Reading/Multimedia/Feature ideas



This page presents some first ideas for new features under consideration by the Wikimedia Foundation's new multimedia team.

We invite short comments from community members for each of the ideas below. Longer comments should be posted on this page's discussion instead, to reduce clutter.

Activities


To start this discussion, here are the main types of multimedia activities we are looking to support -- and their user groups:


 * View (watch / listen to media files) - 500M viewers


 * Create (contribute files, info, categories ) - ~21k uploaders/mo.


 * Curate (rate, review, discuss, edit, feature ) - ~500+ patrollers/admins.


 * Publish (place files on wiki projects) - ~82k active editors/mo.


 * Engage (organize media campaigns ) - ~34 campaign organizers

Briefly describe below some of the multimedia workflows you use regularly on Commons and Wikipedia, and identify some of the issues you think need to be solved for those workflows.

Here are some highlights:

View
What are some of the main workflows you use to view, watch or listen to media files? identify key issues that need work, with proposed solutions.

Example:


 * View images in large size
 * Issue: Clicking on a thumbnail in a Wikipedia article takes me to a cluttered file page which doesn't match user expectations. Clicking on links in that page goes to a duplicate file page on Commons, which is confusing. Clicking on an image a second time displays it in large size, but with no context or links back, and sometimes the files are so huge they crash my browser.
 * Idea: Display large images in a media viewer, shown on the same page as the thumbnail. Provide modern full-screen mode, as well as simple buttons for accessing file info.



Create
What are some of the main workflows you use to create and upload media files with meta-data? Identify key issues that need work, with proposed solutions.

Curate
What are some of the main workflows you use to rate, review, categorize, discuss, edit or feature media files? Identify key issues that need work, with proposed solutions.

Publish
What are some of the main workflows you use to find and place media files on Wikipedia articles or other pages? Identify key issues that need work, with proposed solutions.

Engage
What are some of the main workflows you use to invite users to contribute through multimedia campaigns like Wiki Loves Monuments or other outreach programs? Identify key issues that need work, with proposed solutions.

Thanks for your insights! In coming days, we will examine the workflows and issues raised here by participants and investigate the most relevant solutions. New feature requirements will be drawn from follow-up studies of these workflows, showing how different user groups use audio-visual files today.

Feature ideas
We would be grateful for your comments for new feature ideas which the multimedia team is considering for each of the main types of activities above:


 * Media viewer - view images in larger size
 * File notifications - keep track of new activity for your files
 * File curation - review files more effectively
 * File feedback - rate or compare files
 * Media finder - add files to articles
 * Campaign tools - organize multimedia campaigns

Here are some short descriptions for each feature, as well as slides and/or demos when available.

For more info, check out these project slides.

Media viewer



 * Purpose:Provide a richer multimedia experience to match user expectations and display images in larger size, on the same page as the thumbnail
 * Users:All users, including 500M 'readers/viewers'


 * Features:
 * Show images in larger, media viewer panel when you click on them
 * Include a description and credit below the image, link to file page
 * Option to go to next image if it is part of a category or collection


 * See also:
 * Prototype:, source at, depends on gerrit:72844. --MarkTraceur (talk) 22:22, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Is this feature useful? What do you like most? least? How could it be improved? (please enter your comments below with a bullet, and sign them at the end)
 * Comments:



File notifications



 * Purpose:
 * Inform file creators when something happens to their files
 * Make contributors aware of what's happening on Commons
 * Users:All Commons contributors or curators
 * Features:
 * File Upload Complete (for large files)
 * File Marked as Reviewed
 * File Tagged for Maintenance
 * File Marked for Deletion
 * File Rated/Featured
 * File Page was Edited
 * File was Used in Article
 * File was Overwritten
 * File was Deleted
 * Congrats on your 1st upload

Is this feature useful? What do you like most? least? How could it be improved? (please enter your comments below with a bullet, and sign them at the end)
 * Comments:



File curation



 * Purpose:
 * Curate new files to identify useful media for Wikipedia
 * Make it easier to tag files or nominate them for deletion
 * Users: All Commons patrollers (and Wikipedia curators?)
 * Features:
 * A list where editors can preview files that need to be reviewed
 * A review tool that helps editors curate files more easily
 * Repackage existing tools in a better UI ('Nominate for deletion')
 * See also:
 * Image patrol notes

Is this feature useful? What do you like most? least? How could it be improved? (please enter your comments below with a bullet, and sign them at the end)
 * Comments:



File feedback



 * Purpose:Surface useful files, rated by quality
 * Users:Commons or Wikipedia users
 * Features:
 * A quick rating tool to tag files that seem useful
 * Can be thumbs-up/down -- or compare 2 images
 * Sorting / filtering tools for ranking lists or galleries by rating
 * Try these demos:
 * Which is better?
 * Highest rated files
 * See also:
 * File feedback notes
 * Prototype notes

Is this feature useful? What do you like most? least? How could it be improved? (please enter your comments below with a bullet, and sign them at the end)
 * Comments:



Media finder



 * Purpose:
 * Make it easier to add multimedia on Wikipedia articles
 * Help find quality media files and place them quickly
 * Users:Any Wikipedia or Commons user
 * Features:
 * Expand the Visual Editor's 'Insert Media' tool
 * Support extended search by category, rating or review status
 * Easier to sort or filter recommended images in VE

Is this feature useful? What do you like most? least? How could it be improved? (please enter your comments below with a bullet, and sign them at the end)
 * Comments:



Campaign tools



 * Purpose:
 * Invite more users to join campaigns (e.g. Wiki Loves Monuments)
 * Make it easy for campaign organizers to set up campaigns
 * Make it easy for users to participate in campaigns -- and stay engaged
 * Users:Any user with a camera/phone -- and campaign organizers
 * Features:
 * Tools for organizers to set up and customize campaigns
 * To-do lists with clear assignments for contributors to follow
 * Leaderboards and recent contributions to keep participants motivated

Is this feature useful? What do you like most? least? How could it be improved? (please enter your comments below with a bullet, and sign them at the end)
 * Comments:



Favorite ideas
Which feature idea above do you find most promising? Why?

(please state your favorite idea below with a bullet, explain why you picked it and sign them at the end)


 * This may be 2-5 years' out, but in terms of 'create, publish, curate, view,' in what ways are you planning for 3-D snippets of virtual worlds like OpenSim, WoW and SL (e.g. an interactive scene from a Shakespeare play), which may not exist yet that I've seen, but will probably come, in MediaViewer?
 * In terms of 'files used,' code for this partly as a citation measurement statistic in a database as in academia. How else does Wikimedia Commons' Multimedia interface with academia, especially paper citations of academics? Building on this has merit for both notifications and possibly file feedback.
 * In a broad way, where is image recognition (e.g. a specific flower, species or object) these days (I don't engage these questions actively), and especially in Wikimedia Commons, open source, and Creative Commons spheres, anticipating developments in MediaViewer?
 * Is there a way to anticipate remarkable developments here for Wikimedia Commons in this planning? It's great to lay out hypothetical technical pathways forward for Wikimedia Commons in this time of digital seismic shifting and big wave surfing :)

About this discussion
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Thanks so much for commenting on these first ideas! We're grateful for your feedback, which will help guide our next steps!

Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 10:28, 18 July 2013 (UTC)