Introduction

This Manual is designed to provide the essential information for people interested in contributing their own work to Wikimedia Commons.

What is Wikimedia Commons?

Wikimedia Commons ( http://commons.wikimedia.org/ ) is a website managed by the Wikimedia Foundation ( http://wikimediafoundation.org/ ), a non-for-profit organisation that also manages Wikipedia. It is a database of media files available for anyone to use for any purpose. It's an open website that any can contribute to, which uses wiki software that allows for easy collaboration.

The site is managed entirely by volunteer editors, who also create the majority of its content by contributing their own work. The community is multilingual, with translators available for dozens of languages. It only collects material that is available under free content licenses or in the public domain. It was founded in September 2004, and as of July 2008 contains nearly three million media files.

Why is it special?

These are some qualities that make Wikimedia Commons unique:

• All content is available under free content licenses that allow commercial use and derivative works.

• Utility: Wikimedia Commons concentrates on files that will be useful. That means no blurry photos of someone's shoes.

• The community concentrates on providing detailed annotations of media files, with information as precise as exact geographic coordinates available. Our nature files often have precise location and species information available which is invaluable for scientific purposes.

• The multilingual community makes it easier than ever for people all over the world to find relevant media described in their native language.

• Extensive collections of high quality vector graphics such as flags, maps and diagrams. Vector graphics are suitable for printing at any size, unlike bitmap images which look fuzzy at high resolution.

• We invite everyone to help us make the most extensive free content media collection in the world. Individuals can contribute directly to the free culture mission by uploading their work at Wikimedia Commons.

What is free content?

The Definition of Free Cultural Works ( http://freedomdefined.org/Definition ) recognses the following essential freedoms that any license must allow for a work to be considered “free content”:

• to use and perform the work for any use, without exception

• to study the work and apply the information

• to redistribute copies to anyone, anywhere, for any price

• to distribute derivative (modified) works.

There are only three restrictions that are considered permissible:

• Attribution of authors

• Transmission of freedoms (“copyleft” or “share-alike” clause)

• Protection of freedoms (e.g. access to source code may be required when redistributing the work).

Which licenses are free?

Works that are in the public domain, due to the expiration of copyright or the author choosing to relinquish it, are free cultural works, although “public domain” is not technically a license. (A license can only be used where copyright still exists. 'Public domain' is the absence of copyrights.)

Common licenses that people choose to use to make their works free content are the GNU Free Documentation License (“GFDL”), published by the Free Software Foundation, and the Attribution license (“CC-BY”) and Attribution ShareAlike license (“CC-BY-SA”) both published by Creative Commons.

About MediaWiki software

What is a wiki?

It is useful to be able to distinguish between the tool used to create something and the thing itself. Just as you can use word processor software to create a text document, you can use wiki software to create a wiki. In this case the term wiki refers to the content created by the contributors.

What is MediaWiki?

MediaWiki ( http://www.mediawiki.org/ ) is the wiki software behind Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. It controls user accounts and permissions, converting "wiki markup" to HTML, storing all revisions of all articles, and much, much more.

Much of what you learn about contributing to Wikimedia Commons, therefore, will be applicable when you edit Wikipedia, or for that matter any other wiki website which uses the MediaWiki wiki software underneath.

Structure in Wikimedia wikis

MediaWiki provides several mechanisms for creating structure within the wiki. By default, there is no required structure -- but that tends to make the content very difficult to navigate. So sites using MediaWiki often build their own structure.

Namespaces

Pages in MediaWiki are divided into namespaces. By default, pages are created in the Main namespace, which is indicated by no prefix. All other namespaces have an explicit prefix, which is separated from the page name by a colon (:). The use of namespaces typically divides content up by purpose. Some namespaces also give pages special behaviour.

This screenshot of a page's title shows that the page is in the Image namespace and the page's name is "Example.svg".

In most wikis, where most work is done on text documents, the namespace that is most commonly used is the Main namespace. On Wikimedia Commons, the most commonly used namespace is the Image namespace. One Image page contains a link to one media file, and metadata about that file. (Despite the name, Image pages are used to represent all kinds of files that can be uploaded.)

The namespaces most commonly used to create structure are Template and Category.

