Hi, for those who don't know, the Geograph is a photography contest and site that operates across the UK and Ireland and has a compatible license to ours. So close to 1.8 million of their images have been imported into Commons and are a major part of the reason why Commons has such good coverage of English churches, fields and minor roads. But we stopped mass importing their images some time ago due to the difficulty of categorising them, and there are now a million un copied images including all or almost all their hi-definition ones.
The Geograph has just become a registered charity much like us. So I thought I'd check out what their attitude was to our copying and using their images.
It turns out that they aren't aware that the migration has stalled, as their site still claims that all their images get migrated to Commons http://www.geograph.org.uk/faq3.php?q=wikipedia
I think there is a big opportunity for the chapter here, perhaps we could approach them and suggest changing their upload software to dual use? So Geograph users have the option of posting their images directly on Commons provided they add categories.
I suspect there would be some software implications, but if so it might be a useful use of a UK grant.
WereSpielChequers
On 9 April 2012 14:52, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
It turns out that they aren't aware that the migration has stalled, as their site still claims that all their images get migrated to Commons http://www.geograph.org.uk/faq3.php?q=wikipedia I think there is a big opportunity for the chapter here, perhaps we could approach them and suggest changing their upload software to dual use? So Geograph users have the option of posting their images directly on Commons provided they add categories. I suspect there would be some software implications, but if so it might be a useful use of a UK grant.
+1
Would it be worth approaching the Geograph community and asking them to work on the categorisation backlog themselves directly?
- d.
Oh I so agree, this would make "Wiki Loves Monuments" really work for us. Geograph is a brilliant project and WMUK should support them as easily as we would wikimedia commons.
(I have a suspicion that photos from Geograph will be less tricky to categorise if they arrive with geotagging built into the picture.)
so yes +1
On 9 April 2012 14:55, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 9 April 2012 14:52, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
It turns out that they aren't aware that the migration has stalled, as
their
site still claims that all their images get migrated to Commons http://www.geograph.org.uk/faq3.php?q=wikipedia I think there is a big opportunity for the chapter here, perhaps we could approach them and suggest changing their upload software to dual use? So Geograph users have the option of posting their images directly on
Commons
provided they add categories. I suspect there would be some software implications, but if so it might
be a
useful use of a UK grant.
+1
Would it be worth approaching the Geograph community and asking them to work on the categorisation backlog themselves directly?
- d.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Thanks Roger. Would it be appropriae for the Board to get our CEO to make contact?
Currently the Geograph images are geotagged in Commons, but Commons doesn't have ideal lookup tables to link them to appropriate towns and villages, I believe a bot was doing much of it based on proximity to the centre of somewhere, but boundaries are tricky things especially in the UK and the end result was that some geograph images got miscategorised. In some cases to the wrong side of the Solent.
There are tables that exist which include boundaries of towns and villages, and with those tables one can use geocodes to correctly categorise images, at least to a geographic location. However I doubt if those tables would be available open source, and though I'm sure they are commercially available I'm not so sure whether it would be appropriate for us to license them - it probably isn't viable as any such license is likely to prohibit reverse engineering which would make it incompatible with Commons anyway. But it might be worth asking the office to at least make enquiries.
WSC
On 9 April 2012 15:17, Roger Bamkin victuallers@gmail.com wrote:
Oh I so agree, this would make "Wiki Loves Monuments" really work for us. Geograph is a brilliant project and WMUK should support them as easily as we would wikimedia commons.
(I have a suspicion that photos from Geograph will be less tricky to categorise if they arrive with geotagging built into the picture.)
so yes +1
On 9 April 2012 14:55, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 9 April 2012 14:52, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
It turns out that they aren't aware that the migration has stalled, as
their
site still claims that all their images get migrated to Commons http://www.geograph.org.uk/faq3.php?q=wikipedia I think there is a big opportunity for the chapter here, perhaps we
could
approach them and suggest changing their upload software to dual use? So Geograph users have the option of posting their images directly on
Commons
provided they add categories. I suspect there would be some software implications, but if so it might
be a
useful use of a UK grant.
+1
Would it be worth approaching the Geograph community and asking them to work on the categorisation backlog themselves directly?
- d.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
-- Roger Bamkin 01332 702993 0758 2020815 Google+:Victuallers Skype:Victuallers1 Flickr:Victuallers2
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Well I think this links in with wiki loves monuments so i'll send a copy to Fae as I know he took an interest during the recent meeting although we are still looking around for a UK flag carrier for the WLM project.
Oh and here is an idea - the Wikipedian of the Yeahttp://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/UK_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_2012r has a special award - we could give it to Geograph - there must thousands of UK articles that are much more informative due to this project.
On 9 April 2012 15:35, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.comwrote:
Thanks Roger. Would it be appropriae for the Board to get our CEO to make contact?
Currently the Geograph images are geotagged in Commons, but Commons doesn't have ideal lookup tables to link them to appropriate towns and villages, I believe a bot was doing much of it based on proximity to the centre of somewhere, but boundaries are tricky things especially in the UK and the end result was that some geograph images got miscategorised. In some cases to the wrong side of the Solent.
There are tables that exist which include boundaries of towns and villages, and with those tables one can use geocodes to correctly categorise images, at least to a geographic location. However I doubt if those tables would be available open source, and though I'm sure they are commercially available I'm not so sure whether it would be appropriate for us to license them - it probably isn't viable as any such license is likely to prohibit reverse engineering which would make it incompatible with Commons anyway. But it might be worth asking the office to at least make enquiries.
WSC
On 9 April 2012 15:17, Roger Bamkin victuallers@gmail.com wrote:
Oh I so agree, this would make "Wiki Loves Monuments" really work for us. Geograph is a brilliant project and WMUK should support them as easily as we would wikimedia commons.
(I have a suspicion that photos from Geograph will be less tricky to categorise if they arrive with geotagging built into the picture.)
so yes +1
On 9 April 2012 14:55, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 9 April 2012 14:52, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
It turns out that they aren't aware that the migration has stalled, as
their
site still claims that all their images get migrated to Commons http://www.geograph.org.uk/faq3.php?q=wikipedia I think there is a big opportunity for the chapter here, perhaps we
could
approach them and suggest changing their upload software to dual use?
So
Geograph users have the option of posting their images directly on
Commons
provided they add categories. I suspect there would be some software implications, but if so it
might be a
useful use of a UK grant.
+1
Would it be worth approaching the Geograph community and asking them to work on the categorisation backlog themselves directly?
- d.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
-- Roger Bamkin 01332 702993 0758 2020815 Google+:Victuallers Skype:Victuallers1 Flickr:Victuallers2
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org