wikimedia logoWikimedia is partnering with the collaborative video service Kaltura to start rolling out video to Wikimedia sites. Wikimedia and Kaltura have begun a process aimed at bringing rich-media collaboration to Wikipedia and other wiki websites. The vision of this project is to enable the Wikipedia community to further enhance and enrich Wikipedia articles with rich-media content. Think of this technology as a form of video-wiki software that is integrated into the Mediawiki platform, allowing users to add collaborative video players that enable all users to add and edit images, sounds, diagrams, animations and movies in the same manner as they do today with text. By incorporating rich media, Wikipedia and other wiki projects will be able to further enhance the quality and richness of their content and truly surpass any existing encyclopedia in the world.

If you want to see this in action, you can see it on the WikiEducator demo site, which is not affiliated with Wikimedia. I am told that we will beging to see collaborative video added to wikipedia pages starting immediately.

Just as with any Wiki, videos powered by Kaltura can be created and edited by anyone. Users will also be able to view previous versions of a video and a list of people who have worked on it. This tool is not just for video however, but rather any multimedia content; users can also upload audio, slideshows, and other rich media. All audio and video will be encoded in the open source OGG Vorbis and OGG Theora formats.

Here are some links to get you started:

Wikipedia and Kaltura

Here is a sample video collaboration from Kultara on the Hurricane Katrina (http://www.kaltura.com/devwiki/index.php/Hurricane_Katrina):

Thanks to Download Squad for pointing this out.

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Posted: January 17, 2008 in Video Industry News
Mark R RobertsonAbout the Author - Mark R Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com and has had extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Mark was previously the Director of Search for Freedom Communications and has worked with many newspaper and broadcast stations for optimization online content.