Template

Templates (pages in the Template namespace) allow some "boilerplate text" to be placed on multiple pages - for example, license or author information. If that text needs to be changed (say, an author changes their contact details), then they can edit the template and that change will be automatically updated on all the pages where the template is being used. They can also be used in this way to ensure uniform presentation of some particular text.

These screenshots show the effect of embedding a template in a page.

In Wikimedia Commons, templates are used for a variety of purposes. One of the most important purposes is for indiciating which licenses apply to which media files. Each image page should have at least one embedded license template (sometimes called "tags").

Category

Categories (pages in the Category namespace) can be used to automatically group pages. Rather than maintaining a list of media files that relate to a particular topic manually, categories automatically keep such lists up to date.

These screenshots show the effect of adding a category link to a page.

In Wikimedia Commons, categories are used to sort files by topic and license (although the license categories are automatically added by the license templates). It's very important to add at least one descriptive category to each Image page. These categories help make files "findable" and increase the ease of navigation around the site.

Wikimedia Commons as a central Wikimedia resource

Normally, images can only be inserted in a wiki page if they have already been uploaded to that wiki. However there is a special link between Wikimedia Commons and all the other Wikimedia projects, that allows images in Wikimedia Commons to be used in any of the Wikimedia projects as if the file was uploaded to that local wiki. This is very convenient: upload once, use everywhere.

Wiki markup cheat sheet

MediaWiki doesn't come with a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor by default. Instead, it lets users to format their text by "wiki markup". Learning wiki markup can be daunting at first, especially table and template syntax, but the basics can be learned fairly quickly.

If you are reading this documentation online, it is strongly recommended to experiment with the markup in an actual MediaWiki wiki such as Wikipedia. For example, these two links are useful to have open together:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox

The "sandbox" is a special page designed especially for experimenting. Users new and old can feel free to practice and test their wiki markup skills by editing, saving or previewing and observing the changes.

Below is an introduction to the most commonly used elements of wiki markup.

Description	You type	You get
applies anywhere
Italic text	''italic''	italic
Bold text	'''bold'''	bold
Link to a wiki page	Link to the [[Main Page]] Link to the [[Template:Test]] Link to the [[:Image:Example.png]] Link to the [[:Category:Test]]	Link to the Main Page Link to the Template:Test Link to the Image:Example.png Link to the Category:Test
Link to an external site	Link to [http://www.google.com/ Google]	Link to Google
Embed a template	This is a {{test}}	(what appears depends on the contents at Template:Test)
Add a category	[[Category:Test]]	(an automatic link appears at the bottom of the page)
Display an image	A full size image: [[Image:Example.png]] A resized image: [[Image:Example.png|70px]] A resized, thumbnailed, right-aligned image with caption: [[Image:Example.png|thumb|70px|right|Caption goes here]]	A full size image: A thumbnailed image:  A resized, thumbnailed, right-aligned image with caption:
only at the beginning of the line
Indent text	:Single indent ::Double indent :::::Multiple indent	Single indent Double indent Multiple indent
Headings of different levels	==level 2== =level 3= ==level 4==	Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Bullet list	* one * two * three ** three and one-third ** three and two-thirds	one two three three and one-third three and two-thirds
Numbered list	# one # two # three ## three point one ## three point two	one two three three point one three point two

Log in / create account

Most pages on Wikimedia Commons can be edited without registering an account. People who edit without accounts are said to be editing "anonymously", although their edits are listed against their IP address, which is usually less anonymous than a username!

However, users must be logged in to an account in order to upload files. The good news is, once you've registered an account on Wikimedia Commons, you can use that account on all Wikimedia projects. Once you've logged in at one site, you'll be automatically logged in to all the others, too.

Registering

In the top right-hand corner you'll find a link that says "Log in / create account". This link takes you to  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UserLogin .

Follow the link to create an account.

The top part of the screen shows some two fuzzy words mashed together. New users are required to enter the words in the box below. This is known as a "CAPTCHA" and it helps block spammers from automatically signing up hundreds of accounts.

Below the CAPTCHA are some fields for your username, password and email address. Note that

• usernames are case sensitive - "Doug" is different to "DOUG" which is different to "DoUG" which is different to "DOuG" ...
  
• your username must be unique, so if you can't sign up because someone else already has an account with that name, try making it longer or appending some numbers to the end.

