GetWiki

{{Short description|Online repository of free-use images, sounds and other media}}{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}

factoids

| commercial = NoDigital library>Media repository| registration = Optional (required to upload files)| owner = Wikimedia Foundation| author = Wikimedia movement| revenue = | alexa = | name = Wikimedia CommonsborderScreenshot of Wikimedia Commons)Open license>Open}}Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a wiki-based media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projectsWEB,weblink'_media_in_Wikimedia_projects, Embedding Commons' media in Wikimedia projects, Wikimedia Commons, August 7, 2007, in all languages, including Pseudopedia, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikibooks, and Wikispecies, or downloaded for offsite use. As of April 2024, the repository contains over 105 million free-to-use media files, managed and editable by registered volunteers.(commons:Special:Statistics|Statistics page) on Wikimedia Commons

History

{{Expand section|date=November 2021}}The idea for the project came from Erik Möller in March 2004 and Wikimedia Commons was started on September 7, 2004. In July 2013, the number of edits on Commons reached 100,000,000.WEB, ÄŒesky, July 15, 2013, 100,000,000th edit,weblink August 22, 2013, Commons.wikimedia.org, In 2018 it became possible to upload 3D models to the site in STL format. One of the first models uploaded to Commons was a reconstruction of the Lion of Al-lāt statue in Palmyra, Syria, which was heavily damaged by the ISIL in 2015.WEB, 2018-02-22, Wikipedia goes 3D allowing users to upload .stls for digital reference,weblink 2022-03-08, 3D Printing Industry, en-US, Various notable organizations have uploaded files to Commons. In 2012, the National Archives and Records Administration uploaded (commons:Category:Images from the National Archives and Records Administration|100,000 digitised images) from its collection.WEB, Schultz, Colin, The National Archives Wants to Put Its Whole Collection on Wikimedia Commons,weblink 2022-03-06, Smithsonian Magazine, en, In 2020, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) started uploading its collections to Commons.WEB, DPLA cultural artifacts coming to Wikipedia through new collaboration with Wikimedia Foundation,weblink 2022-03-06, Digital Public Library of America, en, In 2022, DPLA uploaded more than two million files.WEB, Commons:Digital Public Library of America - Wikimedia Commons,weblink 2022-12-22, commons.wikimedia.org, en, Similarly Europeana, the website aggregating European cultural heritage, shares its digitised images through Commons.WEB, Europeana and Wikimedia partnership update,weblink 2022-03-06, Europeana Pro, en-GB, During the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of a collaboration with Wikimedia, the World Health Organization (WHO) uploaded its "(commons:Category:World Health Organization COVID-19 disinformation infographics|Mythbusters)" infographics to Commons.NEWS, McNeil, Donald G. Jr., 2020-10-22, Wikipedia and W.H.O. Join to Combat Covid-19 Misinformation, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 2022-03-06, 0362-4331,

Relation to sister projects

The stated aim of Wikimedia Commons is to provide a media file repository "that makes available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content to all, and that acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.".WEB, Commons:Project scope,weblink 2021-11-15, Wikimedia Commons, Most Wikimedia projects still allow local uploads which are not visible to other projects or languages, but this option is meant to be used primarily for material (such as fair use content) which local project policies allow, but which would not be permitted according to the copyright policy of Commons. For this reason, Wikimedia Commons aims to only host freely licensed media and deletes copyright violations, such as the Creative Commons Attribution and Attribution/ShareAlike licenses,WEB, About The Licenses - Creative Commons,weblink 2021-10-22, creativecommons.org, en-US, other free content and free software licenses, as well as the public domain.The default language for Commons is English, but registered users can customize their interface to use any other available user interface translations. Many content pages, in particular policy pages and portals, have also been translated into various languages.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Controversial content

