Wikimedia Commons is amedia file repository making available public domain and freely licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone,in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of theWikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. The repository is created and maintained not by paid archivists, but by volunteers. The scope of Commons is set out on theproject scope pages.
Wikimedia Commons uses the samewiki-technology asWikipedia and everyone can edit it. Unlike media files uploaded to other projects, files uploaded to Wikimedia Commonscan be embedded on pages of all Wikimedia projects without the need to separately upload them there.
Launched on 7 September 2004, Wikimedia Commons hit the1,000,000 uploaded media file milestone on 30 November 2006 and currently contains129,046,955 files. More background information about the Wikimedia Commons project itself can be found in theGeneral disclaimer, at theWikipedia page about Wikimedia Commons andits page in Meta-wiki.
Unlike traditional media repositories, Wikimedia Commons isfree. Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely as long as they follow the terms specified by the author; this often means crediting the source and author(s) appropriately and releasing copies/improvements under the same freedom to others. The license conditions of each individual media file can be found on their description page. The Wikimedia Commons database itself and the texts in it are licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. More information on re-use can be found atCommons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia andCommons:First steps/Reuse.
You can improve Wikimedia Commons most if you contribute what you can do best:
If you're a good photographer, don't hesitate to contribute your valuable images. If you're a good designer, look which diagrams and animations arebadly needed.
However you do not need to upload your own files. There is plenty of other very important work to do:
You even do not need to be an artist or good at writing help texts. If you feel at home with creating order from chaos, then we could use your helping hand!
{{subst:nsd}}.In order to be able to upload files on Wikimedia Commons, you need to be logged in. You can register at the "Log in / create account" link in the upper right corner and enter a user name that will be used at all of your uploads/edits on images and texts. However if you just want to edit pages you don't need to be logged in (although it is encouraged). If you have taken advantage ofunified login, then you are already signed up at Commons.
Ourfirst steps help file and ourFAQ will help you a lot after registration. They explain how to customize the interface (for example the language), how toupload files and our basiclicensing policy. You don't need technical skills in order to contribute here.Be bold contributing here andassume good faith for the intentions of others. This is awiki—it is really easy.
More information is available at theCommunity Portal. You may ask questions at theVillage Pump or onIRC channel#wikimedia-commons webchat.
Files on Wikimedia Commons are organized in categories and galleries. An overview of the categories we use is available on theMain Page.
PutBabel boxes onyour user page so others know what languages you can speak and indicate yourgraphic abilities. All your uploads are stored in your personalgallery. Pleasesign your name on Talk pages by typing ~~~~. If you're copying files from another project, be sure to use theFileImporter.
If you want to upload large numbers of images, there are manyupload tools that can be used, like for exampleVicuñaUploader. If you need specific information on tools for viewing or editing our content please see thesoftware page andtools page.
We hope that you will enjoy it here and that you will have fun.