Putting your email address is optional, but it's a good idea. Firstly, it means if you forget your password, you can request a new one to be sent to your email. Secondly, it means you request notification via email if someone leaves you a message on-wiki. This is very useful if you don't intend to return and check the site regularly. Thirdly, it means you can send emails via the wiki to other users, and you can allow other users to email you, too.

Logging in

Simply follow the same link to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UserLogin , enter your username and password and click "Log in".

When you are logged in, you will notice a new set of links in the top right-hand corner, starting with your username, followed by

• My talk
• My preferences
• My watchlist
• My contributions
• Log out .
  

User links

As a registered user, you will have several extra options available to you now. The first is your very own user page. This will be located at [[User:Your username here]]. You can get to it by clicking on your username in the top right-hand corner.

This is a good place to put some profile information about yourself, such as your interests and skills. Putting your proficiency in various languages is also useful to let other users know how they can best communicate with you. For special templates for this purpose, see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Babel .

Your talk page, located at [[User talk:Your username here]], is where other users can leave messages for you. When your user talk page has been edited, a large orange bar will appear at the top of all the wiki pages you visit that says, "You have new messages", until you go read your talk page.

You can respond to messages on your talk either in place on your talk page, or on the other person's talk page. (There will probably be a link in their signature to their talk page.) Be sure to sign all messages you write on talk pages by appending your messages with four tildes: ~~~~.  When you save the page, these will automatically be converted into a link to your user page and a timestamp.

Your watchlist is where you can see the latest changes made to pages that are on your watchlist. By default files you upload will have their Image pages added to your watchlist. This means you can follow the changes that other people make to your file's descriptions. You can also add pages to your watchlist by opening the "edit" tab and ticking the box that says "Watch this page".

Under your contributions, you'll find a list of all the edits or uploads you've done, starting with the most recent. This can be useful if you remember editing an interesting page but forgot to add it to your watchlist.

 Setting your preferences

  There are dozens of preferences available, but just a few of the most important will be covered below.

  Follow the right-hand corner link to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences .

Under "User profile", there is a drop-down list for "Language". This will change the language that interface messages (e.g. menu links) are presented in. If you are more comfortable with a language other than English (which is the default) then it's definitely worth changing this to your preferred language.

At the bottom under the "Email" section there are a number of preferences. If you don't intend to check the site regularly, it's a good idea to tick the option for "E-mail me when my user talk page is changed".

Don't forget to save your preferences!

Uploading your first file

So you've made some creative work, found a Wikimedia project page that it can improve, registered an account and logged in. Time to start uploading!

There's a wiki page which you might find useful to help guide you through this process as well: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Contributing_your_own_work

For the best uploading experience, it's a good idea to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The first link in the menu on the left under "participate" is "Upload file", which leads to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Upload .

At Commons:Upload, the first link leads to the "Upload your own work" form.

Navigating the upload form

The top half of the form contains need-to-know information about what constitutes one's "own work" (for example, taking a screenshot typically does not), and information and categories and licensing. The bottom half of the form contains fields for you to fill out about your work.

Each field has a small question mark icon next to it. Clicking on this icon will reveal a small help box. Clicking on it again will make the help box disappear.

The first few fields are pretty easy. Clicking on the "Browse" button will give you a view of your local files so you can choose the one you want to upload. Doing this will automatically fill out the Destination filename field. Be sure to change the "Destination filename" to something descriptive if it's not already. It's not straightforward to change file names after they've been uploaded, which means it's important to choose a good filename the first time around. You can append your name or the date to the filename if you're concerned it won't be specific enough.

The Original source field should be already filled out, and your username should be present in the Author(s) field. If you would rather be credited as your real name rather than your username, feel free to delete the text already there and put your preferred name.

In Description you'll find a text box for an English description by default. You can use the drop-down menu on the left to change it to a different language if you prefer, or click on the "+" button to add a field for another language (if you feel competent to write a description in multiple languages).

When writing the description, write it as if describing the image to someone who can't see it. That is, after all, what you're doing -- the description is of most benefit to users searching the site. Of course, if it's a complex scene that requires explanation, that also belongs in this field -- but don't neglect the basics.

Other versions is only necessary if you are uploading an edited version of an existing file. So most of the time it's fine to leave this blank. Likewise, Permission is mostly relevant when you're uploading other people's works, rather than your own. So this one can also be left blank. Additional info is also fine to leave blank.

