User:Bawolff/GSoC2010

Identity

 * Name: Brian Wolff
 * Email: special:emailuser/bawolff or bawolff+gsoc At sign.svg gmail dot com
 * Project title: Improve media metadata support in mediawiki

Contact/working info

 * Timezone: MST (UTC -7)
 * IRC or IM networks/handle(s): bawolff (on #wikinews, #wikinews-en and #mediawiki on freenode)

Project summary
Currently mediawiki only supports displaying jpeg exif metadata on image pages. Some other metadata can also be returned using the api   however this is not that useful to the average viewer since it is not displayed. I propose as my project (should I be accepted and all that) to improve mediawiki's support for metadata. This would include supporting metadata for more media formats, and displaying the metadata on image pages where t is useful. Also having an on-wiki method of Considering Wikimedias general stance on copyright/Free-ness, I think being able to view and edit metadata would be a benefit, as being able to put the licensing info into the image, as opposed to the image description page, would stop the metadata from being seperated from the image once they are downloaded and passed around.

About you
I've been a contributor to Wikinews for quite some time, which is how i became involved with Wikimedia. I also have commit access to mediawiki, and have made some patches, but nothing major as of yet. I would like to do Google summer of code as i think it would be a great way to become involved in mediawiki development.

Deliverables
[I'm still in the process of writing this part]

Required deliverables

 * Display the "comment" meta-data for ogg files similar to how exif is displayed
 * Display (common) XMP and IPTC metadata for images that support it, not just jpeg
 * Have a method of on-wiki editing of some metadata fields (aka Description should be editable, but some more technical fields should not)

Project schedule

 * Need to improve formatMetadata interface so that multiple metadata tables can be generated. (for example on ogg files with different metadata for different streams, or a jpeg file with both exif metadata and xmp metadata.) or otherwise have some way of distinguishing multiple metadata streams
 * On the other hand, from what i understand of XMP when used with pdfs can have seperate metadata for each page. What happens when an extreme amount of metadata is specified.
 * Need to parse these other metadata formats

Participation
I plan to hang around #mediawiki and wikitech-l, as those seem to be ideal places to ask for help, and learn from others. I expect to talk with my mentor quite regularly, and ask for advice when needed, as well as receive comments on code review.

Past open source experience
I've made some patches to mediawiki, and I also maintain several javascript tools on wikinews, however beyond that i don't have much experiance.

Any other info
This project proposal is still in the process of being written - its not done yet. However if you see this, please feel free to give feedback.