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Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Miscellaneous/Photo and video requests to be fullfilled by Wikipedians all around the world

< Community Wishlist Survey 2023‎ | Miscellaneous

Photo and video requests to be fullfilled by Wikipedians all around the world

  • Problem: Sometimes you write an article about a subject far away from where you live and there are no copyright free photos or videos available.
  • Proposed solution: We're a community with members all around the world. Someone must be near the object you're writing about: a piece of art, a building, a statue, etc. Ask those people to photograph it for you.
  • Who would benefit: Eventually, the whole of the wiki community, because there will be a stream of copyright free photos and videos available for all projects to use.
  • More comments: It's really just a place where the requester and the requestee can easily meet each other. For example, I as a Dutchman, residing in the Netherlands, want to write a Dutch article about some animal or a plant species in the Australian Outback; great if I can post a request and an Australian volunteer picks it up who doesn't mind to snap a photo of that animal or plant if he/she has the opportunity.
  • Phabricator tickets:
  • Proposer: Wobuzowatsj (talk) 14:54, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Hello there, we discussed this as a team and wanted to clarify some questions we had. Namely, we wanted to understand if the problem here was the lack of an interface to be able to find such wikipedians and match the wikipedians that need a photograph with those people. If so, do you mind reflecting that in the problem statement or do you mind if I edit this to make it more clear that this would require developing a tool that helps users find others who opt into sharing their location? Otherwise, this may be more of a non-technical wish and we'll have to archive it. We believe with a couple of tweaks this could be a solid proposal! Thanks so much :) NRodriguez (WMF) (talk) 17:24, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Pinging @Wobuzowatsj in case he missed this comment.
Note that some projects such as English Wikipedia have forums for requesting pictures. Any project can adopt the same practice. Another possible solution is reaching out to a WikiProject. For example, on English Wikipedia you could contact w:WP:NYC to request photos of something in New York City. MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 16:17, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@NRodriguez (WMF) and @MusikAnimal (WMF): It's the lack of an interface that makes it harder to meet other Wikipedians. Such an interface would enable Wikipedians on all projects to find each other easily. Finding each other in projects is possible, but that's not ideal. Not about every subject there's a project going on. I wanted to request a photo of a tombstone in Česke Budějovice, Czech Republic. That's not easy... I have searched on the Czech version of Wikipedia and had to find English-speaking Czechs near this town. If the interface is there that facilitates meeting other Wikipedians who like going out with a photo camera and do not mind taking pictures on request if they're able to. Then we can all benefit from this. Wobuzowatsj (talk) 19:55, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Note that on Commons several possibilies exist to request images and videos, see Requested files. Perhaps we should merge all possibilites into one portal/interface. I would suggest a search entrance on/sort by: location (continent/country/subdivision (like province/county)/municipality/populated place). --JopkeB (talk) 09:00, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • ̈Several ways exist in Commons and some in ENWP to make this connection. None works well. The way I solve this problem (to small degree) is through WikiShootMe. When in a place I haven't visited in a year or more, I look at that map for red dots, walk there, and snap and upload a picture, turning the dot green. Conversely, working an article about a place that ought to have a photo, I ensure that WikiData has an item with the correct coordinates. This puts a red dot on the map for photographers who happen to pass the place. I'm not at all sure we're talking to the right party to improve on this, but it could be improved by, for example, making a WD Property for "Wikiphoto requested" and having WSM make a different dot, and I'm confident someone, somewhere could think of better ways. Jim.henderson (talk) 17:21, 18 February 2023 (UTC) ̴̴[reply]
I just had a look at WikiShootMe and looked at a random sample of around 20 red dots. For most, a photo exists in WikimediaCommons, it's just not linked in a recognized way (many are linked but over 2-3 hops). For some, the location was simply wrong, e.g. Dreisam at this place. Both together make this tool not really useful to guide photographers to places we need a shot of 😐 --Schoschi (talk) 18:40, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

ː Yes, WSM depends on Wikidata, which has many errors and inadequacies. These indeed waste time. Last year as local ENWP editor, Commons photographer, and WD editor, I failed to find a Community Garden on 12th Street west of Avenue A where the red dot put it. A little walking showed that it was actually east of Avenue A. So, correcting WD, I also snapped a picture. Maybe someday an article will mention it. WD location is usually correct, so I snap the pic and upload it on the spot, with WSM or more often Commons App. Arriving home I may find that the subject is already photographed but there is no "Image" property in the WD item to link to it. So, I further edit WD to include the best few pix, and then look at any EN article that might benefit from these pictures. If there are many pictures, I even make a commonscat, also with WD link. Thus, one red dot may trigger considerable activity on my part. ː The method of first finding a relevant photographer, and then requesting a photo of one target, is also indirect, and will waste time in a different way. So, clearly if the target is important, it calls for the requester showing the way in ENWP, and in Commons, and in WD, all of which will snare different photographers besides the ones who join the "find me" system. And if there is no WD item, that ought to be part of the photo request, or else the requester should do it so as to attract more photographers. ̴Jim.henderson (talk) 21:41, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Further Details clarifying Problem

Post scriptum: I was requested to clarify what exactly the problem is that I want to tackle. It's especially the lack of an interface that makes it harder to get in contact with Wikipedians outside your language version. Such an interface would facilitate Wikipedians, on all different projects, to engage with each other and request photos, videos, audio recordings, etc. This would mean that more articles and lemmas can get a proper photo, video or audio recording. If that content is uploaded to Wikimedia Commons we can literally all benefit from it. Wobuzowatsj (talk) 20:08, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Great, I moved this to this section so that the translators could translate a shorter text. We are approving this wish to go into voting! Thanks for adding the context NRodriguez (WMF) (talk) 20:51, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

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