On 10/25/2010 12:02 PM, Erik Moeller wrote: > Hello all, > > for some types of resources, it's desirable to upload source files > (whether it's Blender, COLLADA, Scribus, EDL, or some other format), > so that others can more easily remix and process them. Currently, as > far as I know, there's no way to upload these resources to Commons. > > What would be the arguments against allowing administrators to upload > arbitrary ZIP files on Wikimedia Commons, allowing the Commons > community to develop policy and process around when such archived > resources are appropriate? An alternative, of course, would be to > whitelist every possible source format for admins, but it seems to me > that it would be a good general policy to not enable additional > support for formats that aren't officially supported (reduces > confusion among users about what's permitted -- there's only one file > format they can't use). > > Thoughts? > > Thanks, > Erik > >
Its most ideal if we actually support these formats, so we can do thing like thumbnails, basic meta data etc. Failing that its better to support a given file extension, then it is to support zip files. This way if in 'the future' we add support for X file format, then we have X format files stored consistently so we can support representation of that file format. If we add blanket support for 'throw whatever you want' into a zip file, it will be difficult to give a quality representation of that asset in the future. ( other than as a zip file with multiple sub assets ). If for example someone writes a diff engine for representing 3d model transformations, we won't as easily be able to plug-in that tool, if we don't have a consistent storage model for that file format. That being said their may be some composite asset sets that lack container systems, in which case it would not be bad support some open container format. The number of formats or multimedia asset compositing systems that are not web representable with JavaScript engines or natively supported in the browser should be on a dramatic decline in the next decade, so best to just focus on support for such formats. For example we prefer svg uploads to a zip file with an illustrator assets, because svg is representable in the browser, there are javascript based engines for editing svg [http://svg-edit.googlecode.com/svn/branches/2.4/editor/svg-editor.html] etc. Likewise for 3d model representation with the COLLADA format, (although much more in its infancy at this point in time. ) --michael _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
