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Here’s why we’re celebrating the public domain in 2019
As 2018 turned to 2019, people around the world celebrated the start of a brand new year with parties, family, and friends. The transition into 2019 also marked a new era for access to knowledge and culture in the United States, as new works finally entered the public domain through copyright expiration for the first….
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Lose yourself in our planet’s beauty with the winners of Wiki Loves Earth
A lonely monastery. The sun rising over the desert. A walk through a national park. These are just a few of the spectacular sights captured in the winners of the international Wiki Loves Earth photography competition, announced today. Coming in first place, seen at top, is a shot of the famed columnar basalt of Cape Stolbchaty, located in Russia’s….
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For these academic journals, Wikipedia isn’t a bug—it’s a feature
Wikimedia, especially Wikipedia, hasn’t always had the best of relationships with academia. So you may be surprised to learn that there’s a trio of Wikimedia academic journals that are now accepting submissions: the WikiJournal of Medicine, Science, and Humanities. All are run on a traditional academic journal model, including an extensive peer review process by….
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The insights series: Rodrigo Barbano Tejera
Over the last few years, the annual Wikimedia Conference has seen many more individuals in emerging communities. This year, Wikimedians from 79 countries, representing nearly one hundred movement affiliates, contributed to the event’s cultural, regional, and language diversity. Community member Rupika Sharma interviewed several of these attendees to get their thoughts on the Wikimedia movement, their own communities,….
![Ars Electronica 2013 - Quotidian Record](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Ars_Electronica_Festival_2013_Quotidian_Record-e1535478130642.jpg?w=800&h=600&crop=1)
Can Beethoven send takedown requests? A first-hand account of one German professor’s experience with overly broad upload filters
Imagine you are a teacher at a public school, and you want to use a free recording of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in your classroom. As an author of music textbooks and a music theory professor, I am always looking for creative ways to develop teaching materials as Open Educational Resources (oer-musik.de), so that everyone can….
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Where did that paragraph go? This software change helps volunteers hold up Wikipedia’s high quality
One key to Wikipedia’s high quality is a system of mutual checks, based on the fact that every version of every page is stored and accessible. Thousands of community members review the latest edits of others in order to find errors or inconsistencies, comparing each new version of a page to older page versions and….
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Understanding workflows of Wikimedia editors
Wikipedia exists because of a vast army of people who work alone and in concert. The amazing work of these volunteer editors in making Wikipedia is a complex world of interactions, processes, and activities. They range across the whole work of donating content, including editing, fixing things, adding media, and many other ways. Collectively, these….
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Wikimedia to Senate: Don’t weaken the public domain
In an attempt to harmonize copyrights for the use of sound recordings created before 1972, the U.S. Senate is currently poised to pass a bill which could endanger the preservation and sharing of historical sound recordings online. The Music Modernization Act (MMA), which was passed in the House of Representatives in April and recently received….
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Wikimedia releases ninth transparency report
The Wikimedia Foundation has supported free access to the sum of all knowledge for fifteen years. This longstanding vision would not be possible without the dedication of community members who contribute content to the Wikimedia projects. As a global platform for free knowledge, we are sometimes approached by governments and private parties with requests to….
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Interactive maps, now in your language
Newly available on all Wikimedia wikis: embeddable maps that make the world a little easier to understand.
Photo credits
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/RS-Puppis.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Satchari-National-Park-Habiganj-Sylhet.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/اسكرام-2-تمنراست.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Болотные-Кипарисы.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Por-do-Sol-em-Baixa-Grande.jpg?w=63)
Bruno Osamu Nonogaki/brunononogaki.com
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Medvedevphoto (Владимир Медведев)
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![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Sunrise-Djanet.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Meteoras-monastery-2.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Мыс-Столбчатый.-После-заката.jpg?w=63)
Ekaterina Vasyagina/PhotoJourneys.ru
![Ars Electronica 2013 - Quotidian Record](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Ars_Electronica_Festival_2013_Quotidian_Record-e1535478130642.jpg?w=63)
Manfred Werner/Tsui
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Charles J Sharp/Sharp Photography
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Frederick H. Evans via the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
![A woman sings into a microphone, mouth open](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Sarah_Vaughan_-_William_P._Gottlieb_-_No._1.jpg?w=63)
![](https://wikimediafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Frostedbubble2.jpg?w=63)