Besides the 100K milestone, the project also received an honorary mention at this year's Prix Ars Electronica. Please help with the distribution and translation of the press release at:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Press_releases/100K
The online copy also includes various media examples.
NB: The Commons now has more than half as many files as the English Wikipedia and more than any other project. Soon it will be the single largest repository of files in the Wikimedia world.
See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:First_steps for information on getting started to use the Commons.
All best,
Erik
100,000th file uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a free media repository
Free images, sounds, and videos can be used by anyone for any purpose
St. Petersburg, Florida, United States May 24, 2005
The Wikimedia Foundation announced today that the 100,000th file had been uploaded to its online repository of free images, sounds, and videos, the Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/). These files have been chosen or created by 5,259 registered users from more than 12 different languages gathered in a single lively community. The young project received additional encouragement and recognition on Monday in the form of an honorary mention at the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica awards.
The Wikimedia Commons, launched on September 7 2004, is a unique free and open media archive (including images, sounds, and video), using the same "wiki" technology that has made Wikipedia, a community-written encyclopedia, the second most popular reference website on the web (Hitwise.com report, April 2005). Wikis are websites that anyone can edit, allowing for rapid growth and constant peer review of all contributions. All files uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons are available royalty-free for any purpose. Most files require attribution of the creator, and some are under copyleft licenses, meaning that derivative works also have to be made available for free re-use. Both Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Commons are operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
The 100,000th file was an illustration drawn by a French Wikipedia user named Stephane Tsacas. He manages the computer network of the Curie Institute, a research center on biology and physics in Paris. "I recently did some searches in the French Wikipedia and discovered some incomplete information in a few articles in the field I know, computer science. I then decided to register and do the modifications myself."
The file Stephane Tsacas uploaded is a diagram of the experimental dataflow computer architecture. It is used in the detailed French article http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_Dataflow. As soon as a file is uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, it is instantly available for use on all Wikimedia projects without needing to be uploaded to the local project. This feature is encouraging the Wikimedia projects to move towards a multimedia approach rather than the simple text-based approach they relied on in the past.
"Wikimedia Commons is of critical importance for all the Wikimedia projects, and beyond that, it is critically important for the entire free culture movement," said Jimmy Wales, president of the Wikimedia Foundation. Since the inception of the project in September 2004, thousands of Wikimedia contributors have joined to make their multimedia available to the larger community. As such, the Commons is one of the most diverse collections of files imaginable. It includes many independent collections of free content:
* 7,733 pronunciation files in various languages, notably Dutch (5,926), German (499), Farsi (464), and Italian (249). These voice recordings made by editors of the project are mostly used in Wiktionary, a wiki-based dictionary and thesaurus. * Reproductions of 10,000 public domain paintings from ancient to modern times, donated by Directmedia Publishing, a German publishing company. This includes the works of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Hieronymus Bosch, and many others. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Yorck_Project. * Hundreds of public domain recordings of classical music by composers like Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Classical_music. * A growing collection of videos of historical speeches, excerpts from public domain films such as Charlie Chaplin's "The Bond", and scientific videos such as bacterial broths being deposited into a Petri dish or the Space Shuttle Columbia going through the sound barrier. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Video.
Besides these collections, it is the work of individuals which defines the Wikimedia Commons -- like Wikinews user "Belizian", who took photos during civil unrest in the small Central American nation of Belize in January 2005 for the Wikinews article on the subject (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Unrest_in_Belize), or Wikibooks author Robert Engelhardt, who has added photos of various beekeeping tools to his growing reference work on the topic (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beekeeping). From lovingly drawn subway maps to print quality photos of insects, from physics diagrams to photos of exotic locations, the members of the Wikimedia Commons cover virtually all areas of human interest with great attention to detail.
Like Wikimedia's other projects, the Wikimedia Commons is open for everyone to edit, to enrich it with new content, to help in the categorization of existing media, and to remove problematic materials. Given the proven successes of the wiki model, it may soon become the largest repository of free media on the web.
Additional information
For questions and interviews, please contact:
In English only:
Jimmy Wales, Chair, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation Phone: (+1)-727-644-3565 Email: jwales@wikimedia.org (mailto:jwales@wikimedia.org)
Angela Beesley, Executive Secretary, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation Phone: (+44)-208-816-7308 Email: angela@wikimedia.org (mailto:angela@wikimedia.org)
In English or French:
Florence Devouard, Vice President, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation: Email: anthere@wikimedia.org (mailto:anthere@wikimedia.org)
Prix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is a yearly prize in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), one of the world's major centers for art and technology.
