About Pikiwiki
PikiWiki - Free Image collection of Israel
Founded in March 2009
General background
This project was a joint venture of the Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL), the Israeli Wikimedia chapter and the Center for Educational Technology (CET) as part of promoting the concept of free content on the Web . As such, this is a project of both practical and declarative value
The project's goals
The PikiWiki image collection project was conceived as an instrument to help creating a large pool of digital-format, good quality photographs, documenting events relating to the history of Israel, or depicting places of distinction around the country. The images are free of copyright limitations and are licensed under Public Domain or CC-BY licenses . The database includes a categorization system, and the public will be free to contribute new images, and browse or copy any of the images stored within. From a practical point of view, the project answers to the needs of students, scholars, researchers, writers, artists, tourists or any person who might need a photograph of a historical event or a place of interest in Israel, be it for use in a piece of art, a book, a poster, an advertisement or any other legitimate use. As a declarative tool, this project is intended to raise awareness to issues concerning copyright, its logic and application, and why it is worthwhile, in many cases, to relinquish it in favor of the public, fully or in part. Underlying the project is the assumption that historical photographs, or photographs of public sites, should be made available to every person, without fear of copyright infringement, as part of the cultural assets shared by all citizens
Participating bodies
- Heritage Cornerstone Group
- Wikimedia-Israel (WM-IL) - a Wikimedia chapter located in Israel.
Criteria for uploading images
- Good quality (considering the image's historical value, the time lapsed since it was taken, the technological means at the time etc.)
- The image documents significant events in the history of Israel or depicts a site of distinction (past or present) in the country, or a historical figure related to the state of Israel.
- The image is a photograph or a scan of documents of historical significance, which are not subject to secrecy statutes or otherwise legally protected from copying
- The contributor is the copyright owner, or can prove that copyright for the image in question is expired.
- The contributor is willing to relinquish their copyright for the image and its scan without compensation, and release it to the public to become Public Domain[1][2]
- The image has not undergone editing or processing, aside from contrast modification, coloration corrections, pasting in order to create a panoramic image and so on.
- The image does not constitute blatant advertising for a commercial company currently operating in Israel
Notes
1. It is preferred that pictures be released to the public as Public Domain, but one could argue whether or not to also accept pictures with "free licenses", such as GNU, GFDL, CC, etc. Anyhow, in such cases, only those versions which merely require attribution to the photographer will be accepted. It is agreed that versions requiring further limitations are unsuitable for the project.
2. For example, a picture of a monument, where most of the background is dominated by a billboard advertisement for a company, currently operating in Israel, particularly if a similar image, in which the advertisement is less blatant, is available.
Modus Operandi
1. The images are kept on the Commons servers, marked with a special template instructing Commons' sysops to consult the project managers in Israel before taking any measures with regard to said images.
2. Contributors will not be referred directly to the Commons, but rather to a special interface, to be prepared by a programmer of the project in Israel and uploaded to the Wikitools server. The Israeli interface includes a table in which the meta-data of each picture is saved, with rules as to the "translation" of that meta-data into the Commons' format. The images themselves are directed to the Commons with an appropriate name, which would enable operators to track them down in the table that is saved on Wikitools.
3. The details that are saved on the database include: general subject of the image, the date it was taken (or an approximation if exact date is not known), name of the photographer (if known), translation of any foreign text appearing in the picture, whether or not there is a chance of offending anyone by posting the picture, the circumstances the picture was taken or a special story behind it, etc. Enough leeway should be left for data in various languages – particularly Hebrew, Arabic and Russian – as well as for missing or partial data.
4. Before uploading the images, each contributor has to confirm that he or she is the copyright owner, and that he or she is relinquishing the copyright. This confirmation has to be legally binding.
5. Anyone surfing the site is able to flag an image as inappropriate in terms of copyright infringement, possible offense to others, inferior quality and so on.
6. Lehava centers encourage visitors to bring suitable images, scan them and upload them using the centers' equipment. The centers also encourage visitors to photograph places of significance in their neighborhood using digital cameras, and to upload the pictures to the website as part of the Lehava centers instruction classes.
Retrieved from "http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Israel_free_image_collection_project"
This translation of the original Hebrew text was done by Aviad. The translation was slightly modified, as the original was written before PikiWiki was launched in March 2009.