+mediawiki-india(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mediawiki-india(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Vasanth Gopa <gopavasanth1999(a)gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 5, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: Introducing WISE: Semantic search for Commons (we’d love your
feedback)
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <
wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia Mailing List <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <
commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: <pinto(a)robots.ox.ac.uk>, Vasanth Gopa <gopavasanth1999(a)gmail.com>
Hello everyone,
Following up on the WISE <https://wise.wmcloud.org/> tool's announcement,
we wanted to briefly explain why we are seeking community interest and
support.
At the moment, WISE indexes only “Media of the Day” (~5,000 videos).
Expanding this to cover the full Wikimedia Commons collection (millions of
images) requires significant computational resources, especially
large-scale GPU processing, along with storage and ongoing maintenance.
Before moving in that direction, we want to understand:
- Is this tool useful for the community?
- Should we invest effort and resources to scale it further?
- Are there any concerns we should address first?
If you find WISE useful or promising, you can support or share feedback
here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wise#Community_interest_and_supp…
You can:
- Add your support or comments on the page
- Share use cases or ideas
- Raise any concerns or suggestions
Your input will help guide whether and how we expand WISE further. Thanks
again for your time and feedback.
Wise Tool: https://wise.wmcloud.org/
Regards,
Gopa Vasanth
On Sun, May 3, 2026 at 2:09 AM Vasanth Gopa <gopavasanth1999(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> We would love to get your feedback on a tool we have been working on:
> https://wise.wmcloud.org/
>
> This is a search tool for images and videos on wikimedia. Currently is
> searching only on media of the day (approximately 5000 videos). It searches
> only the visual content of the file (not on metadata, filename, or
> structured data). It also does face detection and recognition.
>
> Please give it a go. Here's some examples:
>
> *Semantic example queries:*
> "man at a train station"
> "एक व्यक्ति रेलवे स्टेशन पर" (Hindi)
> "horse in an airplane"
> "విమానంలో గుర్రం" (Telugu)
> "man with a flower"
> "pirate with a pistol"
>
> *Face search (select "Faces"):*
>
> Click the green "Image" button and paste an image URL
>
> Example inputs:
> * https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Charlie_Chaplin.jpg
> *
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Neil_Armstrong_pose.jpg
>
> [warning: some videos are ogv videos and your brownser may not play them,
> so watch them on Commons, i.e., after clicking the search result, scroll
> down to the media metadata table, and follow the link to commons]
>
> *Key features include:*
>
> * Semantic search using natural language to find relevant images on
> Commons from the visual content only (not the structured data or
> description, only the image itself)
> * Face search: upload or paste a face image, and the tool will try to
> identify and locate that person across images and videos, including
> timestamps where they appear
> * Audio search: search within audio files to find relevant segments
> * Multilingual search: supports queries in multiple languages
>
> We are actively improving the tool and would really appreciate any
> feedback, suggestions, or ideas from the community. Here's some more
> immediate future plans:
>
> * Search on all wikimedia images (instead of only videos / media of the
> day)
> * Show similar images when uploading an image to suggest filenames,
> categories, and other relevant metadata
>
> More technical details and a place to share feedback at
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wise
> * Phabricator: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T424092
> * Announcement on Village pump:
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#Introducing_WISE%3A…
> Regards,
>
> Gopa Vasanth <https://gopavasanth.github.io/>
> Twitter <https://twitter.com/gopavasanth1999> | LinkedIn
> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopa-vasanth/> | GitHub
> <https://github.com/gopavasanth> | Gerrit
> <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/q/gopavasanth>
>
> “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
>
>
--
Regards,
Gopa Vasanth <https://gopavasanth.github.io/>
Twitter <https://twitter.com/gopavasanth1999> | LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopa-vasanth/> | GitHub
<https://github.com/gopavasanth> | Gerrit
<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/q/gopavasanth>
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
--
Regards,
Gopa Vasanth <https://gopavasanth.github.io/>
Twitter <https://twitter.com/gopavasanth1999> | LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopa-vasanth/> | GitHub
<https://github.com/gopavasanth> | Gerrit
<https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/q/gopavasanth>
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
Dear Community Members,
We are pleased to announce that self-funded registration and the Call for
Submissions for WikiConference India 2026
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2026> are now open.
WikiConference India 2026 will take place in Kochi, Kerala, from 4th to 6th
September 2026. The conference will bring together Wikimedians, community
leaders, developers, researchers, and open knowledge enthusiasts from
across India and South Asia to connect, collaborate, and share experiences.
The theme for WCI 2026 is “Reimagining the Knowledge Commons: Community
Leadership in an Evolving Wikimedia Ecosystem.” As the Wikimedia movement
navigates rapid technological changes, including the rise of AI and new
models of knowledge creation, the conference aims to create space for
conversations around community leadership, knowledge equity, regional
languages, open knowledge, and the future of Wikimedia in India and South
Asia.
Self-Funded Registration
The self-funded registration application is now live on Pretix.
-
Details and Eligibility: [Registration Meta Page Link]
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2026/Registration>
-
Registration Form: https://pretix.eu/wikimedia-events/WCI2026/
-
Last date for registration: July 15th, 2026
Call for Submissions
The Call for Submissions is now live on Eventyay.
We invite proposals for workshops, discussions, panels, interactive
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experienced contributor or a newer community member, your ideas,
experiences, and learnings can help shape the conference program and
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-
Details and Guidelines: [Link to Meta-Wiki Submission Page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2026/Programme/Submiss…>
]
-
Submission Deadline: [July 15th, 2026]
For complete information about WikiConference India 2026, including
participation details, timelines, conference updates, and submission
guidelines, please refer to the official announcement:
-
Detailed Announcement: [Blog Post Link]
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/06/26/shape-the-future-call-for-submissions…>
We encourage community members to register, submit proposals, and share
this announcement within their networks.
Regards,
WikiConference India 2026 Organizing Team
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2026
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2026/Registration
[3] https://pretix.eu/wikimedia-events/WCI2026/
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2026/Programme/Submiss…
[5]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/06/26/shape-the-future-call-for-submissions…
--
*WikiConference India 2026 Organizing team *
