[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Commons support enabled on all wikis

[Erik Moeller]

I have just finished implementing, backporting, and enabling basic support  
for transparently using content from the Wikimedia Commons on all  
Wikimedia wikis.

An example for this:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Onopordum_bracteatum0.jpg
=>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Onopordum_bracteatum0.jpg
=>
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Onopordum_bracteatum0.jpg
=>
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Onopordum_bracteatum0.jpg
=>
http://ja.wikibooks.org/wiki/%E7%94%BB%E5%83%8F:Onopordum_bracteatum0.jpg

etc. etc.

Use a file from the Commons like you would any other, using [[Image:]] or  
[[Media:]] links, with extended options or without. If the file does not  
exist locally, we search the Commons. If it doesn't exist there either, we  
show a "Missing image" notice.

You can edit Commons image pages, but this should only be done for the  
purpose of describing the content. For licensing information, you can use  
MediaWiki:Sharedupload to insert an automatic backlink to the Commons. See  
the version on en: as an example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Sharedupload

This is not perfect yet. In the not so far future, the content of the  
Commons description page should be directly transcluded on the using wiki.  
It should also be possible to upload content directly to the Commons from  
anywhere welse. In order to deal with issues like cross-wiki  
authentication, and to have a shared database in place, I am waiting for  
the single login transition before tackling this issue further.

And even these advanced features are just a mid term perspective. In the  
long term, I would like it to be possible for any open content wiki using  
our software to immediately start using Commons content (caching the  
images, of course, and maybe even serving them as mirrors chosen in a  
round-robin fashion).

In the meantime, please do start using the Commons, upload images and  
sound files to it, and help organizing the growing number of them. Keep in  
mind that the Commons is *only* for free content -- no fair use allowed.  
Having to upload non-free images locally is a good disincentive, and helps  
us to enforce individual wiki policies on non-free content.

All best,

Erik