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The Wikimedia Commons (also referred to as "''the Commons''") is a repository of : May 2006. Vol. 17, Iss. 5; pg. 312, 1 pgs. Source type: Periodical ISSN: 08978026 ProQuest document ID: 1044826021 Text Word Count 746 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1044826021&sid=1&Fmt=4&clientId=76566&RQT=309&VName=PQD ProQuest (subscription) retrieved August 6, 2007 Like Wikipedia , it is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation . It provides a common resource repository to all the various Wikimedia in any language. The files uploaded to the ''Commons'' repository can be used like locally uploaded files1 on all other projects on the Wikimedia servers in all Language s, including Wikipedia , Wikibooks , Wikisource and Wikinews , or downloaded for offsite use, as all of the content is either in the Public Domain or released under free licenses such as the GNU Free Documentation License .2 HISTORY The project was proposed by Erik Möller in March 2004 3 and launched on September 7 , 2004 ,45 A key motivation behind the setup of a central repository was the desire to reduce duplication of effort across the Wikimedia projects and languages, as the same file had to be uploaded to many different wikis separately before the Commons was created. The technical feature to use any file from the Commons on any Wikimedia project was implemented and enabled in October 2004 ,6 which led to rapid adoption of Commons as a repository. The project logo was created by Reid Beels, who had initially submitted it to a logo contest for Wikinews . It was entered into the Commons logo competition, which it won, and was officially adopted in November 2004.7 In April 2005, Directmedia Publishing , a Berlin company which also publishes a German Language edition of Wikipedia on DVD , donated a collection of 10,000 reproductions of Public Domain paintings to Wikimedia Commons, which were uploaded together with Metadata about the art and its creators.8 On May 24 , 2005 , Wikimedia Commons reached a milestone of 100,000 uploaded media files (excluding thousands of weather and market data images for Wikinews). It also received an honorary mention at the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica awards in May 2005.9 On November 30 , 2006 , it reached the one millionth uploaded file. A 'mosaic' of the Wikimedia Foundation logo was manually created by the site's editors to celebrate the milestone. 10 Over time, additional functionality has been developed to interface Wikimedia Commons with the Wikimedia projects. Daniel Kinzler wrote applications for finding appropriate categories for uploaded files ("CommonSense"), determining the usage of files across the Wikimedia projects ("CheckUsage"), locating images with missing copyright information ("UntaggedImages"), and relaying information about administrative actions such as deletions to the relevant wikis (""). The website also has a new, more image-focused Search Engine called Mayflower. Specialized uploading tools and scripts such as "Commonist" have been created to simplify the process of uploading large numbers of files. In order to review free content photos uploaded to Flickr , users can participate in a collaborative external review process (""), which has resulted in more than 10,000 uploads to Commons. FlickrLickr image upload count POLICIES AND USAGE 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 which local project policies allow, but which would not be permitted according to the . Given its primary function as a supporting project for the other Wikimedia web sites, the main content policy for files uploaded to the Commons is that they must be potentially useful on any of the Wikimedia projects. This excludes material such as purely personal pictures and artwork, in contrast to image sharing repositories like Flickr , Facebook and DeviantART . Nevertheless, large numbers of files hosted on the Commons are not used directly on any Wikimedia project and likely never will be; as such, the project has grown into a repository of multimedia in its own right, which is frequently linked to from articles on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia websites to provide supplemental materials. The default language for the 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. Files on the Wikimedia Commons are categorized using MediaWiki's category system. In addition, they are often collected on individual topical gallery pages. While the project was originally proposed to also contain free text files, these continue to be hosted on a sister project, Wikisource . QUALITY The site has two mechanisms for recognising quality works. One is known as "" began in June 2006, and has a simpler nomination process compared to "Featured pictures". "Quality images" also only accepts self-nominations of works created by Wikimedia users, whereas "Featured pictures" additionally accepts nominations of works by third parties such as NASA. In January 2007 the site held its inaugural "Picture of the Year" competition, for "". All images that were made a Featured picture during 2006 were eligible, and voted on by eligible Wikimedia users during two rounds of voting. The winning picture was a picture of the Aurora Borealis over snowlands, taken by a member of the US Air Force . SEE ALSO
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