2008/12/8 Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com:
Another thing that might be worth looking into is whether the Stanton Grant [1] is only for Wikipedia (as is stated in the press release) or whether Commons enters into that overhaul. Because if it does, we might have a chance to make Commons the cool project it deserves to be.
The focus of the Stanton project is Wikipedia, but due to the fact that uploading media to Commons is an integral part of editing a Wikipedia article, we hope that we can at least name some of the key challenges and make some improvements in that area as part of the project. We're also working on a separate grant proposal focused specifically on building an optimized workflow for media uploads.
I am noting with some interest the idea to use local projects essentially as a first contact point for all media. My primary concern about such an approach would be the risk of diluting an already difficult commitment to free content. That said, I don't want to deny the problems that Lars pointed out, and I think serious technical and social efforts will be required to address them, one way or another.