2019/Grants/VideoWiki
Title:
VideoWiki
Name:
James Heilman
Wikimedia username:
Doc James
E-mail address:
jmh649
gmail.com
Resume:
Long term Wikipedian. Founding member of Wikimedia Canada and Wiki Project Med Foundation. Current chair of Wiki Project Med Foundation. Former board member of the Wikimedia Foundation. Further details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Heilman
Geographical impact:
Global
Type of project:
Technology
What is your idea?
We have been involved with developing software that converts a mediawiki based videoscript into a video. https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:VideoWiki
An example of a script and video is here https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Video:Tuberculosis
Maintenance and further development / addition of languages is required. We want to bring on a part time developer to assist with is.
Why is it important?
Wikipedia is very heavily text based. Many people prefer to learn by watching videos or have a limited reading ability. VideoWiki will get knowledge out to a greater audience including those who are most disadvanced.
Is your project already in progress?
Yes overview can be found here https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:VideoWiki
How is it relevant to credibility and Wikipedia? (max 500 words)
The software currently works within 15 languages of Wikipedia with interest to add its functionality to further languages.
VideoWiki also works well for how to advice. https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Video:Abdominal_thrusts
What is the ultimate impact of this project?
To improve multimedia within the Wikimedia movement and get high quality knowledge out to more people in a format and language that they can comprehend.
Could it scale?
Yes. The software also allows a human voice to be used for languages in which text to speech does not exist. This is important for languages in which text to speech engines do not exist. For example here you hear the voice of Dr. Subas https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86:%E0%AC%AD%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%93%E0%AD%B1%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF/%E0%AC%86%E0%AC%AA%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%A3%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B8%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%9F%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B8
Why are you the people to do it?
Not sure what you mean? Our goal is to bring accurate knowledge to a wider audience.
What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
Adding another format of knowledge to the movement will expand the movement both with respect to inclusiveness and diversity.
What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
The main challenge is managing the technical aspects. Software needs to be continually updated and fixed. We need funding to hire a long term programmer to manage this.
How much money are you requesting?
5,000 USD
How will you spend the money?
The money will go towards paying a programmer and for the Google text to speech engine.
How long will your project take?
This project is ongoing.
Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
I have supported prior grants. However our most recent grant request was rejected by the WMF https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/WPM:VideoWiki