Commons is the "common" place for wikimedia projects for media (images, video files, audio files, pdf files). It may be further expanded to include interwiki templates and other goodies when there is Mediawiki support for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediagenic is taken and we (commons) shouldn't be restricted to multimedia.
I personally have no problem identifying what commons is. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Commons
I want to be associated with a project which has a litteral meaning "belonging equally to, or shared alike by, two or more or all in question" (1st meaning on the cited source) which is what commons is, a common wiki.
- White Cat
On 7/2/07, Brianna Laugher brianna.laugher@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Erik (user:Eloquence) conducted a smallish survey on Meta about Wikimedia brand identities. (See the relevant parts of his email below.) Some people identified "Wikimedia Commons" as a confusing name, in that it doesn't clearly identify what the project actually is or does. Do Commoners think the project should be renamed, and if so, to what?
IMO Commons had rather no choice but to choose a confusing name, because the obvious name - Wikimedia! - already stands for some other idea that doesn't actually have a lot to do with media but only wikis. Perhaps Wikimedia (& Wikimedia Foundation) should become Wikimmunity (wiki-community - but it kind of sounds like wiki-immunity :)) and then Commons can take over the Wikimedia label. Otherwise we're looking at "Wikimedia Media"... er... then should MediaWiki be "Wikimedia Wiki"? :)
If I search in google for "Commons", Wikimedia Commons is 7th, behind Jakarta Commons (something to do with Java), Creative Commons, "Commons" (NIH grants?), two Wikipedia articles, and the UK govt "House of Commons" website. Clearly using the word Commons is going to be an uphill battle in terms of creating an identity. (Doesn't mean it's impossible, though.)
Is there any other word like "media" in English that covers the meaning of images/graphics + audio + video (+ documents) ?
Wikimedia Formats? (urgh) Wikimedia Multimedia? Mediagenic? (I just learnt of this word via Wiktionary. It's formed from media + photogenic, I quite like it. but there's some companies that have taken it already I think.)
Does Commons need a "Wikimedia" identifier in the name? (None of the other projects have one.) Does Commons need a "wiki" identifier in the name? (All of the other projects have it, but I think it's not as essential to Commons as to other projects.)
Ideas welcome, Brianna user:pfctdayelise
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org Date: 01-Jul-2007 22:16 Subject: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia Brand Survey Analysis To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
== Current names ==
Of all the names, "Wikimedia Commons" is widely identified (by 12 people, according to my count) as a confusing name which does not really identify what the project stands for, is not easily translatable, too long, and too close to "Creaitve Commons."
[...]
== Follow-up ==
I'd like to recommend several follow-up steps. Some of these can be only taken by the Board/Staff, while others can be initiated by any community member:
[...]
- There should be a dedicated brainstorming about the Wikimedia
Commons name and possible alternatives. [...]
-- They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment: http://modernthings.org/
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l