Commons:Media knowledge beyond Wikipedia

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 This page is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Commons contributors.
It is not a Commons policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page.

On Wikimedia Commons, the Wikimedia community works together with educational and cultural partners around the world, collecting images, videos and other media in alignment with Wikimedia's vision (the sum of all knowledge), and Wikimedia's 2030 movement strategy's strategic direction (infrastructure for free knowledge, knowledge equity). In a world where much knowledge has never been written down and in a time where people around the world increasingly communicate and learn via audiovisual means, we are dedicated to create, collaborate, connect, synchronize, contextualize, improve, curate and share a "multimedia knowledge commons". We collect and describe humanity's knowledge as captured in maps and diagrams, images and video, in art and new and historical photography, in digitized publications and recorded culture, and so much more. The 100 million files currently on Wikimedia Commons are only a start.

We do this because images, videos and other media convey knowledge in unique ways. They explain and demonstrate complex concepts, cultural expressions and historical moments across languages. They do so with clarity and nuance that words often can't achieve.

Therefore, Wikimedia Commons' scope is, and must continue to be, much broader than just support and illustration for Wikipedia. So much of the world's knowledge is not, and may never be, properly describable in and/or notable for Wikipedia. Wikimedia Commons is necessary for a movement that aims to collect and share all the world's knowledge; we need it as a platform that allows us to transcend Wikipedia's text-based limitations.

The functionality of Wikimedia Commons, with this broad scope, must be properly resourced by the Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia organizations, so that Wikimedia Commons can reach its full impact, enabling and encouraging diverse paths of discovery, active participation, and broad re-use.

Signatures

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Why this page

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See the talk page for more context. Comments welcome!

Wikimedia Foundation 2024-25 annual plan

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This statement has been written in direct response to the Wikimedia Foundation's 2024-25 annual plan proposal, May 2024, which lacks proper support for Wikimedia Commons. It has also been written out of concern that Wikimedia Foundation staff and leadership, in various recent conversations, have expressed that Wikimedia Commons' main purpose is / should be to support and illustrate Wikipedia.

In the context of the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2024-25 annual plan, we ask:

  1. Wikimedia Foundation staff, teams and leadership should be aligned to fully support Wikimedia Commons with its broad scope as a key piece of mission- and strategy-aligned knowledge infrastructure in its own right.
  2. Wikimedia Commons, with this broad mission-aligned scope, should receive proper resourcing in the 2024-25, and future, WMF annual plans.

See also

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Wikimedia Commons Project scope

Earlier statements about scope and resourcing for Wikimedia Commons include:

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