The final two fields are Licensing and Categories. These are both important.

Although this is a pretty simple little drop-down box, it represents some significant thinking. Free content licenses can't be revoked, so it's best to do all the hard thinking about it once, fairly early on, and after that just pick your choice without giving it so much thought.

A separate FLOSS Manual chapter, "Choosing a license", is available at http://en.flossmanuals.net/WikimediaCommons/License .

In Categories, clicking on the "(+)" produces a text field. When you start to type in it, existing categories will appear in a list above the text field. When you choose one from the list, clikc "OK" to add the file to that category. This can be repeated for multiple categories.

Categories are similar to but not exactly the same as "tags", commonly used in sites like Flickr. Categories are heirarchical, which means only the most specific category for a particular aspect of a file should be added. For example, if you add the category Paris to a file, you don't need to add France as well.

When you're new to Wikimedia Commons, don't worry too much about finding the best categories. At least one relevant category is what's most important. You will find that over time, other community members will sort your files into more specific categories. That's the beauty of a wiki!

Choosing a license

This chapter is a guide to people who are contributing their own work, and want advice about free licenses and the "best" one to choose to apply to their work.

If you don't want to read this and just want to know which license the Wikimedia Commons community recommends, choose one of the following:

• {{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-2.5,2.0,1.0}}: "Copyleft (Multi-license GFDL, all CC-BY-SA)"
• {{PD-self}}: "All rights released (Public domain or GFDL if the PD release is invalidated)"

However it's better if you read the rest of this chapter, to understand what you're agreeing to!

Ideology and philosophy

Copyright is a form of intellectual property law that gives the creator of an intellectual work the right to control how that work may be used. In its usual form, that control comes in the way of restrictions: copyright works to restrict others from using the intellectual works of others.

People who are anti-copyright believe that the current copyright system and/or any copyright system is inappropriate and should be severely curtailed and/or abolished altogether.

If you are anti-copyright, you probably will want to release your work into the public domain. See the next section.

Copyleft is the idea of using the copyright system to remove the common restrictions used in copyright. People who advocate for copyleft may or may not be anti-copyright.

If you believe in copyleft, you will probably want to use one of the free licenses detailed in the final section.

The open source model for software programs is well-known, and has been successful in a range of applications, from entire operating systems (Linux) to the software that is used to run Wikipedia and its sister projects. The key features of open source are

• ability to view and modify the source code
• requirement that any modified versions of the software are released under the same license.

The main players

 Lawrence Lessig is an American lawyer who wrote a book in 2004 called "Free Culture" and founded the Creative Commons organisation, which has popularised some copyleft licenses commonly used on the internet today.

 Richard Stallman is an American software developer who founded the Free Software Foundation and wrote the GPL (GNU General Public License), the most widely-used open source license for software. The Free Software Foundation designed the GNU Free Documentation License, originally intended to do the same software documentation (help files etc) as the GPL does for software itself.

 The Free Cultural Works Definition defines four essential requirements for a license to be considered a "Free Culture License":

1. The freedom to use and perform the work
2. The freedom to study the work and apply the information
3. The freedom to redistribute copies
4. The freedom to distribute derivative works

 The Wikimedia Foundation (which manages Wikimedia Commons, as well as most famously Wikipedia) is currently one of the largest proponents of (and thus indirectly advocates for) copyleft licenses. Their licensing policy requires that all projects they manage use "Free Culture Licenses" as defined by the Free Cultural Works definition. Most projects currently use the GFDL, however Wikinews uses the CC-BY license.

Flickr, a popular photo-sharing website, allows users to easily choose Creative Commons licenses for their photographs. Flickr's popularity has increased awareness and knowledge of the Creative Commons licenses among its users. Flickr's API also helps to encourage re-use of such freely-licensed photographs.

Public domain release

When you release a work into the public domain (or otherwise attempt to renounce all rights to the work), you are giving up all control over the work. This means that although a public domain work is in one sense "the most free", as it can be used in the widest range of possible uses, derivative works may "become unfree" as the creator of the derivative work can choose to use traditional restrictive licensing.

To ensure that works "stay free", it's necessary to use a work that has a ShareAlike condition.

