User:Longbow4u/Wikimedia Commons celebrate first anniversary
September 7, 2005
One year ago, September 7, 2004, the Wikimedia Commons were presented to the public. They are a repository for multimedia files like images, videos, computer animations, music as well as spoken texts. They currently count with more than 232,000 such files. All content is published under a free licence and so it is permitted to use it outside Wikimedia, too. However, main mission of the Wikimedia Commons is still to provide the international Wikipedias with images. Like them, the „Commons“, as they are known, base on the simple and proved wiki principle which permits every user to contribute and change content. Organisation in so called gallery pages and/or by adding files into categories organized in multiple topics facilitate speedy location of the desired files. Often it exists already a direct link from the Wikipedia page to the corresponding page in the Commons.
The Wikimedia Commons originate in a proposal made by the German Erik Möller (Eloquence) in March 2004, until recently Chief Research Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation. Before then it was very time consuming to use material from one Wikipedia in another one of a different language. Each file had to be uploaded to each Wikipedia and each Wikiproject various times, each time it had to be described and licenced. The goal was to reduce this redundant effort to one upload. This purpose was successful. The language used primarily is English, because it is an international project. But besides this, the main page and many information pages exist in multiple languages. Judged by experiences made with other Wikipedia projects it is only a question of time that a further localization occurs. This will make it possible for users with fewer skills in foreign languages to contribute files, too.
The content in the Commons is growing at a rapid pace. Within the last month alone, the number of images and other files has grown by more than 43,000. This represents a 22,7 % increase in relation to the prior month. While the Wikipedias usually compare themselves with the great encyclopedias like Britannica and Brockhaus, a competitor for the Commons would be most probably the huge commercial photo archives like Getty Images and Corbis, who possess more than 70 million images each. In relation to them, the Commons are still very small at the moment. However, most of the important buildings and landmarks world wide already feature in its database. This will e.g. empower the reporters of Wikinews to break news about politics and society and add the corresponding expressive images in their reports free of charge. This is essential to modern reporting.
Like Wikipedia, the Commons face certain challenges and problems, too. Sometimes people upload offensive images. The community has to establish clear criteria about which content is acceptable and which is not. There should not be unfair censorship. However, obvious transgressions can be identified by anybody by adding a delete template and they are usually deleted rapidly by the administrators.
Another sensitive topic are copyrights and the rights of the owner of the pictured images. International rules have to be made compatible. In certain ways the Wikimedia Foundation opens new territory in the area of intellectual property. Before Commons, it was almost exclussively a domain of professionals to publish images who were well aware of the legal issues. Now it is possible for huge numbers of photo amateurs to publish. Like with offensive content obvious violations of copyright are deleted the moment they are brought to notice of the administrators. However, it is quite possible that there will be an upcoming international debate if the free publication of certain content, e.g. images of national heritage objects, is in the overwhelming public interest, and that in this cases private interests which might prevent publication are of lesser importance.
The contribution of Wikimedia Commons to a wide array of issues in research, reporting, education, tourism or others, at a global scale, is difficult to fathom at the moment. Most likely though the impact will be gigantic. This is not an official press release of the Wikimedia foundation.
Sources
[edit]- Erik Möllers original proposal for Commons, March 19th, 2005
- Wikimedia Commons main page September 6th, 2005