Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

VideoWiki

VideoWiki, also known as WikiVideo, aims to make Mediawiki sites, including Wikipedia, more accessible by adding a visual layer, ensuring that in the future, the 'sum of all human knowledge' is not limited to just text. VideoWiki is a free, open-source, 'collaborative video editing' tool that allows users to add images/videos from Wikimedia Commons and NC Commons to the text of a video script. It is being actively developed by Wiki Project Med Foundation.

VideoWiki logo, which states the platform is "the sum of all human knowledge".

Multimedia content was the second most frequent request during the 2015 community consultation on strategy. Further, WMF New Readers Research 2016 found that there may be greater opportunities to improve interest in and engagement with articles with more robust video content.

VideoWiki allows users to collaboratively edit/re-edit a published video, a feature that is particularly important because information can be continuously corrected, updated and improved by a distributed volunteer community. VideoWiki's software is released under an open license (GNU General Public License 3.0) on GitHub. Hassan Amin and Tim Moody are leading its technical development.

MDWiki.org

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Further details at mdwiki.org.

Features

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Script on Wikipedia

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VideoWiki's text is based on a script which lives on Wikipedia. Further, all the media files are on the script itself. An example can be seen HERE. Therefore, the learning curve to build a video is very low as Wikipedians are already aware of editing in the wiki environment.

Editing a VideoWiki article wiki style

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As an editor, one should be able to edit the article and quickly change it. VideoWiki follows the "wiki" principle of "quick" editing and allows anyone, including you, to fix an image/video in any part of the video even without logging in.

 
Changing the media content on a VideoWiki slide.

Auto-updatable

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Knowledge is not static. Information keeps getting updated and Wikipedia keeps updating itself whenever there is new information. Now whenever you update the Wikipedia script of a VideoWiki article, just click on the auto-update icon on the VideoWiki article and VideoWiki will update the content too. This feature helps to change to edit the text wiki style when there is any mistake found in the text of the script.

 
When you change the wiki-script, click on the "auto-update:" icon on VideoWiki to update the VideoWiki Article with the new text.

Interactive videos

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VideoWiki provides an interactive index (based on the wiki text script's Index) that allows anyone to jump right into the segment he or she is looking for in the video.

 
VideoWiki's interactive index based on Wikipedia's index.

References/in-line citation

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VideoWiki automatically provides citations for all Visual, Audio and Text content in a VideoWiki slide. Therefore, this solves the issue of in-line citations for multi-media content.

 
Visual, Audio and Text References for each slide on VideoWiki - Screenshot

Export video file

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Once the VideoWiki article is ready, you can export the article as a WebM video file to Commons. Consequently, the video can be used in a Wikipedia article.

 
Users can export a WebM video which contains all references from a VideoWiki article.

Verifiability - final exported video

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As a reader, one should be able to verify facts against reliable sources. The final exported video contains the details of the author and the licensing of each image/video file used.

 
Visual slide reference (Sanjay Sharma) and License (CC-BY-SA 3.0) information on the final "Acute Visual Loss" Video created by VideoWiki

Further, all the text used in the final exported video has references at the end of video.

 
Text References at the end of "Acute Visual Loss"video created by VideoWiki

Furthermore, all the authors of the text script are also credited for their contribution.

 
Crediting the authors of the wiki text on the VideoWiki's final exported video on "Acute Visual Loss" - Screenshot

Multi-lingual encyclopedia

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VideoWiki is presently available in English and Hindi. However, with our "Translate" Feature, any user can record a voice-over to each slide of the VideoWiki article, making a video multi-lingual in the process.

For example: The Dengue Videowiki English Article has already been translated into:

(1) Dengue Estonian Commons Video
(2) Dengue Arabic Commons Video
(3) Dengue Hindi VideoWiki Video

 
Hindi VideoWiki Article on Rheumatoid Arthritis - Screenshot

Why build and support?

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VideoWiki impacts Wikipedia in two ways:

Makes Wikipedia more accessible

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Wikipedia is a great resource that gives its users free access to the sum of all human knowledge. However, Wikipedia has a fundamental limitation – it is a text-based encyclopedia. Imagine a hypothetical world where news was only limited to Newspapers and there was no such thing as Radio and TV news. How many people would have access to news? That’s what is currently happening to Wikipedia. The sum of all human knowledge is limited to text and therefore people who cannot read are left out from accessing the sum of all human knowledge . The future of knowledge cannot be confined to text only. People with lower literacy (countries in sub-Saharan Africa have a literacy rate as low as 64%), people with vision impairments, and non-native language speakers also deserve equal access to the sum of all human knowledge. Audio and video broadens and eases learning for those with lower literacy, vision impairments, or non-native language speakers. Those who have received a medical diagnosis regarding limitations in reading comprehension (e.g. dyslexia, visual impairment or cognitive impairment) often have access to technological aids. This however very often requires a diagnosis, that you live in a high income country and that the language you speak has working text-to-speech for this to be a solution to the accessibility problem. Furthermore, people with poor reading comprehension (from unaccustomed readers to analfabets) also have limited access to commercial tools even if this would improve their understanding. To conclude, the assessment is that a very large group would benefit from adding a layer of audio and video on Wikipedia.

