[Commons-l] All about Wikimania, future projects, licenses, etc etc

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi Florence, welcome to commons-l :)

> > I gave a 'Commons HOWTO tutorial' which started with about a dozen
> > people attending and by the end there was another dozen or two. I
> > talked briefly about how Commons works, deriv works, licenses,
> > categories, CommonSense tool, Mayflower, Extra-tabs.js (although I
> > didn't call it that, and one person commented that they had never seen
> > them before - we DO have them installed for EVERYONE, right??). We did
> > a transfer of an image from en.wp to Commons. We got some tough
> > questions like 'I'm uploading these for my wife - what should I do
> > vis-a-vis permission?' (I said ask her to send you a confirmation
> > email. This case of genuine verbal permission is tricky to handle.) It
> > was fun.
>
> Looks like there is no proceeding about your talk :-(
> And I could not go to it. Can you orient me to the right place, or
> quickly summarize what CommonSense and Extra-tabs is ?

It was a very hands-on thing, not prepared, so there are no proceedings.

CommonSense is a tool on the toolserver created by user:Duesentrieb.
It is here: http://tools.wikimedia.de/~daniel/WikiSense/CommonSense.php
You can put in keywords on this page and it will suggest existing
categories that may be relevant. It often suggests categories that are
not very relevant, though, so it has to be used with caution. :)
It is a useful tool because we encourage all files to be tagged by
categories or placed in galleries. Unless you are familiar with the
category system, it can be hard to find the right category, so this
tool can give you some good hints.

Extra-tabs is a Javascript file that puts extra tabs at the top of
certain pages, for logged in users. [if you are logged in and don't
see these tabs, please let me know.]

On image pages after the 'watch' tab you get a 'check usage' tab,
which will tell you where the image is being used in Wikimedia
projects. This is fun in itself, but also used by admins when deleting
files.
There are also 'find categories' (get CommonSense category suggestions
based on which pages this image is used in), 'log' (see logs for this
file) and 'en' (look at this image page on enwikipedia. this was
needed when there was several-month lag for enwikipedia on the
toolserver, but it is now fixed).

On category pages you get a tab that says 'catscan'. This links to
another tool by Duesentrieb that lets you do very useful searches
within the category. If you work with categories it's a really, really
useful tool.

On user/talk pages you get 'gallery', 'orphans' and 'untagged'. These
also are all tools by Duesentrieb. 'gallery' is like a visual
Special:Contributions that shows your uploaded files and some info
about them. 'Orphans' is the same but only lists the images of yours
that aren't used anywhere in Wikimedia. It's good to put your files to
use somewhere, so this tool helps that. 'Untagged' I think gives the
user's uploaded files that haven't been given a category/put in a
gallery or a license template. So use this tool to find out which of a
user's images need fixing up.

As you can see we have a remarkable amount of infrastructure built on
Javascript and the toolserver. The toolserver was only meant for nifty
toys, I think, not core functionality. For Commons, these things are
core functionality.

I will let Tangotango or Gmaxwell talk about why the Mayflower/normal
search results are different...

> Note that I used the neat logo picture several times in talks, but fact
> is, it is difficult to talk of a project one has never participated a
> lot in, even if one think it is a great project.

Does that mean the Board will only talk about projects they are
directly involved in? That should be about 10 at most. That would be
disappointing. :P

> But there is something else to fight, the desire for journalists for
> "big stories" (understand, shocking stories). For example, during the
> Wikimania press conference, we had 4 messages to give. One was
>
> MESSAGE 3: Our projects are becoming more sophisticated and accessible
> thanks the millions of volunteers we have worldwide
>
> * WIKIMEDIA COMMONS LAUNCH RSS FEED
>
> * Wikimedia Commons created a RSS Feed for Popular "Picture of the Day".
> * Picture of the Day are certified as Quality Images or Featured
> Pictures, and represent the best of the best in freely licensed media
> content available today.
> * A great resources for creative individuals.
>
> Okay, it was not so new, but...
> Anyway, it does not tickle journalists.

Well, journalists in general, I am not surprised they are only
interested in Wikipedia. But maybe some graphics magazine could be
interested in Commons. Definitely some education people should be
interested in Wikibooks and Wikiversity.


> So, the good question is "who do we want to tickle ?" Do you want to
> tickle "those who talk about things" (reaching out for journalists
> working in professional press in video/audio/image), or "producers of
> content" (reaching out to artists, perhaps in art conferences ?), or
> "users of content" (including a CD of images in a distribution of
> professional press for teachers ?)

Hmm, all of the above? :)

The CD of images for teachers is a really good idea. We have some
fantastic SVGs that would be awesome to include.

> I'd be more than happy to travel to conferences with a bunch of CD
> containing works, but before doing anything, the best would be to define
> which audience you want to reach out.

Well I think we can produce different stuff for different audiences.
But yes, we do need to define them before we do anything. :)

> A project I would find rather cool is distribution of a CD in one of
> these professional monthly dedicated to photo. I am not sure they would
> agree though.

Yes, another cool idea. But this may be difficult as traditional
photographers are often suspicious of free license stuff. Some feel
they are being undercut and free licenses are just destroying their
livelihood. (An issue for another time)

> Or making a deal with a publisher so that he included an image gallery.

What kind of publisher?

> Or a calendar to distribute at the end of the year, in all
> conferences/workshops/panels or generally visits, we go to. I am sure it
> would be nicer than a fireman calendar. But this would be significantly
> more expensive than distribution of a CD I guess.

Well I have some vague plans for that at the moment. My plan is to
hold the "Picture of the Year" competition in early November, so that
the winners can be put in a calendar. (This has not been widely
discussed yet so I can't say the community supports it. But it is my
plan. :))
Lulu.com and Blurb.com do print-on-demand calendars. So I think the
hassle is in organising it not getting money to do it.

> I'd say, come with a neat idea, and partners, and the job largely be
> done already :-) and I guess we can probably spare bucks.

IMO Commons needs $$ for development, not promotion. We can do a lot
of grassroots promotion before we need money.

> In case of the suggestion you have above, "book+CD", what would be the
> goal ? Promotion ? Distribution ? Audience ?

My goal would be raising awareness, so promotion I guess. And also a
celebration in our own community of our own great contributors, and
reaching a milestone. Imagine if you can order a book that has your
photo in it. It's a cool thing.

> One suggestion I would also have (but which is more time consuming
> probably) is to produce selections according to audience. For example,
> if you have a CD with pictures of famous buildings in one country,
> distribute to the touristic network. But it is really much more a hassle.

Yes. Maybe we can do some more work with the chapters for this.

> > ==Tech==
> > I spent a little time talking to Tim Starling about Commons' tech
> > priorities and even showed him  the Mayflower search engine which he
> > was unaware of (!). I intend to write up a summary for wikitech-l
> > about what I consider are Commons' tech priorities. One of them will
> > be replacing/integrating Mayflower as our search engine. I really
> > consider this a major priority for us.
>
> I read your list. My worry is the lack of feedback. I did not see one
> developer immediately jumping on one suggestion and saying "this one is
> cool, let me give it a try". My worry is really the lack of technical
> support, not enough developers. A lead. Hmmm

I also find it strange that I post about 20 items, one gets picked up
and has 20 replies, and the developers reply about that one issue
rather than acknowledge my post overall. If they didn't reply I would
not even know if they had read it. I don't know if they consider it
important. I don't know if they will give increased priority to any of
the things I mentioned.

FWIW I would dearly like to see a WMF employee as a dedicated
"technical/development liaison" that could respond to community
requests like mine. The devs do amazing wonderful work and are
generally over-worked. This is well known. But public relations are
not their strong point and for people who want to make a request for
some functionality for their community, I think it can be very
frustrating. There is often not a sense that your ideas are listened
to, considered or even wanted. MediaWiki still needs a lot of
development to be suited to a dictionary, a library, a book
collection. It is still essentially an encyclopedia-writing tool.

This is hard. I don't want to attack the devs. But the current
situation is not ideal.

> Can you better explain what a "coffee table book" is ?

There is an article on enwikipedia about it :) It's just like a big,
luxurious hardcover photography book. Typically little text, so you
don't really need to sit down and read it, just flick through it when
you like. You put it on the coffee table or on a table in a reception
area.

Thanks for participating in this discussion :)

cheers,
Brianna

-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/