The site has been criticized for hosting large amounts of amateur pornography, often uploaded by exhibitionists who exploit the site for personal gratification, and who are enabled by sympathetic administrators.WEB,weblink The Daily Dot – How Wikimedia Commons became a massive amateur porn hub, The Daily Dot, June 25, 2013, In 2012, BuzzFeed described Wikimedia Commons as "littered with dicks".WEB,weblink The Epic Battle For Wikipedia's Autofellatio Page, BuzzFeed, March 26, 2012, In 2010, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger reported Wikimedia Commons to the FBI for hosting sexualized images of children known as "lolicon". After this was reported in the media, Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikimedia Foundation which hosts Commons, used his administrator status to delete several images without discussion from the Commons community. Wales responded to the backlash from the Commons community by voluntarily relinquishing some site privileges, including the ability to delete files.WEB, Wikimedia's Wales gives up some top-level controls,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121025174556weblink">weblink October 25, 2012,

Utilities

Over time, additional functionality has been developed to interface Wikimedia Commons with the other Wikimedia projects. For instance, there exists a community-maintained Commons Mobile App which allows uploading of photos that document the world, especially notable objects findable in the map in the Nearby List in the app (displaying Wikidata items with coordinates). The app launched in 2012 as an official Wikimedia app and since May 2016, it uses the official Wikimedia Commons name and logo.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}(File:Screenshot_of_various_structured_data_statements_of_a_photograph_of_sugar_cubes.png|thumb|Structured data statements for a picture of some sugar cubes)Structured Data on Commons (SDC) is a three-year software development project funded by the Sloan Foundation{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} to provide the infrastructure for Wikimedia Commons volunteers to organize data about media files in a consistent manner. This data is structured more and is made machine-readable.WEB,weblink Submissions/Structured Commons: what changes are coming?, Wikimania, WEB,weblink Commons:Structured data, Wikimedia Commons, {{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}}

Quality

{{unreferenced section|date=June 2010}}(File:Featured picture nominations per month in Wikimedia Commons.svg|thumb|Successful featured picture nominations per month (2004–2019))There are three mechanisms on the site for recognizing high-quality works. One is known as "(commons:Commons:Featured pictures|Featured pictures)", where works are nominated and other community members vote to accept or reject the nomination. This process began in November 2004. Another process known as "(commons:Commons:Quality Images|Quality images)" began in June 2006, and has a simpler nomination process comparable to "Featured pictures". "Quality images" only accepts works created by Wikimedia users, whereas "Featured pictures" additionally accepts nominations of works by third parties such as NASA. A third image assessment project, known as "(commons:Commons:Valued images|Valued images)", began on June 1, 2008, with the purpose of recognizing "the most valued illustration of its kind", in contrast to the other two processes which assess images mainly on technical quality.

Wikimedia Commons Pictures of the Year

The Commons Picture of the Year (POTY) is a competition that was first run in 2006. It aims to identify the best freely licensed images from those that during the year have been awarded (:c:Featured picture|Featured picture) status.WEB, en, Commons:Picture of the Year,weblink Wikimedia Commons, 2020-04-08, NEWS, Morris, Kevin, Wikimedia's 12 best photos take you to the ends of the Earth,weblink 28 October 2021, The Daily Dot, 28 February 2013,

Gallery

File:Geolocated images in Wikimedia Commons 2015-01-07.png|As of January 2015, there are well over 5.2M geolocated images in Wikimedia Commons. Mapping these shows significant variance in image numbers over the globe.File:Commons Growth.svg|A graph showing the growth of Wikimedia Commons between 2005 and 2023

See also

• Creative Commons – an organization providing a set of content licenses and a directory of works using them
• Internet Archive – an online collection of videos, documents and webpages
• Project Gutenberg – the largest freely accessible collection of documents (including books and sheet music)
• Reporting of child pornography images on Wikimedia Commons

References

External links

{{sister project links|d=Q565|voy=no|mw=no|m=Wikimedia Commons|species=no|wikt=no|n=no|q=no|s=no|b=Wikimedia|v=Commons}}

• {{Official website}}
• Mirror of Wikimedia Commons by WikiTeam

{{Wikimedia Foundation}}{{Creative Commons topic}}{{Authority control}}