Common license conditions

Compare these to the essential freedoms at http://freedomdefined.org/Definition#Defining_Free_Culture_Licenses :

Common free licenses

About old versions of licenses

Generally it is recommended to license under the most recent version of a license.

Making life easy for re-users

There are two situations situations where media can be re-used. The first one is for more or less "personal use". For these users, a license with a FullText requirement is somewhat unfriendly. Another one is a user contributing to a collaborative site such as a wiki. In this case, the entire site likely already has a chosen license and all content contributed to the site must conform to this license. For these users, because no licenses are compatible, they need material to be available under the same license as the original.

This is why Wikimedia Commons recommends dual-licensing under the GFDL and the CC-BY-SA license (all versions). Both licenses have a ShareAlike restriction, ensuring the work will remain free no matter how it is used or modified. Using 'all versions' of the CC-BY-SA license maximises re-usability for sites which may be "stuck" with an earlier version of the CC-BY-SA license. Using the GFDL ensures the work can be used unquestionably by the vast majority of Wikimedia projects.

Further information

• Free Software Foundation
• Creative Commons
• Definition of Free Cultural Works
• Stanford University Library copyright FAQ

Inserting your file in an article

The great thing is that this works for any page on any Wikimedia project, as long as the image has been uploaded at Wikimedia Commons.

All inserted files automatically have a link from the file to the Image page for that file. That means it's always easy to find author and license information about images inserted in articles -- it's just one click away.

Thumbnailing

The simplest wiki markup required to display an image is simply the name of the file surrounded by square brackets:

[[Image:Example.png]]

However this will display the image at fullsize, which is usually undesirable. To resize the image we can add a thumb keyword:

[[Image:Example.png|thumb]]

The thumb keyword also adds a grey frame around the image and some space at the bottom for a caption.

 Thumbnailed images display at a width of between 100 pixels and 250 pixels (according to the user's preferences). If you want to force a display at a particular width, you can do so explicitly:

[[Image:Example.png|250px]]

[[Image:Example.png|thumb|250px]]

Using both the width parameter and the thumb keyword means the image will display at that width, but also with a grey frame.

Adding a caption

Using the thumb keyword can make the image look a little strange if we don't include a caption as well. We can do that by writing our caption as the final option inside the square brackets. The caption must be the final element.

[[Image:Example.png|thumb|This is where the caption goes]]

[[Image:Example.png|250px|This is where the caption goes]]

If a caption is used without the thumb keyword, the caption will be used as "alt text", which means when the user hovers their mouse over the image, the caption will be displayed.

Aligning

If an image is displayed without an align keyword, then by default it will show at the left, but the text won't flow around the image. The available align keywords are center, left and right. Left and right will let the text flow around the image which is usually desirable.

[[Image:Example.png|250px|right]]

[[Image:Example.png|thumb|right|This is where the caption goes]]

[[Image:Example.png|thumb|250px|right|This is where the caption goes]]

 These images will all be right-aligned.

The align keyword can also come before with the width parameter or the thumb keyword.

Other options

 There are many other options available for formatting images. The following pages list some more options that you may wish to experiment with.

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images 
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Picture_tutorial 
  

Recommendations for SVG

How MediaWiki treats SVGs

SVG is not one of the file formats enabled for uploading by default. It can easily be added as an allowed file format and on all Wikimedia wikis this has already been done. Because browsers do not display SVGs reliably, MediaWiki creates PNG thumbnails of SVGs, and these are shown to the user whenever an SVG is referenced (except if the user downloads the original source file).

Wikimedia wikis use RSVG (also known as librsvg) to render PNGs. When you view an SVG on any MediaWiki page (including its own Image page), you are actually seeing a PNG thumbnail.

One consequence of this is that if you want to access an original SVG file, saving it from the image you see in an article or even from what you see on the Image page won't work. 

As this screenshot shows, the way to save the original SVG file is to right-click on the linked file name that appears below the image thumbnail, and choose "Save Link As..."

Language neutrality

Because Wikimedia Commons is a multilingual resource, if at all possible it is best to make diagrams, graphs and charts language neutral. This means they can be used in a wiki of any language without needing modification.

For example, instead of directly labelling areas in an image, consider colour-coding or numbering them, and then referring to the colour/number in a language-specific key below. If there are many different elements this can make the caption very large -- but on the other hand, if there are many different elements, the image probably won't be legible as a thumbnail anyway.

