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The Wikipedia Video Social Media Campaign

Although many warn against it, most of us use Wikipedia at least now and then.  If you’re not familiar, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, which anyone is allowed to edit.  So whether you’re looking for information on Abraham Lincoln, Kazakhstan, or the history of cheese, it’s bound to be on the site somewhere.

While the site can be a very useful tool, many think something is missing from the site.  Videos.  So leave it up to the Open Video Alliance to head an online campaign which will hopefully bring videos to the online encyclopedia.

Wikipedia actually supports video files and has a number of videos including US Airlines flight 1549 crashing into the Hudson and a batch of Krispy Kreme Donuts being made.  But posting videos to the site is quite a challenge, and thus the group created website known as Let’s Get Video on Wikipedia. The site has an easy step by step tutorial of how to actually post videos to Wikipedia along with some of the latest videos posted to the site. 

Wikipedia currently uses a service known as Theora for it’s video provider.  However, a company known as Miro has said they are currently testing a free service which would make it much easier to convert videos to Theora.  In a recent blog post, the Miro says, “Shhhhh. If you look around that site, you’ll notice a reference to a new Miro product that is in a usable beta form but not quite ready for a full launch. Look for a launch announcement very soon.”

If you’re interested in following the Allliance’s project on Facebook click here, and also follow them as well on Twitter.