My recommendations for Wikimedia Foundation on this subject:
1) Overturn the requirement to avoid handling h.264 files on Wikimedia
servers or accept them from users or serve them to users. Allow importing
h.264 uploads and creating h.264 transcodes for playback compatibility.
2) Create an interactive media team with at least two engineers, a
designer, and a project manager
3) Give this team a remit to rebuild *and maintain in an ongoing fashion*
the existing TimedMediaHandler, Graphs, Score, 3D, etc extensions
4) Integrate those tools cleanly with mobile apps and social media
embedding tools managed by other teams
-- brion
On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:35?AM Brion Vibber <bvibber@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Also, note that Wikimedia can choose to ship h.264 files at any time, just
> like we use CPUs full of patented technology; not doing so is a choice the
> Commons community made in 2014 and we could revisit that choice in the
> light of the fact there's no actual downside of working with h.264 when
> we're not shipping the codec.
>
> -- brion
>
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:11?AM Brion Vibber <bvibber@wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> (What I *have* been able to do, with the help of volunteers and a little
>> spare time from colleagues, is produce an iOS-compatible HTTP Live
>> Streaming packaging for video transcodes. This gets full-featured video
>> playback working on iPhones that are new enough to decode VP9, though may
>> still have compatibility problems with older phones. There is no funding or
>> ongoing work time assignment for this project beyond conforming initial iOS
>> compatibility.)
>>
>> -- brion
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:08?AM Brion Vibber <bvibber@wikimedia.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Agreed, there is a *lot* we could do if there were resources assigned to
>>> interactive media.
>>>
>>> -- brion
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 10:29?AM James Heilman <jmh649@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks Galder
>>>>
>>>> As mentioned Wiki Project Med is working to improve some of these
>>>> issues this year, supported by funding from the WMF.
>>>>
>>>> 1) We are still trying to get OWID working on Wikipedia. Here is what
>>>> it looks like on MDWiki <https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:OWID>.
>>>>
>>>> 2) We are also working on a CT scan viewer that functions better than
>>>> this <https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Mesenteric_ischemia/CT_image>.
>>>>
>>>> 3) And are trying to get VideoWiki
>>>> <https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:VideoWiki> functional again
>>>> after it died a few years back.
>>>>
>>>> Would love to see MP4s uploadable to Commons. Sure we can auto convert
>>>> to open formats in the background and hide the MP4s until they are fully
>>>> open, but this should be done by us and we should not be forcing our
>>>> editors to use other websites to achieve this.
>>>>
>>>> James
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 10:47?AM Ivan Martínez <galaver@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Galder, I certainly share your sentiment. The world is undoubtedly
>>>>> moving at such a speed that other sites have invested millions to make the
>>>>> experience better. But ours has millions as well, and those of us who edit
>>>>> on a day-to-day basis still have the worst internet experience when it
>>>>> comes for an example to editing and uploading photos. Not to mention the
>>>>> long and tortuous road to video uploading (Commons has no decent
>>>>> support for this <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Video>),
>>>>> in the midst of the biggest generational shift in video consumption.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a phrase in my country that if civil servants were on public
>>>>> transport, we would probably have faster improvements. Will it be the same
>>>>> for us, if we do not have staff who do not face our daily "challenges"?
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't know.
>>>>>
>>>>> El mar, 23 ene 2024 a las 5:03, Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga (<
>>>>> galder158@hotmail.com>) escribió:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear wikimedians,
>>>>>> Nearly one year ago, the Graphs extension was disabled from all
>>>>>> wikis, because there was a security issue that should be solved (
>>>>>> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T334940). A wide team from the WMF
>>>>>> worked on a solution for some weeks, but after Northern Hemisphere spring
>>>>>> ended, summer came, then the monsoon season, and now it is again summer in
>>>>>> the Southern Hemisphere... and Graphs are still disabled. All the solutions
>>>>>> proposed have been dismissed, but every two months there's a proposal to
>>>>>> make a new roadmap to solve the issue. We have plenty of roadmaps, but no
>>>>>> vehicle to reach our destination.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Seven years ago, we were discussing our Strategy for 2030. We used
>>>>>> thousands of volunteer hours, thousands of staff hours and millions of
>>>>>> dollars to build a really well-balanced strategy. There we concluded that "*By
>>>>>> 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem
>>>>>> of free knowledge*". We also made some recommendations to improve
>>>>>> the User Experience (
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Improve_User_Experience)
>>>>>> and claimed that we wanted to Innovate in Free Knowledge (
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Innovate_in_Free_Knowledge).