Different needs of the readers

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"An estimated 25 percent of all Wikipedia users — nearly 125 million people per month need or prefer text in spoken form" - According to Wikimedia Sweden

Different people have different learning needs. Some people prefer reading text, some people prefer listening to audios and some people are visual learners who love to learn through videos.By adding a layer of audio and video to the current text, Wikipedia can expand its reach and cater to the different learning needs of people.

Furthermore, we live in the video era where videos make up approximately 70% of the global internet traffic. According to a Cisco report, this number is only going up as video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021. Additionally, as we move to augmented reality era where visual apps will dominate, it will be important for Wikipedia to innovate and to keep up with the changing times.

Not everyone knows how to read. The video I imagine is a series of 4 second clips with still images, closed captioned (text line) in perfect synch with audio- so it can be used to learn how to read, as well as learn the material. It's generated by the (proposed) VideoWiki app directly from the Wikipedia article, using Wikipedia's text, internal links to existing Wikipedia images, links, secondary articles- so little/no copyright problems exist. The audio is computer generated, with Hawking's (or alternate) voice, making synch easy. It automates turning a Wikipedia article into a "lesson", which (at a later stage) could be linked to a blockchain app which could securely record test grades and issue "Wiki Credits". It could enable a job applicant to tell an employer, "I got an A in trigonometry." - and prove it from a cell phone, on the spot.

It could also generate "credits" for the teachers who create it. We need great, engaging online lessons. Kids can watch TV 24/7/365. The idea is to make school as easy as to engage as TV. But it's better than TV because it's interactive.

The problem of the era is that COVID has cost education in differing amounts to millions of students of all ages, and efficient remediation of those lost human school-years will become ever bigger of a problem as the COVID pandemic continues. If Bernie's "free college" is to become reality, it will have to be online. Brick and mortar education is too expensive. Traditional classrooms could benefit with "canned" lessons on difficult subjects- like calculus, relativity, etc. If such a lesson exists, a button from the Wikipedia article could take you right there. The clips could be paused or accelerated, and slow learners could watch it over and over until they "get it"- and then they take the test. And then get the credit. Those who "breeze through" could go further in less time, and the database would record that. A missed question on a "quiz" could link to a remedial lesson, with a new question...it's doable.

Limitations

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Lack of open and free multi-media content

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VideoWiki is dependent on Wikimedia Commons and users personal content (if the user agrees to distribute the content under free license) for its content. Even though the number of media files on Wikimedia Commons is approximately 50 million, it is considerably only a small portion of the total media content available on the Internet. Therefore, lack of open and free multi-media content is a hindrance to the development of VideoWiki. This is a classic chicken and egg problem. Does open and free multi-media content comes first or Does an open and free multi-media encyclopedia come first?

Open to vandalism

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VideoWiki allows anyone to edit an article even without logging in. This creates an opportunity for anonymous users to vandalize VideoWiki articles. However, from Wikipedia's experience, such vandalism is usually spotted by other users or such vandalism is minor and not material to the functioning of the encyclopedia.

Proposed improvements

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Oauth not working

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Just tried to log in with my SUL credentials and it failed: 

   Error: failed to find request token in session
   at Strategy.OAuthStrategy.authenticate (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/passport-mediawiki-oauth/node_modules/passport-oauth/lib/passport-oauth/strategies/oauth.js:124:54)
   at attempt (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/passport/lib/middleware/authenticate.js:369:16)
   at authenticate (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/passport/lib/middleware/authenticate.js:370:7)
   at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:144:13)
   at Route.dispatch (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:114:3)
   at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
   at /opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:284:15
   at Function.process_params (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:346:12)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:280:10)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:136:14)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/server/router/index.js:36:12)
   at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:144:13)
   at Route.dispatch (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:114:3)
   at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
   at /opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:284:15
   at param (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:365:14)
   at param (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:376:14)
   at Function.process_params (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:421:3)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:280:10)
   at next (/opt/wpmed-videowiki/videowiki/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:136:14)

—Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:48, 24 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

User:Koavf Fixed now. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:18, 6 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind

