WikiEducator:Multimedia Policy

WikiEducator: Multimedia Policy

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.

Introduction

WikiEducator encourages the use of free and open formats in accordance with the requirements of the Free Cultural Works Definition.

Where current technologies in the wiki support easy integration of free formats, these file formats must be used.

Where practicable, access to the source files must be uploaded to WikiEducator. WikiEducator's prime focus is to widen access to high quality learning content that is licensed under a CC-BY-SA license. Some educators may not have unrestricted access to free software tools, for example: information technology policies at some institutions may restrict the essential freedoms of educators to download and install free software on computers supplied by their respective organisations. In such a situation it may not be possible for an educator to provide content in unrestricted file formats. These guidelines are intended to inform users of WikiEducator how our community deals with this challenge. In this scenario we accept the lessor of two evils, namely encouraging the freedom of educators to participate at the expense of our community values in promoting the use of free software.

Audio files

1. WikiEducator does not currently have a web-based ogg Vorbis player and is reluctantly using the patented MP3 format for browser-based play back of audio files. The following policy guidelines apply:
   1. When a reliable web-based player for ogg vorbis files is installed on WikiEducator, the community will convert all MP3 files into ogg vorbis format.
   2. When the creator of an audio file requests the use of a free format (for example ogg Vorbis), their choice must be respected and the WikiEducator community will not convert the file into a closed or restricted format.
   3. In cases where users generate an audio file using free software applications (for example Audacity) users must upload the source files that were used to generate a non-free audio format.

Does this mean that one should upload the the .au files that audacity uses? Would it not make more sense to ask for a FLAC or other non-lossy format, which can be made bit-equivalent to the original?

--Phsi 09:29, 27 June 2007 (CEST)

Video files

Notes:

• Talk about FLV player
• What about youtube extension? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jcobbers/youtube_extension