http://blog.wikimedia.org/blog/2011/04/15/ten-million-free-media-files-and-…
Ten is turning out to be the number of the year for Wikimedia. First, the Wikimedia
Foundation celebrated the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia in January, and now Wikimedia
Commons – the library of images, sound files, and videos that constitutes an integral
component of Wikipedia’s user experience – has logged its 10,000,000th file. All files on
Wikimedia Commons can be used for any purpose, including commercial use, under terms
consistent with the Definition of Free Cultural Works. This, together with its educational
focus, makes Wikimedia Commons a media repository unlike any other.
The ten millionth file uploaded to Commons is a photograph of a waterfowl observation
platform near Lipno Lake in the Wdzydze Landscape Park in Poland. It was uploaded by
Commons user Leinad, who has been uploading to Commons since 2006. Leinad is also active
on the Polish Wikipedia, and attended the 2010 Wikimania conference in Gdansk.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:POL_Lipno_%28jezioro_w_wojew%C3%B3dz…
What stories these ten million files can tell. The scope of Wikimedia’s ambitions has
always been epic, and comparing 2006’s 1 millionth image – a pygmy hippopotamus at the
Singapore Zoo – to 2009’s five-millionth upload – an article detailing democracy from an
1838 Danish newspaper – succinctly demonstrates the near-limitless capacity for sharing
knowledge we’ve fostered.
While the frequency of new articles appearing on Wikipedia may have slowed, our repository
of educational media is growing faster than ever. Today’s entry marks less than a two year
period during which more than five million new files have been uploaded. This is in part
thanks to Wikimedia’s global volunteer building more and more relationships with cultural
institutions and collection holders around the world, receiving and uploading large
treasures of photographs, video and other content. And we are hoping to accelerate the
project’s growth further, with a new media upload tool (login required) which we are
currently beta testing, as well as improved video support.
Our huge thanks to the tens of thousands of individuals who have contributed to Wikimedia
Commons and who have helped bring the project to this milestone. You have helped us
create the largest, and almost certainly, the highest quality trove of entirely freely
re-usable, education-oriented media files in history.
--
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw