[Foundation-l] [ANNOUNCEMENT] Greenspun illustration project

Sat Nov 3 03:32:48 UTC 2007

Huzzah!  A worthy goal; thanks, philg.  I am thinking of the many 
fantastic illustrators who pepper the projects, waiting for people to
ask them for suitably interesting or difficult illustrative tasks --
one of the most delightful classes of wiki editors I have ever run across.

We'll see how funded content creation goes; but whether or not the funds 
end up being the key to encouraging new work, these illustrators certainly 
deserve this sort of attention for their fine work.

SJ

On Fri, 2 Nov 2007, Cary Bass wrote:

> Forgive my misspelling in the announcement.   Subst "a" for "u".
>
> Cary Bass wrote:
>> Cross posting to Commons-l and Foundation-l (forgive the duplication):
>>
>> The Greenspun Illustration Project
>>
>>
>>     What is it?
>>
>> The Wikimedia Foundation has received a donation from Philip Greenspun
>> for the purpose of creating and improving illustrations on Wikimedia.
>> The Board has decided to accept his donation of $US20,000 for this
>> special purpose.
>>
>> This is the first time the Foundation has been directly involved in
>> funded content creation, although the German chapter's experience in
>> winning a government grant to write articles on sustainable development
>> has helped pave the way. The Foundation wants a "hands-off" minimal
>> administration role with the bulk of the work of organizing the project
>> and creating the content to be completed by members of our community.
>>
>> Since this is the first time we've done this, we're not sure how it will
>> go. This is a bit experimental and we ask for your patience and
>> enthusiasm to help make it a success.
>>
>> Brianna Laugher (<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pfctdayelise>)
>> will be coordinating the project, with my help as the Foundation's
>> Volunteer Coordinator.
>>
>>
>>     How will it run?
>>
>> Since Philip's kind donation is a lot of money and we're planning to pay
>> around US$40 per illustration (with some lower and higher amounts, see
>> details to follow), we want to progress the project in stages. Starting
>> out with a small number of 50 requested illustrations, we'll look at our
>> results and modify and improve it for successive stages.
>>
>> The project will flow along as follows:
>>
>>     * Create list of requested illustrations.
>>     * Open illustration requests on issue tracking software
>>     * Users will self-assign requests, signaling his or her intent to
>>       create that illustration.
>>     * On creation and approval, the user is paid the amount as set in
>>       the original request.
>>
>> Things to note:
>>
>>     * The list of requests will be approved by Brianna, in order that
>>       balance exists among "things any decent reference work needs";
>>       "things the Wikimedia community requests"; and "things we nearly
>>       have, or have poor versions of".
>>     * Approval: a review group will be formed in order to provide
>>       assessment of submitted images. The main checks will be 1)
>>       editor's original work and acceptable license, 2) correct
>>       rendering on MediaWiki and 3) how well the image depicts the
>>       requested item. No image will be accepted that do not pass all
>>       three of these checks.
>>     * Other checks will be recommended (e.g. language-neutral version).
>>     * The payment system is not yet finalized.
>>
>>
>>     How you can help
>>
>> If you are interested in suggesting illustrations to be created, you
>> don't have long to wait: soon there will be some pages on Meta where you
>> can get involved. We will write to foundation-l when the pages are ready
>> for your input.
>>
>> If you are interested in being part of the review group, please email
>> Brianna as follows:
>>
>> brianna.laugher AT gmail DOT com
>>
>>
>>     The benefits
>>
>> This project can have two good outcomes. One, we get illustrations we
>> wouldn't otherwise have, or wouldn't otherwise have had so quickly.
>> Another benefit is that we can use this project as a way to encourage
>> and launch new people into the "illustrator community".
>>
>> Creating high-quality SVGs is not a skill a lot of people have
>> immediately, but may be developed fairly quickly. While many people
>> might be vaguely interested in it but no more, a monetary incentive
>> might be enough to push them to act, and learn, and create. Some of the
>> image requests will be for smaller amounts (US$15) for relatively
>> simpler illustrations—these will be specifically targeted to newcomers
>> to encourage them to get involved. At the end of this project we might
>> have $20,000 worth of illustrations, but the value of the content
>> creating community will potentially be a lot higher. We expect a side
>> benefit to this project will be the creation/finding and maintenance of
>> good documentation for specific tasks using tools like Inkscape.
>>
>>
>>     More details
>>
>> See the project specifications at:
>>
>> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/5/51/WMF_Greenspun_Illustration_Project_Proposal.pdf
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Cary Bass
> Volunteer Coordinator
>
> Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Support the Wikimedia Foundation today: http://donate.wikimedia.org
>
> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
> Phone: 727.231.0101
> Fax: 727.258.0207
> E-Mail: cbass at wikimedia.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>