>>>>>> Well, the situation is now worse than it was seven years ago, let me give
>>>>>> some examples:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Graph extension is used in thousands of pages, some of them
>>>>>> highly relevant, as COVID or Climate Change information. There are
>>>>>> thousands of graphs broken now, and the only partial solution give is
>>>>>> loading these graphs as images, instead of promoting an interactive
>>>>>> solution.
>>>>>> - Meanwhile, a place like Our World in Data has been publishing
>>>>>> data and interactive content with a compatible license for years.
>>>>>> (Remember, "*By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential
>>>>>> infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge*"). Trying to
>>>>>> add this data and graphs to Wikimedia projects has been done by WikiMed,
>>>>>> and it is technically possible, but still blocked to deploy (
>>>>>> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T303853).
>>>>>> - Wolfram Alpha is like a light year ahead us on giving
>>>>>> interactive solutions to knowledge questions, even the silliest ones (
>>>>>> https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=how+many+oranges+fit+in+the+Earth%3F).
>>>>>> We have good technical articles about a lot of things, but sometimes "*becoming
>>>>>> the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge*"
>>>>>> needs to provide solutions to exact problems, like the answer to an
>>>>>> equation, and how to solve it. That's also "free knowledge".
>>>>>> - Brilliant (https://brilliant.org/) is brilliant if you want to
>>>>>> learn lots of things, like geometry or programming. Way better than
>>>>>> Wikipedia. But... you need to pay for it. How could we even try if we can't
>>>>>> add anything interactive to our platforms?
>>>>>> - We can build interactive timelines using Wikidata, but we can't
>>>>>> embed them at Wikipedia. Weird, because I can do it in any external page.
>>>>>> Hopefully, Histropedia will do it better. http://histropedia.com/
>>>>>> <http://histropedia.com/>
>>>>>> - We could have something very special: inline links in video and
>>>>>> audio subtitles. We used to have them, but the new video infrastructure
>>>>>> doesn't allow it. Imagine a world where you can watch a video and link a
>>>>>> link in the subtitles just to know more about that.
>>>>>> - ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The list can go on an on ("which phase the moon is today?"), but I
>>>>>> think that the idea is clear. We could have interactive content, but we are
>>>>>> going in the opposite direction, and every year we are further from our
>>>>>> goal, because other platforms are doing it better, way better. And this
>>>>>> seems like some wild ideas, but then I read the 2023-2024 annual plan
>>>>>> section called "Wiki Experiences" (
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024/Goals/Infrastructure#Bucket:_Wiki_Experiences)
>>>>>> and it looks like we should be going there. But we aren't.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm sorry if this e-mail feels bitter. My experience in the last
>>>>>> years is that we are now further of what we need that we were before, even
>>>>>> if many chapters and volunteers are trying to overturn it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank to everyone who have been trying.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Galder
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
>>>>>> guidelines at:
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>>>> Public archives at
>>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/T3TDXNOYBO2OUJVSKBOEFLY4I34YEA5B/
>>>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> *Iván Martínez*
>>>>>
>>>>> *Voluntario - Wikimedia México A.C.User:ProtoplasmaKid *
>>>>>
>>>>> // Mis comunicaciones respecto a Wikipedia/Wikimedia pueden tener una
>>>>> moratoria en su atención debido a que es un voluntariado.
>>>>> // Ayuda a proteger a Wikipedia, dona ahora:
>>>>> https://donate.wikimedia.org
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
>>>>> guidelines at:
>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>>> Public archives at
>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/CUBBMYJFGWU3PAJIM3GQB6SRZWQSBNPY/
>>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> James Heilman
>>>> MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
>>>> guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
>>>> and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>> Public archives at
>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/HP6TUVQN64FZ6H7V6HGPH65SL337RE5V/
>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>
>>>
1) Overturn the requirement to avoid handling h.264 files on Wikimedia
servers or accept them from users or serve them to users. Allow importing
h.264 uploads and creating h.264 transcodes for playback compatibility.
