I’m happy to announce that we’re getting close to a 1.0 release for UploadWizard, and we’re planning to deploy it to Wikimedia Commons by the end of this month.
UploadWizard is a step-by-step, multi-file uploader extension for MediaWiki that was developed as part of the Multimedia Usability Project. We launched a beta version in November 2010, and have been working on getting it to release quality ever since.
Recently, Ryan Kaldari joined the team, and he and I have been squashing bugs, testing functionality and readying the software for deployment. We’ve focused on achieving a pleasant interface, that works on all browsers, that orients users to Commons’ mission and helps them make good contributions.
You’re invited to try the new version (you’ll need an account on the prototype) and report issues you encounter with it.
By the way, some people find the UploadWizard’s design a bit surprising — you can upload files before you set a license or describe them, which sounds a bit dangerous (but not the way we’ve done it). We explain all that and more in the FAQ.
If you find a bug, you might want to check the list of open issues first. The following bugs are expected to be completed before launch: 24692, 24696, 24703, 24758, 26053, 26063, 26076, 26179, 26182, 26591, 26592, and 28046. If your problem hasn’t been reported yet, please enter the issue directly in our tracker, or leave a note on the feedback page.
In the meantime, we will be periodically updating Upload Wizard on the prototype server, fixing any (more) bugs you find as fast as we can.
And what else is left to do? Well, after this is deployed, we’re going to be watching things very closely to see how this affects Commons. Our goal is to increase the number of contributions, and the pool of contributors — without any downgrade in quality or burdening the community with spam. We have some plans about how to determine that, but we could always use more help there. If you have ideas about it, please let us know!
Thanks in advance!
Neil Kandalgaonkar
Software Engineer, Multimedia Projects
Wikimedia Foundation
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