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 everyone,
Crowds, pages turning, drums, chimes, vocals, and the sound of keyboards
typing. Wikimedia is alive with sound, music, and everything in between.
Voting <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Sound_Logo_Vote> in the
Wikimedia sound logo contest has started. From December 6 to 19, 2022, play
a part and help identify the Sound of All Human Knowledge. Voting is open
until 19 December, 23:59 UTC. Learn more on Diff.
The sound logo team is grateful to everyone who participated in this global
contest. We received 3,235 submissions from 2,094 participants in 135
countries. We are incredibly grateful to the team of volunteer screeners
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/10/31/screening-3235-sound-submissions/>
and the selection committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Sound_Logo/Contest_proposal#…>
who, among others, helped bring us to where we are today. It is now up to
Wikimedia to choose its sound logo.
Best wishes,
The sound logo team
*Mehrdad Pourzaki*
Lead Movement Communications Specialist
wikimediafoundation.org
Hi all,
Voting is now open in the sixteenth annual Picture of the Year contest:
<https://w.wiki/5xRn> - please vote! The first round of voting will be
open for 2 weeks.
Any user with more than 75 edits before Jan. 1, 2022 is eligible to
vote; if you're not sure the voting tool will automatically check for you.
If you have any questions, please see the help page: <https://w.wiki/5xSZ>.
P.S. You may notice this is the 2021 edition, we fell behind on starting
the contest. We can always use more volunteers to help, please let us
know if you're interested in helping in the future.
Thanks,
-- POTY Committee