This discussion, although started with a question "why don't people
contribute to Wikimedia Commons, now after actually the discussion above,
covers more topics. A few notes, observations and comments:
1) I remember a major discussion took place somewhere on Wikimedia Commons
when one of the strategy2030 draft recommendations suggested uploading
non-free images on Wikimedia Commons. That discussion was also on the scope
of Wikimedia Commons. I wish I could recall where exactly it took place.
However, I am pretty sure that many of you have read or participated there.
Most probably there I first read the idea of "uncommon/uncommons" (or an
alternative version of Commons).
2) Wikimedia Commons is most possibly/definitely less popular than
Wikipedia. I believe many editors start from Wikipedia and then move to
Wikimedia Commons. There is, of course, another reason, when someone
gradually becomes more experienced on Wikipedia, they learn they need to
spend some time on Wikimedia Commons for the article–photos they are
working on. I "personally" do "not" feel the solution of this
"popularity"
problem is rebranding. We need more Wikimedia Commons-focused plans,
initiatives, and strategies (I find this is true for all other projects).
3) Yes, the difficulty of using the app/web interface might be an issue of
seeing less contribution as well. You have different photo-sharing
platforms which uploads photos in 1-click. Commons upload process is
longer. (I am not saying the process is bad, of course, we need all the
steps, and there is not an unnecessary step there.)
4) The human emotion and interaction part is kind of missing: On Facebook,
Instagram the likes, comments etc one gets, work as a motivation. This is a
major issue. On FB, or Instagram an uploader can connect with people
instantly, and their responses/reactions are quick as well. (Here also, I
am not really suggesting anything, just keeping it as an observation)
Let's talk about Google Photos, their badges, photo views analytics, and
email time to time (eg: Your photo is making a difference, or You are a
star) is good for motivation as well.
Thanks
User:Titodutta
On Sun, 17 May 2020 at 13:03, Fæ <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, 17 May 2020 at 07:20, Roland Unger
<roland.unger(a)soziologie.uni-halle.de> wrote:
There are several causes why people do not upload their photos to
Commons.
-
Wikimedia Commons is less known like the other Wikimedia sisters. We
had to
increase the awareness of these projects
including the Foundation
itself. But all people speak only about Wikipedia, and nobody starts an
ad campaign for the sisters to overcome this. Not only the scope of
Commons is
broader, that of the movement is broader, too. Maybe the
Foundation can improve its support for the sisters to attract new users for
the movement.
see:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/02/07/how-does-the-world-see-wiki…
-
Many photographers (and Wikipedians) will be become famous. There is
the question
why to
publish at Wikimedia Commons instead of
Instagram, Flickr, or Pinterest?
-
There is almost no support for the sister projects by Wikipedians. Some
Wikipedians are
living in their own world, and sometimes they
argue against their
sisters.
- For many users it is difficult to use Commons or other Wikimedia
projects. They
have to fight against an ancient and not user-friendly user
interface (for instance manual edits of things stored in EXIF data or in
the user account, adding categories without any automatic support, etc.).
I am not really sure if an investigation should be done because most
problems are
known already now.
I think we should keep the opportunity of commercial use, because all
Wikimedia
products should be used freely. For instance, what shall an
officer at a travel agency do if she/he cannot use Wikimedia products
freely because of commercial-usage restrictions?
Roland
>> Benjamin Ikuta
<benjaminikuta(a)gmail.com> 05/17/20 5:07 AM >>>
Anecdotally, it seems people sometimes don't upload their photos to
Commons
because they don't realize that the scope of Commons is much
broader than that of Wikipedia.
Has there been, or should there be, any research into this, or why
people
don't contribute more broadly?
~Benjamin
A "share" link on image pages would go a long way to fixing this. If
folks on instagram, flickr etc. got used to seeing nice images with
links back to Commons, we might expect 1% to 4% of those readers to
follow the link back to the source, so if a few go viral, that might
actually attract a few high quality photographers.
A "mirror" tool would also be a great addition. If a photographer
could easily share some of their photos by picking from their gallery
and pushing to their flickr/instagram and a Commons account at the
same time, all on a cc-by-sa license, they would come to see Commons
as part of increasing their own internet footprint.
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
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