Wikimedia Australia COMMONS Wikimedia

Cape Forestier and Mount Parsons from Sleepy Bay, Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania, Australia. Photo by JJ Harrison. Released under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0. Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons is an online source of educational media for use and expertise to engage in the media repository storing public in the various project in a variety of ways. domain and freely-licensed images, projects, including , Although content creators are audio and video for free public and - but the always welcome, Commons also consumption and use. It allows media in not restricted to just the needs people who can categorise contributors to freely upload and Foundation projects, and thus it can the works, digitally improve images, share works that have educational be employed in a number of help with descriptions and value with the wider community. different applications, from identification, and who can assist illustrating major news stories to with regulations and the Since it was founded in September, providing colourful content in school identification of problematic content. 2004, contributors have uploaded projects. over 10 million files to Commons. Commons can be found online at: These files, as is the project itself, As with Wikipedia, Commons is run http://commons.wikimedia.org/ are primarily intended to serve as a by volunteers who donate their time Reuse Although the Wikimedia Foundation license, and therefore owns Commons, it does not own the can be reused in projects without Licensing media that has been uploaded to the requiring individual permission. Wikimedia Commons only accepts project. Ownership remains with the In each case, the specific or freely-licensed creator. However, most of the media requirements for reuse are available images. As such, contributors need uploaded has been released under a in the licensing information included to ensure that they release their with the mediaʼs details. Depending works under a license that is on the license, you may be required compatible with the projectʼs aims. to acknowledge the original creator, Recommended licenses include: provide acknowledgement of the licensing terms, and, with derived • Public Domain (PD) works, you may need to release them • GNU Free Document License under an identical license. However, (GFDL) outside of these constraints, you are generally permitted to use the media • Creative Commons (CC) 1 in both commercial and non- Licenses which require permission commercial applications, share and to be sought from the creator, or redistribute the works, and derive licenses which do not permit new works from the originals. commercial reuse, are not If you wish to use the work under accepted on Commons. different terms, or you need to verify Full information is available at: the workʼs status, you may be able to contact the original contributor. Full http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Commons:Choosing_a_license 1883 Brisbane flood, corner of Edward and Mary street. One details about this and other aspects of over 10,000 public domain images donated in 2010 to of media reuse are available on the 1 Note: Not all Creative Commons licenses Wikimedia Commons by the State Library of Queensland. are compatible with Wikimedia Commonsʼ Commons website. requirements. Photo by Paul C. Poulsen. Public domain. Contributing

Anyone can contribute to Wikimedia and provide a resource for look at a photo-hosting service such Commons. In particular, Commons journalists. as Flickr. Further information about is always in need of photographers, the scope of Wikimedia Commons Accounts illustrators and film and theatre can be found at http:// artists and musicians, but there are You do not need an account to commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ such a wide range of tasks needing contribute to Commons, but you will Commons:Project_scope assistance that any and all help is need one to upload media. Copyright appreciated. Creating an account is free, and you Commons accepts only free content Why Contribute? will not need to reveal your offline - in other words, content that is free identity in order to take part By contributing to Commons you are to be used anywhere, by anyone, (although if you choose to employ a helping to provide a freely available and for any purpose. This excludes pseudonym, attribution will tend to resource that isnʼt just valuable for media licensed for non-commercial be to your username rather than projects such as Wikipedia, but is of use only, works derived from non- your real name). value for projects around the world. free media and works claiming “fair Your work - your photos, Formats and Quality use”. illustrations, audio, video, or your Generally, the project needs the In the case of new works, this efforts to make the works of others largest and highest quality files that means that media must be released accessible - will be available for a are available. With images, under a compatible license, as per wide variety of different applications Commons utilises software that “Licensing requirements” above. and mediums. Amongst many other automatically resizes images to suit With public domain files, the media applications, contributors help requirements, and large images must be considered public domain illustrate textbooks, assist provide the most flexibility for reuse. both in the country of origin and the schoolchildren with their projects, JPEGs are preferred for United States. For more information, photographs - while PNG is see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/ possible, the file size tends to be wiki/Commons:Licensing higher. For animated images GIF is Uploading the preferred format, and SVG is Files can be uploaded through the considered the first choice for Commons website - all you need is diagrams and other scalable line a free account, to be logged in, and drawings. Audio needs to be to have access to a computer with a uploaded as MIDI files or Ogg web browser. Vorbis (.ogg), while for video you should employ Ogg Theora. The When uploading your files, you will maximum file size is 20 MB. need to add categories to make them easier to find, write a Subjects description, and specify the license Commons accepts a wide range of under which the work is to be subjects, providing they have released. educational value and are legal in the state of Florida in the United States. For works which have artistic Useful Links A Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles miles) photographed near Cairns or personal value, but which are in Queensland. Photo by Toby Hudson. Released under Creative Wikimedia Commons Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0. unlikely to have sufficient educational value, you may wish to Website http://commons.wikimedia.org/ Wikimedia Australia Contact Details Wikimedia Australia, Inc.® is an independent, not- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ for-profit organisation, whose primary aim is to Commons:Contact_us promote equality of opportunity to access and Frequently Asked Questions participate in the collaborative creation of Free http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Cultural Works, especially educational works, and Commons:FAQ works about Australia, its culture, natural environment, and Australian news and media. Wikimedia Australia Wikimedia Australia is recognised by the Wikimedia Website Foundation as an official chapter and as such offers http://wikimedia.org.au/ members an official voice in the global Wikimedia Email community, whose aim is to create the sum of all human knowledge, freely available in your own language. [email protected]

Disclaimer and License Wikimedia Australia (WMAU) provides this document as a guide only. For the latest information you are encouraged to check the Wikimedia Commons website at http://commons.wikimedia.org/ Although WMAU is affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, it exists as an independent body. This document is not an official publication of the Wikimedia Foundation, and does not necessarily express the Foundationʼs views. This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.