The 2005 honorary mentions can be viewed at: http://www.aec.at/en/prix/honorary2005.asp
Since you decided to announce it yourself, could you be good enough to put an announcement on the foundation website please Erik ?
Thanks.
Ant
Erik Moeller a écrit:
Besides the 100K milestone, the project also received an honorary mention at this year's Prix Ars Electronica. Please help with the distribution and translation of the press release at:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Press_releases/100K
The online copy also includes various media examples.
NB: The Commons now has more than half as many files as the English Wikipedia and more than any other project. Soon it will be the single largest repository of files in the Wikimedia world.
See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:First_steps for information on getting started to use the Commons.
All best,
Erik
100,000th file uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a free media repository
Free images, sounds, and videos can be used by anyone for any purpose
St. Petersburg, Florida, United States May 24, 2005
The Wikimedia Foundation announced today that the 100,000th file had been uploaded to its online repository of free images, sounds, and videos, the Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/). These files have been chosen or created by 5,259 registered users from more than 12 different languages gathered in a single lively community. The young project received additional encouragement and recognition on Monday in the form of an honorary mention at the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica awards.
The Wikimedia Commons, launched on September 7 2004, is a unique free and open media archive (including images, sounds, and video), using the same "wiki" technology that has made Wikipedia, a community-written encyclopedia, the second most popular reference website on the web (Hitwise.com report, April 2005). Wikis are websites that anyone can edit, allowing for rapid growth and constant peer review of all contributions. All files uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons are available royalty-free for any purpose. Most files require attribution of the creator, and some are under copyleft licenses, meaning that derivative works also have to be made available for free re-use. Both Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Commons are operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
The 100,000th file was an illustration drawn by a French Wikipedia user named Stephane Tsacas. He manages the computer network of the Curie Institute, a research center on biology and physics in Paris. "I recently did some searches in the French Wikipedia and discovered some incomplete information in a few articles in the field I know, computer science. I then decided to register and do the modifications myself."
The file Stephane Tsacas uploaded is a diagram of the experimental dataflow computer architecture. It is used in the detailed French article http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_Dataflow. As soon as a file is uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, it is instantly available for use on all Wikimedia projects without needing to be uploaded to the local project. This feature is encouraging the Wikimedia projects to move towards a multimedia approach rather than the simple text-based approach they relied on in the past.
"Wikimedia Commons is of critical importance for all the Wikimedia projects, and beyond that, it is critically important for the entire free culture movement," said Jimmy Wales, president of the Wikimedia Foundation. Since the inception of the project in September 2004, thousands of Wikimedia contributors have joined to make their multimedia available to the larger community. As such, the Commons is one of the most diverse collections of files imaginable. It includes many independent collections of free content:
* 7,733 pronunciation files in various languages, notably Dutch(5,926), German (499), Farsi (464), and Italian (249). These voice recordings made by editors of the project are mostly used in Wiktionary, a wiki-based dictionary and thesaurus. * Reproductions of 10,000 public domain paintings from ancient to modern times, donated by Directmedia Publishing, a German publishing company. This includes the works of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Hieronymus Bosch, and many others. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Yorck_Project. * Hundreds of public domain recordings of classical music by composers like Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Classical_music. * A growing collection of videos of historical speeches, excerpts from public domain films such as Charlie Chaplin's "The Bond", and scientific videos such as bacterial broths being deposited into a Petri dish or the Space Shuttle Columbia going through the sound barrier. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Video.
Besides these collections, it is the work of individuals which defines the Wikimedia Commons -- like Wikinews user "Belizian", who took photos during civil unrest in the small Central American nation of Belize in January 2005 for the Wikinews article on the subject (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Unrest_in_Belize), or Wikibooks author Robert Engelhardt, who has added photos of various beekeeping tools to his growing reference work on the topic (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beekeeping). From lovingly drawn subway maps to print quality photos of insects, from physics diagrams to photos of exotic locations, the members of the Wikimedia Commons cover virtually all areas of human interest with great attention to detail.
Like Wikimedia's other projects, the Wikimedia Commons is open for everyone to edit, to enrich it with new content, to help in the categorization of existing media, and to remove problematic materials. Given the proven successes of the wiki model, it may soon become the largest repository of free media on the web.