2) Create an interactive media team with at least two engineers, a
designer, and a project manager
3) Give this team a remit to rebuild *and maintain in an ongoing fashion*
the existing TimedMediaHandler, Graphs, Score, 3D, etc extensions
4) Integrate those tools cleanly with mobile apps and social media
embedding tools managed by other teams
-- brion
On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:35?AM Brion Vibber <bvibber@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Also, note that Wikimedia can choose to ship h.264 files at any time, just
> like we use CPUs full of patented technology; not doing so is a choice the
> Commons community made in 2014 and we could revisit that choice in the
> light of the fact there's no actual downside of working with h.264 when
> we're not shipping the codec.
>
> -- brion
>
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:11?AM Brion Vibber <bvibber@wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> (What I *have* been able to do, with the help of volunteers and a little
>> spare time from colleagues, is produce an iOS-compatible HTTP Live
>> Streaming packaging for video transcodes. This gets full-featured video
>> playback working on iPhones that are new enough to decode VP9, though may
>> still have compatibility problems with older phones. There is no funding or
>> ongoing work time assignment for this project beyond conforming initial iOS
>> compatibility.)
>>
>> -- brion
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 11:08?AM Brion Vibber <bvibber@wikimedia.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Agreed, there is a *lot* we could do if there were resources assigned to
>>> interactive media.
>>>
>>> -- brion
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 10:29?AM James Heilman <jmh649@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks Galder
>>>>
>>>> As mentioned Wiki Project Med is working to improve some of these
>>>> issues this year, supported by funding from the WMF.
>>>>
>>>> 1) We are still trying to get OWID working on Wikipedia. Here is what
>>>> it looks like on MDWiki <https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:OWID>.
>>>>
>>>> 2) We are also working on a CT scan viewer that functions better than
>>>> this <https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Mesenteric_ischemia/CT_image>.
>>>>
>>>> 3) And are trying to get VideoWiki
>>>> <https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:VideoWiki> functional again
>>>> after it died a few years back.
>>>>
>>>> Would love to see MP4s uploadable to Commons. Sure we can auto convert
>>>> to open formats in the background and hide the MP4s until they are fully
>>>> open, but this should be done by us and we should not be forcing our
>>>> editors to use other websites to achieve this.
>>>>
>>>> James
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 10:47?AM Ivan Martínez <galaver@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Galder, I certainly share your sentiment. The world is undoubtedly
>>>>> moving at such a speed that other sites have invested millions to make the
>>>>> experience better. But ours has millions as well, and those of us who edit
>>>>> on a day-to-day basis still have the worst internet experience when it
>>>>> comes for an example to editing and uploading photos. Not to mention the
>>>>> long and tortuous road to video uploading (Commons has no decent
>>>>> support for this <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Video>),
>>>>> in the midst of the biggest generational shift in video consumption.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a phrase in my country that if civil servants were on public
>>>>> transport, we would probably have faster improvements. Will it be the same
>>>>> for us, if we do not have staff who do not face our daily "challenges"?
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't know.
>>>>>
>>>>> El mar, 23 ene 2024 a las 5:03, Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga (<
>>>>> galder158@hotmail.com>) escribió:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear wikimedians,
>>>>>> Nearly one year ago, the Graphs extension was disabled from all
>>>>>> wikis, because there was a security issue that should be solved (
>>>>>> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T334940). A wide team from the WMF
>>>>>> worked on a solution for some weeks, but after Northern Hemisphere spring
>>>>>> ended, summer came, then the monsoon season, and now it is again summer in
>>>>>> the Southern Hemisphere... and Graphs are still disabled. All the solutions
>>>>>> proposed have been dismissed, but every two months there's a proposal to
>>>>>> make a new roadmap to solve the issue. We have plenty of roadmaps, but no
>>>>>> vehicle to reach our destination.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Seven years ago, we were discussing our Strategy for 2030. We used
>>>>>> thousands of volunteer hours, thousands of staff hours and millions of
>>>>>> dollars to build a really well-balanced strategy. There we concluded that "*By
>>>>>> 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem
>>>>>> of free knowledge*". We also made some recommendations to improve
>>>>>> the User Experience (
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Improve_User_Experience)
>>>>>> and claimed that we wanted to Innovate in Free Knowledge (
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Innovate_in_Free_Knowledge).