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Interest

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  1. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 11:33, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Jim Carter (talk) 12:21, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  3. --Alaa :)..! 13:10, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  4. User:Xinbenlv Couldn't say enough how much I am excited by your VideoWiki efforts (sorry if I don't follow the format) Xinbenlv (talk) 13:12, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Ranjithsiji (talk) 13:24, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Maskaravivek (talk) 13:24, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Rogueassasin123 (talk) 09:29, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Diptanshu 💬 15:58, 22 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Marajozkee 💬 20:00, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Sumita Roy Dutta (talk) 15:12, 24 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 14:22, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Feroz Ahmad (talk) 15:11, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  13. so glad to meet @Rogueassasin123: during Wikimania and learn about his videowiki project. Would love to see it be hosted in tool labs. -- Bodhisattwa (talk) 18:14, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  14.    Innocentbunny    TALK  19:35, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  15. Srishti Sethi (talk) 02:54, 6 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  16. Daylen (talk) 21:08, 9 August 2018 (UTC) Pratik introduced this to me on Product Hunt. I agree that VideoWiki is a great idea and would be a suitable sister project for Wikipedia.[reply]
  17. Luk3 (talk) 01:28, 28 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  18. KCVelaga (talk) 13:02, 23 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  19. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:36, 25 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  20. -J. Ansari Talk 15:49, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  21. –SJ talk  05:32, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  22. Rehman 12:26, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  23. Jtmorgan (talk) 18:45, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  24. — Tulsi Bhagat (contribs | talk) 06:16, 5 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  25. gastelEtzwane (talk) 19:02, 6 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  26. --Elisauer (talk) 14:41, 7 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  27. Subas Chandra RoutSubas Chandra Rout (talk) 09:34, 12 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  28. Amqui (talk) 13:40, 12 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  29. Rosiestep (talk) 18:40, 27 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  30. Ian Furst (talk) 19:47, 29 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  31. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:33, 30 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  32. --Bence (talk) 16:34, 30 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  33. --Ibrahim.ID ✪ 13:51, 5 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  34. Interest in taking this to offline and semi literate communities - sans the machine voice Dagelf 12:19, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
  35. --Abhinav619 (talk) 05:32, 2 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  36. -ArepTicous talkcontribs 15:47, 4 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  37. T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)talk 04:17, 2 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  38. Lambtron talk 14:32, 27 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  39. ZLEA T\C 17:02, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  40. great work! I will translate the documentation in french as soon as it will be translatable and will help in creating documentation in Wikimedia Commons and french Wikipedia. Djiboun (talk) 05:37, 18 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  41. Nigos (talk) 07:46, 22 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  42. --eldarado ✉ 10:07, 4 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  43. -- Rubbish computer (Talk: Contribs) 16:40, 20 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  44. -- Masum Reza☎ 05:12, 31 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  45. Nosebagbear (talk) 00:15, 22 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  46. Well, it's about time. BD2412 T 02:19, 22 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  47. Sushma Sharma (talk) 05:20, 28 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  48. Jagseer S Sidhu (talk) 12:52, 28 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  49. InvalidOS (talk) 17:43, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  50. Arthurfan828 (talk) 22:17, 7 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  51.   Strong support. It must include video captions / subtitles for deafs and other impaired people. An easy to use closed captions visual editor. And automatic closed captions. BoldLuis (talk) 23:56, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  52. Tmv (talk) 05:55, 6 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  53. Menner (talk) 14:50, 18 July 2020 (UTC) Was working on my own VideoWiki project in Python until I discovered this here :)[reply]
  54. Yamen (talk) 02:21, 26 October 2020 (UTC) I was going to start a new project Wiki[vid]pedia to increase video content on Wikipedia and then discovered this wonderful project :)[reply]
  55. MichaelSchoenitzer (talk) 21:54, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  56. Aboubacarkhoraa (talk) 08:06, 3 Decembre 2020 (UTC)
  57. max20characters🇺🇸 16:00, 22 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  58. Zblace (talk) 07:15, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  59. Syunsyunminmin 🗨️talk 17:02, 23 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  60. Chqaz (talk) 01:22, 5 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  61. V0lkanic (talk) 22:58, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  62. Geert Van Pamel (WMBE) (talk) 09:05, 30 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  63. Dnshitobu (talk) 09:55, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  64. Dr3939 (talk) 21:33, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Meetings

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Discussion

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  1.   Oppose. Video hosting requires a lot of resources. WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia is a more eco-friendly solution. Hérisson grognon (talk) 12:12, 14 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    1. I hear you. Rendering videos from static images and single voice-over into high-resolution video is indeed not ideal and needed for desktop computers, but I think for mobile phone views at lover resolutions should be supported and not so resource intensive. --Zblace (talk) 07:14, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
      1. And ideally if this idea was to take off, the videos could simple be rendered from the underlying scrip when people wish to view it... But right now we are having trouble getting the tool to even work. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 07:58, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  2.   Strong support! Good multi-media encyclopedia. TylerMagee (talk) 18:09, 11 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  3.   Comment I like the general idea but have doubts about the implementation/execution so far. Here are some ideas for developing this / a successor version or related project(s): 1. Article2ShortVideo generation tool 2. the audio narration is low quality, see c:Help:Spoken_Wikipedia using AI 3. A tool could generate videos that narrates a Wikipedia lead/section highlighting the word or sentence read with the articles' embedded media files in the background if there are any for the spoken part or the entire video using files on WMC (upload these to YT). 4. The tool could allow the user to specify timestamps from and to of videos so one can simply quickly use parts of videos on Commons but it shouldn't upload these clips as well as the clips created from static images all to WMC – instead have that specified in the wikitext and only upload the final video; a way to specify at what timestamp of a video which word should be set would make it more useful too; first redubbing already-existing high-quality videos could be more useful for now. --Prototyperspective (talk) 16:24, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Media

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See also

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