[Foundation-l] Wikipedia video tutorials: the making-of

[Marcus Buck]

I guess you made some specifications for the videos before you created 
them. Like, who is the target audience, do we want it to be translated 
into other languages, where to publish them, what kind of aura should 
the speaker have, etc. etc. Could you give some insights into these 
specifications? Especially about languages.

Marcus Buck

Frank Schulenburg hett schreven:
> Hi all,
>
> As most of you know we've been working on Wikipedia video tutorials
> during the last few months. The general idea behind producing video
> tutorials is the belief that videos make learning much easier than
> text based online help pages, at least for some audiences. We are
> therefore producing a number of videos demonstrating the basics of
> Wikipedia editing and increasing the public understanding of Wikipedia
> and Wikimedia.
>
> For this purpose we would like to distinguish between two sorts of
> video tutorials:
>
> * Guided tours: designed to raise the public understanding of
> Wikipedia and Wikimedia as well as to encourage people to view
> Wikipedia as friendly. All guided tours will be presented by
> moderators in order to appear more trustworthy, friendly and
> encouraging. They will be produced as high quality videos by a
> production company commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation.
>
> * How-to videos: aimed at explaining basic features of the Wikipedia
> user interface. How-to videos shall be produced as screencasts with a
> speaker explaining every single step.
>
> In a nutshell think of (a) guided tours as videos aimed at giving the
> audience a look behind the scenes and to encourage them to join us as
> editors and (b) how-to videos as tutorials to enable newbies to make a
> successful start on Wikipedia.
>
> (a) Examples for guided tours may be:
>
> * Editing Wikipedia is easy!
> * Why does Wikipedia work even though anyone can edit it?
> * What motivates the volunteers behind Wikipedia / Wikimedia?
> * What you should know about Wikimedia - the organization behind Wikipedia
>
> (b) Examples for how-to videos may be:
>
> * How to create a user account
> * The basics of Wiki markup
> * How do I upload images?
> * How to find information about a certain topic on Wikipedia?
>
> On 19 November 2008, the shooting of the very first Wikipedia guided
> tours video tutorials took place. We are very happy that we found in
> Hendrik John of Living Colour film production an experienced filmmaker
> who managed not only the shooting but also everything related to the
> development (including the casting of Theresa, our moderator in the
> first two videos) and the pre-production (like hiring the crew and
> building the set).
>
> A big thanks goes to Lennart Guldbrandsson, the president of Wikimedia
> Sverige, who helped us a lot with his experience in filmmaking and
> scriptwriting. Thank you Lennart - I always enjoy our collaboration!
>
> To give you a look behind the scenes I produced a short 3 minute
> making-of video that provides some insights on how complex the
> production of guided tours may be. You can watch it online:
>
> * http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_video_tutorials_making-of_(high).ogv
> (11.7 MB, better quality)
> * http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_video_tutorials_making-of_(low).ogv
> (6.2 MB, lower quality)
>
> and also on
>
> * http://vimeo.com/2554962
> * http://fschulenburg.blip.tv/file/1493287/
> * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgJTndVjSYc
>
> Currently, the two video tutorials are in the process of
> post-production (assembling the film, adding visual effects etc.) and
> we hope that they will be online soon.
>
> All this would have not been possible without the funding of Wikimedia
> Deutschland. The German chapter not only paid all costs for the video
> production but also my travel expenses.
>
> So, please join me in thanking Wikimedia Germany for the financial
> support and ... enjoy the making-of video :-)
>
> Frank Schulenburg
> Head of Public Outreach
>
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>
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