Is Wikipedia ready for videos?
Itzik Edri, Israel.

On July 2016, Wikimedia Israel, announced a new cooperation with the Israeli News Company, which produces the primetime news program on Israel’s Channel 2. The partnership’s aim was to bring, for the first time, current affairs videos to be added, remixed, and shared on the Wikimedia projects. In the first phase, we got and uploaded 30 videos, among them footage from important historical events like the Oslo Accords, the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Jerusalem and the Western Wall and videos of Israeli politicians and celebrities. But it wasn't so easy. The reactions we faced and the issues raised had a big (negative) influence on the project’s success. When we read an article on Wikipedia, and we think that some content has no consensus – we can edit it, and have a discussion on the specific words or sentences. But what do we do when we have a 2 minute video – and a community member thinks that second 00:30 isn't appropriate? And another member thinks that 01:15-01:20 isn’t? How can we reach a consensus when we speak about videos? What about controversial articles? Does a video need to show the point of view of both sides?

And maybe the most important question – when, finally, will commons and the Media-Wiki infrastructure be friendly to videos?

State of Video in the Wikimedia Movement
Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado), Wikimedia DC, Wikimedia Foundation.

We discuss the state of the video in Wikimedia Commons and its use in the Wikimedia projects as of 2017. The session will provide an introduction to the landscape for beginners while discussing new developments in video and multimedia for the future.

AUDIENCE: This will provide a an overview of the video standards and challenges to those unfamiliar with video in Wikipedia, while also informing advanced users about the innovations in the past year and development directions.

PANELISTS:

• Andrew Lih started the project Wiki Makes Video in 2011
• Brion Vibber is the Lead Software Architect for the Wikimedia Foundation, and has developed software and systems to allow video playback for Ogg Theora and WebM formats on mobile devices and browsers.
• Victor Grigas is a Wikimedia Foundation storyteller, videographer and editor.
• Jan Ainali is a Wikipedian, early adopter and Wikimedia Communs user willing to jump through hoops to upload video.

The session will cover a number of issues

• Introduction to what videos are accepted on Wikimedia Commons, with comments relevant from both a technical and a community standpoint. We provide some numbers and statistics on how video is being used, and a brief tutorial on conversion methods will be shown.
• An update on the available tools for the uploading will be presented, including how to get popular formats such as MP4 onto Commons.
• Where might video be suitable for an article and what might not? We discuss how to record videos useful for articles on Wikipedia. Tips on both hardware and software will be included.
• Best practices regarding video production and subtitles (also known as “timed text” on Commons) will also be discussed.
• Future development including progress on Brion Vibber's ogv.js code to play video in any modern browser, and a collaborative video editing solution developed by Mozilla Foundation, and furthered by the Internet Archive and other open source developers.
• We would like an open discussion on how what needs people have for video production going forward.

What will attendees take away from this session?

Attendees will understand how video is currently used within the Wikimedia community, and get practical guidance on how to produce video content using contemporary tools and methods.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mjX9qA_vS_ZM-BP0VRS9GCwr_vjc0Rb_ldhsGHYfqF8/edit#slide=id.p4