Additional information
For questions and interviews, please contact:
In English only:
Jimmy Wales, Chair, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation Phone: (+1)-727-644-3565 Email: jwales@wikimedia.org (mailto:jwales@wikimedia.org)
Angela Beesley, Executive Secretary, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation Phone: (+44)-208-816-7308 Email: angela@wikimedia.org (mailto:angela@wikimedia.org)
In English or French:
Florence Devouard, Vice President, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation: Email: anthere@wikimedia.org (mailto:anthere@wikimedia.org)
Prix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is a yearly prize in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), one of the world's major centers for art and technology.
The 2005 honorary mentions can be viewed at: http://www.aec.at/en/prix/honorary2005.asp
Anthere wrote:
Since you decided to announce it yourself, could you be good enough to put an announcement on the foundation website please Erik ?
In Erik's defense, this was hardly a unilateral press release he personally announced; it was wiki-written by the Wikimedia Commons community, with edit history available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Press_releases/100K (Indeed, one member of the board, Angela, was among the people who helped write it.)
-Mark
Congrats the Commons Community!
On the WMF site, it was announced as below:
'''Wikimedia Commons reaches 100,000 uploads, and receives Ars Electronica mention'''<br /> The 100,000th file had been uploaded to our online repository of free images, sounds, and videos, the ''[[Commons:|Wikimedia Commons]]''. The young project received additional encouragement and recognition on Monday in the form of an honorary mention at the [http://www.aec.at/en/prix/honorary2005.asp 2005 Prix Ars Electronica awards]. More details are in the [[Commons:Commons:Press releases/100K|press release]]. '''''[[User:Angela|Angela Beesley]]'''''
and available already in two languages thanks to Spanish Wikipedian, Ascánder. With two other pieces of recent news, on downtime on May 13 by Domas and 2005 May significant milestones including the 50,000 articles of Portuguese Wikipedia (congrats!) which is now the 8th largest Wikipedia.
Translation is on-going on [[m:Translation requests/WMFnews]] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests/WMFnews
Your participating will be appreciate. We will welcome German, Japanese or French translators. Translation into other WMF site llanguages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese, Russian will be appreciated. If your language has no page on WMF yet or not switched to the new design Home like English [[Wikimedia:Home]], please consider to create a newly designed page with that announcement in that occasion.
Also your participation to translate press release will be appreciated. For further information please give a look to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests
Cheers,
Delirium a écrit:
Anthere wrote:
Since you decided to announce it yourself, could you be good enough to put an announcement on the foundation website please Erik ?
In Erik's defense, this was hardly a unilateral press release he personally announced; it was wiki-written by the Wikimedia Commons community, with edit history available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Press_releases/100K (Indeed, one member of the board, Angela, was among the people who helped
write it.)
-Mark
Not really. Since you attribute part of this energy to Erik and Angela's work, allow me to clarify why I am a bit unhappy.
I was the contact for the whole Ars Electronica deal. It was I who made all the mail exchanges on the topic. It took me time.
When JoiIto asked for a description of the project, it is I alone who thought of Villy's report on Quarto (I take care of this publication, so I know what is in it).
So, I digged up Villy's report and asked the community help for translation in english. I provided the report to JoiIto.
Later, Villy had the niceness to write for me a short report, precisely to make a press release. Then, I talked to Amgine so that he could prepare an article on wikinews.
Then, I posted the press announcement on grantwiki to keep it private.
Two days ago, when I realised there was a commons press release going on, I warned the community about the issue.
Angela then picked up the press release on grant wiki and merge it in the article.
So, what you qualify as Erik great work and Angela input in the article... are maybe true, but are also definitly a complete misrepresentation of who made the job about the press release and the whole Ars Electronica event.
It is easy to use the work done by others to make one's appear great.
This is something more and more frequently done in this community.
Much to my disappointement I must say.
I will be frank. There is greatness in helping the community. However, as for me, it takes me a lot of time and energy and this time and energy are taken on my own personal, private and professional life.
Some people are great enough that they are able to work heavily with no benefit whatsoever, but for thinking they did something great.
But for most normal people like me, and probably like you, heavy work should be compensated by something. Some like money, some want power. It depends. Well, I like that people job is recognised as their job.
