep the meeting to an hour, and will cover the agenda before
> moving to an open discussion. Summary minutes will be published.
>
> I hope to see many of you there,
> Sam
>
--
Samuel Klein identi.ca:sj w:user:sj
--
Samuel Klein identi.ca:sj w:user:sj
