On 23/01/2008, daniwo59@aol.com daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
[Getty Images]
Looking at their site, I found that they pride themselves on four advantages that make all the difference between a media dump and a media collection. It is worth considering how our own image bank meets these standards, which, as they say, have emerged as industry standards over the past several years.
http://gettyimages.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=company_overview
How can we improve our own platform to simplify the process for people wishing to use free images?
Our search is rubbish. That's the big need.
The other part of the problem is how to use images in compliance with the licence. To this end, I started http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reuse a while ago, with the intended audience being casual readers who know nothing about Wikimedia but who call up or email asking if they can reuse an image they saw on Wikipedia. Any improvements anyone can make for accuracy and *CLARITY* are most welcomed.
How can we expedite any number of processes so that people get what they want, and quickly?
RSS of categories or tags? This means making categories or tags much easier. I try to remember to categorise my Commons uploads, but it's more work than it should be just to find the right category.
Do we have the kinds of images that people really want to use/reuse? How is that determined?
At the moment our remit is stuff that is used on a project or reasonably would be used on a project. Is that good enough? How would we reasonably expand on that?
(cc'd to commons-l - this thread belongs there too)
- d.
On Jan 23, 2008 1:53 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 23/01/2008, daniwo59@aol.com daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
How can we expedite any number of processes so that people get what they want, and quickly?
RSS of categories or tags?
http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/catfood.php?category=Featured_pictures
Magnus
David Gerard wrote:
The other part of the problem is how to use images in compliance with the licence. To this end, I started http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reuse a while ago, with the intended audience being casual readers who know nothing about Wikimedia but who call up or email asking if they can reuse an image they saw on Wikipedia. Any improvements anyone can make for accuracy and *CLARITY* are most welcomed.
I think there is one important issue that precludes widespread reuse by responsible people: we make no warranty whatsoever about the correctness of the licences - and it's to be expected, since the licensing information is filled in by users on which we have no a priori control.
When people buy photographs from Getty and so on, they not only buy a photograph but also some kind of insurance that they can safely use them. If they get sued for copyright infringement, they will say "hey, I bought this photograph from Getty, who certified that it was legit! sue THEM!". But do they want to say to a judge "well, we downloaded this picture from this site, where it was uploaded by somebody called tiptop35 who said it was in the public domain".
On 23/01/2008, David Monniaux David.Monniaux@free.fr wrote:
I think there is one important issue that precludes widespread reuse by responsible people: we make no warranty whatsoever about the correctness of the licences - and it's to be expected, since the licensing information is filled in by users on which we have no a priori control. When people buy photographs from Getty and so on, they not only buy a photograph but also some kind of insurance that they can safely use them. If they get sued for copyright infringement, they will say "hey, I bought this photograph from Getty, who certified that it was legit! sue THEM!". But do they want to say to a judge "well, we downloaded this picture from this site, where it was uploaded by somebody called tiptop35 who said it was in the public domain".
Yeah. OTOH, Flickr's CC search is a good enough source for many reusers, and they can't guarantee it either. So we can be at least that useful. If we had a search even as good as Flickr's tag search ...
- d.
On 24/01/2008, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
How can we expedite any number of processes so that people get what they want, and quickly?
RSS of categories or tags? This means making categories or tags much easier. I try to remember to categorise my Commons uploads, but it's more work than it should be just to find the right category.
Category RSS exists. e.g. http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/catfood.php?category=Felis_silvestris_catus This link is inserted into the toolbox, via JS, for all users. Yes it would be better to have it integrated but for endusers this solution works as transparently as an integrated version would.
BTW I recommend you turn something on in Special:Preferences > Gadgets called "Hotcat". It makes this ajaxy thing on all image pages and as you start typing a category name it lists the existing categories. mega cool. screenshot: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:HotCat.png (We are working on a new upload form which will have this integrated in it for all users, e.g. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload?withJS=MediaWiki:UploadForm.js)
There are many improvements that could and should be made to MediaWiki to better support a wiki where the basic unit is a media file, which should be equally accessible in as many languages as there are Wikipedias, and a good search result may throw up dozens of equally valid results, not just one.
We are repeatedly running up against the limits of trying to create a structured database using a freeform wiki.
I have the impression that the developers and the Board are somewhat aware of Commons' wishes and concerns (although naturally no one makes any promises :)) and when the new software developers are hired I hope and believe our requests may start to be seriously considered.
In general I share Florence's wish for a MediaWiki roadmap to be developed during this year.
cheers, Brianna