In this case, my job and Villy's job and the main translator was just hidden under a carpet and attributed to someone else. The whole happiness of announcing a great even to the community, was not left to those who helped, but stolen by others. I would have been very happy to announce this. And I thought it would be fair as I took care to manage a bit of it. If not I, I would have been happy that villy's manage it, because he is a heavy contributor there and he made the description oand the press release bit.
I think Mark, that there are great expectations in the community. But with these expectations, do not forget to thank people. And to properly recognise each contributions to the global work. Because when this sort of things repeat and repeat and repeat over and over, all you get are very tired people who think themselves cheated and stolen.
So, tonight, I thought I could indeed myself just update silently the Wikimedia Foundation website and let all the "fame" again on others.
But I am tired. While this very nice announcement was made, I took more than an hour to try to fix Linuxbeak issue on the english wikipedia. Silently. It needed to get done as Jimbo's was not around. But this is about the invisible daily work most of the board is about. I do not deny Erik work, I do not deny Angela made a nice merge and indicated it was a merge. But what is visible and understood by the community is that... there were no other people implied in this. As you write it "Indeed,
one member of the board, Angela, was among the people who helped
write it"
So, it would be other people to proudly make the announcement, and get the pride of doing the job well, and others like myself to do the little work behind. That works for a while; it can not work for ever. It is not a sustainable solution Mark.
Once those who *actually* do the silent and invisible work behind the scene get tired, then nothing gets done.
I will NOT update silently the WMF website. I have my dignity tonight.
Ant
Anthere-
It is easy to use the work done by others to make one's appear great.
Yes. It is not quite as easy to write a press release from scratch, to find media examples, to determine the 100,000th file with an SQL query and contact the uploader for a quote, to get another quote from Jimbo, to count the number of files of particlar types, to get the community involved in all of this, to coordinate translations and, finally, to distribute the press release. Besides doing this, I also managed the Directmedia upload, which is part of the press release and was a time-intensive project over several weeks. Of the press release itself, I wrote 79.8%.
It's nice that you indirectly contributed to the press release and coordinated the honorary mentions, thank you. Thanks also to everyone else who helped, particularly Raul654 (8.3%), Angela (11.2%), and the translators. Now, as for the above, I will interpret it as a general rant and not directed at me. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Erik
Erik Moeller a écrit:
Anthere-
It is easy to use the work done by others to make one's appear great.
Yes. It is not quite as easy to write a press release from scratch, to find media examples, to determine the 100,000th file with an SQL query and contact the uploader for a quote, to get another quote from Jimbo, to count the number of files of particlar types, to get the community involved in all of this, to coordinate translations and, finally, to distribute the press release. Besides doing this, I also managed the Directmedia upload, which is part of the press release and was a time-intensive project over several weeks. Of the press release itself, I wrote 79.8%.
Thank god, everyone
It's nice that you indirectly contributed to the press release and coordinated the honorary mentions, thank you. Thanks also to everyone else who helped, particularly Raul654 (8.3%), Angela (11.2%), and the translators. Now, as for the above, I will interpret it as a general rant and not directed at me. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Erik
Erik Moeller a écrit:
Anthere-
It is easy to use the work done by others to make one's appear great.
Yes. It is not quite as easy to write a press release from scratch, to find media examples, to determine the 100,000th file with an SQL query and contact the uploader for a quote, to get another quote from Jimbo, to count the number of files of particlar types, to get the community involved in all of this, to coordinate translations and, finally, to distribute the press release. Besides doing this, I also managed the Directmedia upload, which is part of the press release and was a time-intensive project over several weeks. Of the press release itself, I wrote 79.8%.
I was generally referring to the invisible job done by some editors, not to the visible job everyone can easily see.
It's nice that you indirectly contributed to the press release and coordinated the honorary mentions, thank you. Thanks also to everyone else who helped, particularly Raul654 (8.3%), Angela (11.2%), and the translators. Now, as for the above, I will interpret it as a general rant and not directed at me. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Erik
Wikipedia worked because it is made of interactions, not only a sum of %.
Anthere:
I was generally referring to the invisible job done by some editors, not to the visible job everyone can easily see.
The problem with invisible jobs is, well, that they are invisible. The last editions of the Wikimedia Quarto have reported extensively about Board activities. I think this publication would be the best venue for you to describe what you have been doing when it is no longer secret, as well as highlight other people's "invisible work." You can't expect people to know about the invisible.
All best,
Erik
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org