>>>>>> Well, the situation is now worse than it was seven years ago, let me give
>>>>>> some examples:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - Graph extension is used in thousands of pages, some of them
>>>>>> highly relevant, as COVID or Climate Change information. There are
>>>>>> thousands of graphs broken now, and the only partial solution give is
>>>>>> loading these graphs as images, instead of promoting an interactive
>>>>>> solution.
>>>>>> - Meanwhile, a place like Our World in Data has been publishing
>>>>>> data and interactive content with a compatible license for years.
>>>>>> (Remember, "*By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential
>>>>>> infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge*"). Trying to
>>>>>> add this data and graphs to Wikimedia projects has been done by WikiMed,
>>>>>> and it is technically possible, but still blocked to deploy (
>>>>>> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T303853).
>>>>>> - Wolfram Alpha is like a light year ahead us on giving
>>>>>> interactive solutions to knowledge questions, even the silliest ones (
>>>>>> https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=how+many+oranges+fit+in+the+Earth%3F).
>>>>>> We have good technical articles about a lot of things, but sometimes "*becoming
>>>>>> the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge*"
>>>>>> needs to provide solutions to exact problems, like the answer to an
>>>>>> equation, and how to solve it. That's also "free knowledge".
>>>>>> - Brilliant (https://brilliant.org/) is brilliant if you want to
>>>>>> learn lots of things, like geometry or programming. Way better than
>>>>>> Wikipedia. But... you need to pay for it. How could we even try if we can't
>>>>>> add anything interactive to our platforms?
>>>>>> - We can build interactive timelines using Wikidata, but we can't
>>>>>> embed them at Wikipedia. Weird, because I can do it in any external page.
>>>>>> Hopefully, Histropedia will do it better. http://histropedia.com/
>>>>>> <http://histropedia.com/>
>>>>>> - We could have something very special: inline links in video and
>>>>>> audio subtitles. We used to have them, but the new video infrastructure
>>>>>> doesn't allow it. Imagine a world where you can watch a video and link a
>>>>>> link in the subtitles just to know more about that.
>>>>>> - ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The list can go on an on ("which phase the moon is today?"), but I
>>>>>> think that the idea is clear. We could have interactive content, but we are
>>>>>> going in the opposite direction, and every year we are further from our
>>>>>> goal, because other platforms are doing it better, way better. And this
>>>>>> seems like some wild ideas, but then I read the 2023-2024 annual plan
>>>>>> section called "Wiki Experiences" (
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024/Goals/Infrastructure#Bucket:_Wiki_Experiences)
>>>>>> and it looks like we should be going there. But we aren't.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm sorry if this e-mail feels bitter. My experience in the last
>>>>>> years is that we are now further of what we need that we were before, even
>>>>>> if many chapters and volunteers are trying to overturn it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank to everyone who have been trying.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Galder
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
>>>>>> guidelines at:
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>>>> Public archives at
>>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/T3TDXNOYBO2OUJVSKBOEFLY4I34YEA5B/
>>>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> *Iván Martínez*
>>>>>
>>>>> *Voluntario - Wikimedia México A.C.User:ProtoplasmaKid *
>>>>>
>>>>> // Mis comunicaciones respecto a Wikipedia/Wikimedia pueden tener una
>>>>> moratoria en su atención debido a que es un voluntariado.
>>>>> // Ayuda a proteger a Wikipedia, dona ahora:
>>>>> https://donate.wikimedia.org
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
>>>>> guidelines at:
>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>>> Public archives at
>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/CUBBMYJFGWU3PAJIM3GQB6SRZWQSBNPY/
>>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> James Heilman
>>>> MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
>>>> guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
>>>> and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>> Public archives at
>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/HP6TUVQN64FZ6H7V6HGPH65SL337RE5V/
>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>
>>>