[Foundation-l] WMF is planning to install a video player that harms creator attribution and ties between Wikipedia and Commons

[Mono mium]

If the video player actually worked for anything, it would be a problem. But
it doesn't and therefore it isn't.

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 5:10 AM, Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org>wrote:

> I assume that you, before sending this email to a mailing list that is not
> exactly technical in nature, have submitted bug reports about this on
> bugzilla so that the technical magicians can actually fix it? I'm confident
> they would appreciate any constructive input.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Lodewijk
>
> No dia 11 de Outubro de 2011 12:25, Teofilo <teofilowiki at gmail.com
> >escreveu:
>
> > I have learnt this morning that the "Timedmedia" extension "is not yet
> > installed on wikimedia sites, but its meant to replace the existing
> > player" (1).
> >
> > As I was uploading videos, and needed some specific tools, I happened
> > the other day to use the mwEmbed gadget on Wikimedia Commons which
> > seems to be a prefiguration of what the WMF plans to install
> > everywhere on its sites. My experience as guinea pig of that
> > experiment is negative:
> >
> > Clicking on the "i" option of the polar bear video inserted on commons
> > village pump (2) produces the following screenshot:
> >
> >
> http://prototype.wikimedia.org/timedmedia/File:Screenshot_of_commons_village_pump.jpg
> > (3). What the video viewer can read is "Credits: Title :
> > File:PolarBearsPlayingSDZooFeb09.ogv Kaltura". This is not a proper
> > way of providing author name (which should be Nehrams2020 ) and
> > license (which should be Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
> > Unported license with a link). The "share" menu provides "< i frame
> > src = " //
> >
> commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PolarBearsPlayingSDZooFeb09.ogv?withJS=MediaWiki:MwEmbed.js&embedplayer=yes
> > "
> > width="220" height="165" frameborder="0" >< /iframe > ". There is no
> > "Attribution" code similar to the one you can find when clicking on
> > "Use this file" on the photostock toolbar on the Commons description
> > page (4). The small polar bear icon displayed in the "i" option of the
> > "menu" is too small (it is only about 50x30px, while the standard
> > "thumb" size is 220px!). Using the full 220px rectangle as a link is
> > the way by which we tell readers/viewers that the Commons description
> > page is an important page. Most users will not be aware that they may
> > click on that 50x30px icon to find valuable information about the
> > file. The File:PolarBearsPlayingSDZooFeb09.ogv text is in grey color.
> > This is not the standard way to make the viewer aware that it is a
> > clickable link. Usually, clickable links are blue. This video player
> > is putting the Wikimedia commons description page 3 clicks away from
> > Wikipedia instead of just one (you must click on "menu", then on "i"
> > then on "File:PolarBearsPlayingSDZooFeb09.ogv"). If installed on
> > Wikipedia, this gadget will not be an improvement, but a huge drawback
> > for the quality of the relation between Wikipedia and Wikimedia
> > Commons. Wikimedia Commons will be unknown from Wikipedia readers or
> > seen as something far away. I guess a lot of people are going to
> > believe that the person who deserves credit is the company named
> > "Kaltura" instead of the real video creator. The "i" symbol is
> > meaningless for people whose languages do not have the word
> > "information" in their vocabularies. Even in English or in French
> > "information" is vague and does not mean "credit" or "license" or
> > "attribution". The efforts Wikimedia Commons has been doing on
> > description pages (indicating the source of the file, provide a
> > description, provide a date, provide categories to find related files,
> > etc.) are put aside for the purpose of the promotion of the "Kaltura"
> > brand name. And again a download link seems to be provided straight
> > away from the "menu" even if the user has not made the effort to learn
> > about the licensing conditions.
> >
> > (1) Michael Dale 2011-10-11 02:54:09 UTC
> > https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31583
> > (2)
> >
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#mwEmbed_gadget:_Videos_no_longer_properly_linked_to_description_pages_by_clicking_on_the_thumbnail
> > (3)
> >
> http://prototype.wikimedia.org/timedmedia/File:Screenshot_of_commons_village_pump.jpg
> > (4) screenshot of "use this file" toolbar tool:
> >
> http://prototype.wikimedia.org/timedmedia/File:Use_this_file_screenshot.jpg
> > ( the "stockphoto.js" toolbar)
> >
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> >
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