Dear all,
I think we are mixing two different topics here, which are two different problems we should solve:
We have series of problems regarding video upload, some of them technical (codecs, uploading process...) and other social (how to know
if the video is freely licensed, etc). Both are interesting issues, and we should have a plan to solve them. Still, there are videos uploaded and used in Wikipedia. Technically, it is even possible to make a video portal, take a look to: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari:Hezkuntza/Ikusgela.
But videos are not, by definition, more interactive than audios, images or text. Videos are still passive content: you play them in the same way you could hear an audio sample or just read a text.
When I talk about interactive content, I'm talking about content that can be manipulated by the reader:
- Take a look to OurWorldInData climate change graphs and charts (https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/climate-change).
These are freely licensed, we could have them in articles, but we can't because there are road blocks for this to happen (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T303853).
- Take a look to brilliant and how to learn geometry there : https://brilliant.org/courses/geometry-fundamentals/?from_topic=geometry.
You can just learn geometry manipulating objects, learning directly how changing a parameter changes the result.
- Now take a look to this material by NASA:https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/phases-eclipses-supermoons/moon-phases/.
You can explore the moon phase with a slider, but for us this is completely impossible (there are more interactive features here:
https://moon.nasa.gov/interactives/).
- Now take a look to this 3D interactive models: https://sketchfab.com/juanbrualla.
There are many more, and some of them are directly under cc-by license, but we can't use them because we can't render 3D objects with textures (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T246901).
- Do you want to learn about equations? Wikipedia is not the best starting point, as math articles are normally complex. But we could have this:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator. No, is not going to happen because we are going in the opposite direction. There are more great examples of graphic calculators in
https://www.desmos.com/ or
https://www.geogebra.org/. Now we have some GeoGebra created videos in Commons, even if there are some users who have tried to delete them:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:GeoGebra.
Is to say, instead of adding a graphic calculator, we add the video of someone using it, losing all the interactivity of the learning process.
- This is a vertical video in the project Ikusgela:https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitxategi:Ikusgela-Tupustarriak.webm.
It has subtitles, but we can't add more information than that, even if we have the script with links, because adding links to subtitles is not allowed. Now imagine you can annotate this audio by JFK to add context and links to what he is saying: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jfk_berlin_address_high.ogg.
- Now, this is the timeline of symphonies by Beethoven, with audio, from Wikidata:
https://w.wiki/8$jk. The good news is that we can see it. The bad news is that we can't embed it in any article. Which is extremely weird, because both are our projects.
So, we have two different problems. Video playing is quite evident. But lack of interactivity will add to the cost, because there are
other platforms doing it way better.
I would really like to have an answer by the WMF.
Thanks
Galder
It is not difficult to do something that is already happening. By referring to encyclopedic videos I am talking about multimedia that can enrich existing content. I understand your point, it's a bit like what happened with the project of reading
recorded Wikipedia articles that after years seem obsolete.
What I am referring to is all that multimedia material that is visual, that can be made into video to complement articles. The process you mention is complicated, but not impossible, in fact, there are many of us editors who have all those skills already implemented
in the projects.
--
Iván Martínez
Voluntario - Wikimedia México A.C.
User:ProtoplasmaKid
// Mis comunicaciones respecto a Wikipedia/Wikimedia pueden tener una moratoria en su atención debido a que es un voluntariado.
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