With diagrams it is useful to upload a numbered version as well as a version in your preferred language. Then users who speak other languages but lack the technical or linguistic knowledge to translate the file can still improve their project by including the numbered version.

A very useful tool called "SVG Translate" is available on the Wikimedia toolserver at http://toolserver.org/~nikola/svgtranslate.php .

Miscellaneous tips

• Don't embed bitmap images into SVGs. If you are converting a bitmap image make sure it is properly converted and not just embedded.
• Fonts are one of the most common sources of bad rendering of SVGs on MediaWiki. Check the list of fonts available at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SVG_fonts . Notably, CJK fonts will not display, and must be converted to paths before files containing them are uploaded at Wikimedia Commons. 
• If possible use redundant coding. This means don't use colour as the only way of distinguishing between items. Also use patterns or hatchings or different shapes.
• Use colours that contrast in hue as well as brightness.

Further reading

•  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:SVG
  
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Inkscape
  
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Text_and_Inkscape
• How to make figures and presentations that are friendly to color blind people
• Check if an existing image is colour-blind-friendly
• Colorblind colorlab - choose a colour palette, and then see it through a filter as a colour-blind person would

Publicising your work

Sharing your work with the world is much more enjoyable if are part of the community, giving and receiving encouragement, advice and accolades.

Wikimedia Commons has three processes by which high quality works are recognised by the community. The oldest is Featured Pictures (FP) which has existed since late 2004 -- it began when Wikimedia Commons was itself just a few months old. As time has passed it has required a much more rigorous standard of quality, as FP purports to represent "the best of the best". This has created space for other quality initiatives: Quality Images (QI) began in June 2006 and has been outstandingly successful. A third initiative, Valued Images (VI) began in April 2008, and is making slow but steady progress.

Featured Pictures

 Featured Pictures should represent the best of the best, the cream of the crop. This process is one to aspire to, rather than one to begin with: starting with Quality Images will ensure a gentler introduction. If you are keen to make your mark at FP, it's a good idea to put the "Featured picture candidates" page on your watchlist and observe the process for a few weeks or months. Take part in voting and commenting to get a feel for the standards expected.

•  These guidelines should apply to FP: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Image_guidelines 
• Gallery of existing FPs: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_pictures  
• Current FP nominations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_picture_candidates  

Other projects also have a Featured Pictures process, however they often have different expectations.

Quality Images

 Quality Images (QI) is a great place to start if you already consider yourself an intermediate or advanced graphics creator. The requirements are much easier to meet and the whole process is faster and simpler to complete. As the Quality Images page says, QIs "need not be extraordinary or outstanding, but merely well-composed and generally well-executed". Another difference is that unlike FP, QI must be the work of Wikimedia Commons contributors (ie. not public domain works). 

• These guidelines should apply to QI: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Image_guidelines  
• Gallery of existing QIs: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Quality_images 
  
• Current QI nominations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Quality_images_candidates 
  

Valued Images

The most significant difference between Valued Images (VI) and QIs/FPs is that VIs should be "the most valuable illustration of their kind" on Wikimedia Commons. One help page advises that "Valued images are less about perfect technical quality and more about your ingenuity in finding good and valuable subjects which matter, and about the useability of the information on the image page." If you have an eye for detail and an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, VI may be the perfect process for recognising your high quality work.

• These guidelines should apply to QI: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_image_criteria 
• Scope http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_image_scope 
  
• Links to existing VIs: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_images_by_scope 
  
• Current VI nominations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_image_candidates  
• Introduction: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_images 
  

Meet our photographers & illustrators

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Meet_our_photographers 
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Meet_our_illustrators
  

Picture of the day

•  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_day
  

Picture of the year competition

•  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year
  

  Tools and resources

Tools

Getting help

On-wiki

•  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Photography_critiques
  

IRC

Mailing lists

Credits

The Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Foundation logos are © & ™ All rights reserved, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 

The Definition of Free Cultural Works logo was released into the public domain by its author, Marc Falzon. 

The MediaWiki logo was released into the public domain by its author, Anthere.

License

All chapters copyright of the authors (see below). Unless otherwise stated the text of all chapters in this manual are licensed with GNU General Public License version 2 and the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 (available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt ).

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Authors

_{Free manuals for free software}

General Public License

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

NO WARRANTY

11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS