Mailing List Archive: Wikipedia: Wikitech

$300K grant for Wikimedia Commons

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erik at wikimedia

Jul 1, 2009, 6:30 PM

Post #1 of 4 (448 views)
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$300K grant for Wikimedia Commons

All,

I'm very happy to announce that the Ford Foundation has awarded a
$300,000 grant to the Wikimedia Foundation to improve our interfaces
and workflows for multimedia uploading. Press release here:

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Ford_Foundation_Grant_July_2009

For the first time we're also sharing a full grant proposal, with
permission of the Ford Foundation. You can find it here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/f/f9/WMF_Ford_Multimedia_Participation_Project.pdf

It should give you a good idea about what we can do within the scope
of this project. As a brief recap, Michael Dale has already done some
good work on external repository searches and transfers, and
integration of uploading into the editing UI, so we're hoping to build
on top of this to really get the workflow for
licensing/upload/review/embedding of media files nailed.

We've also been having initial discussions with some of the Wikimedia
chapters about possible models for working together on the execution
of this. For example, we want to make sure that we can facilitate
fruitful face-to-face meetings with Commons practitioners, and there
is plenty of technical work to be done that can be decentralized and
shared. Exciting projects like Wikimedia Germany's investment in
multilingual search are already underway, so hopefully over the next
year, we'll see lots of useful activity culminating in genuine
improvements for Commons and beyond.

Big thanks to Sara Crouse and Naoko Komura for their work on this
grant proposal, and of course to the Ford Foundation for funding it.
:-) Wikimedia Commons deserves to grow to many more millions of free
educational media files, and hopefully this strategic investment will
help us to get there.

All best,
Erik
--
Erik MЎller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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stevagewp at gmail

Jul 1, 2009, 8:51 PM

Post #2 of 4 (414 views)
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Re: $300K grant for Wikimedia Commons [In reply to]

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Erik Moeller<erik [at] wikimedia> wrote:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/f/f9/WMF_Ford_Multimedia_Participation_Project.pdf

----
The objective of this project is to increase participation in and
contributions to Wikimedia
Commons by implementing a 13month
software development, usability testing and
documentation project to improve the interface for uploading
multimedia files to Wikimedia
Commons.
The deliverables should include the following key improvements:
Хan integrated upload tool that can be accessed directly from the
editing window;
ХWikipedia integration of Wikimedia Commons as a repository to store
freely licensed
media;
Хan intelligent workflow for fair use media that are not permissible
on Wikimedia Commons;
Хan upload form process that emphasizes common defaults above less
frequent use cases;
Хseparated instructions and tutorials for conveying key policy
information and background
on copyright law and licensing.
----

And thank god for that! :) I can't wait.

Steve

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innocentkiller at gmail

Jul 1, 2009, 9:06 PM

Post #3 of 4 (419 views)
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Re: $300K grant for Wikimedia Commons [In reply to]

This is excellent news. For those who haven't seen it
in action, Michael Dale's work on the upload workflow
is looking awesome. I'm sure this grant will make it even
better.

-Chad

On Jul 1, 2009 11:52 PM, "Steve Bennett" <stevagewp [at] gmail> wrote:

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Erik Moeller<erik [at] wikimedia> wrote:
http://upload.wikimedia.org...
----
The objective of this project is to increase participation in and
contributions to Wikimedia
Commons by implementing a 13month
software development, usability testing and
documentation project to improve the interface for uploading
multimedia files to Wikimedia
Commons.
The deliverables should include the following key improvements:
тАвan integrated upload tool that can be accessed directly from the
editing window;
тАвWikipedia integration of Wikimedia Commons as a repository to store
freely licensed
media;
тАвan intelligent workflow for fair use media that are not permissible
on Wikimedia Commons;
тАвan upload form process that emphasizes common defaults above less
frequent use cases;
тАвseparated instructions and tutorials for conveying key policy
information and background
on copyright law and licensing.
----

And thank god for that! :) I can't wait.

Steve

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Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
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wonder at riseup

Jul 3, 2009, 7:58 PM

Post #4 of 4 (384 views)
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Re: $300K grant for Wikimedia Commons [In reply to]

It sure does look good! I have a question: the extension project I'm
working on needs a customized upload interface for its own Special: pages
- the Special:Upload classes in the new-upload branch are exactly what I
need. I've been doing a similar refactoring of Special:Upload to allow me
to use subclasses to customize the upload process. Is anyone willing to
risk a wild guess about when the new Special:Upload classes will replace
the current version?

Lee Worden
McMaster University

On Thu, 2 Jul 2009, Chad wrote:
>
> This is excellent news. For those who haven't seen it
> in action, Michael Dale's work on the upload workflow
> is looking awesome. I'm sure this grant will make it even
> better.
>
> -Chad
>
> On Jul 1, 2009 11:52 PM, "Steve Bennett" <stevagewp [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Erik Moeller<erik [at] wikimedia> wrote:
> http://upload.wikimedia.org...
> ----
> The objective of this project is to increase participation in and
> contributions to Wikimedia
> Commons by implementing a 13month
> software development, usability testing and
> documentation project to improve the interface for uploading
> multimedia files to Wikimedia
> Commons.
> The deliverables should include the following key improvements:
> тАвan integrated upload tool that can be accessed directly from the
> editing window;
> тАвWikipedia integration of Wikimedia Commons as a repository to store
> freely licensed
> media;
> тАвan intelligent workflow for fair use media that are not permissible
> on Wikimedia Commons;
> тАвan upload form process that emphasizes common defaults above less
> frequent use cases;
> тАвseparated instructions and tutorials for conveying key policy
> information and background
> on copyright law and licensing.
> ----
>
> And thank god for that! :) I can't wait.
>
> Steve
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikitech-l mailing list
> Wikitech-l [at] lists
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
> _______________________________________________
> Wikitech-l mailing list
> Wikitech-l [at] lists
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

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