If you are passionate about Wikimedia projects but feel that Commons contributions are only for photographers, think again. Wikimedia Commons thrives on diverse contributions, and your unique skills can make a significant impact. Here’s how you can be involved without ever picking up a camera.
Explore Contribution Beyond Photography
Wikimedia Commons is a versatile platform. It welcomes not only stunning photographs but also maps, diagrams, instructional drawings, and audio files. If you have skills in creating insightful charts or informative illustrations, these are valuable resources to complement articles on Wikipedia. You can contribute by creating and uploading media that simplify complex ideas or visualize historical events. Additionally, your editorial expertise from Wikipedia empowers you to help identify content gaps where images, audio files, or diagrams could enhance the storytelling or explanation of a subject matter within Wikimedia projects.
Description of Jollof in English and Igbo. By Bukky658 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103266502
Add Images to the right categories
A lot of great images on Wikimedia Commons are not under any category, which makes them hard to find and reuse on Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects. By adding images to clear, descriptive categories like Cassava dishes of Ghana, Castles in Germany or other topic-based groupings, you help improve accessibility for everyone. This simple action allows contributors to easily browse and select from a diverse range of media for their projects. It might seem like a small task, but it goes a long way in keeping Commons organized, useful and more collaborative for all. It’s essential to ensure files are organized correctly so they are easily discoverable and useful to the global community. Your experience with Wikipedia’s categorization can be leveraged here to optimize the retrieval and relevance of media files.
Want to know more about categories on commons? Check out this video https://youtu.be/oKEfZrABq5Q?si=IN8fab4I9rDbybAo or go to COM:CAT.
Add description to images
Apart from titles, image descriptions play a key role in making images easier to identify when searched on the internet. What’s more, you can add descriptions and titles in various languages, whether it’s Swahili, French, Spanish, German, or any other. By doing this, you’re transforming images from simple visual content into rich, informative, and accessible resources that benefit the global Wikimedia community. Want to learn how to add descriptions and titles? Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRwkdJQPh4
Enhance Media Visibility with Structured Data
Take image descriptions a step further by adding structured data to make media even more visible and usable on Commons. Structured data consists of small pieces of information, called “statements,” attached to the file. This system, similar to Wikidata, significantly enhances the power of image descriptions. SDC statements can include details such as the file’s creator, the location where it was created, and photographic details like aperture and exposure. However, many files on Wikimedia Commons are missing the most crucial SDC statement: the “depicts” statement, which describes the subject of the image. This is where you can make a significant contribution. Getting started with SDC is easy. Simply visit the Quality images missing SDC depicts category and select any file. On the file page, click the “Structured data” tab, and then search for and add the concept depicted in the image to the statement. For more information, visit COM:SDC or Watch this video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Introduction_to_Structured_Data_on_Wikimedia_Commons.webm
Nominate and Vote for Quality Images on Wikimedia Commons
An image with the Quality Image tag. By Matti Blume – Own work, CC BY-SA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=129041448
Wikimedia Commons hosts thousands of images, many of which are exceptional. However, not all of them carry the official Quality image tag and that’s something you can help change.
By carefully reviewing images, nominating outstanding ones, or voting on existing nominations, you help highlight the very best work. Once consensus is reached, the Quality image tag is added, making the image easier to find and reuse across Wikipedia and its sister projects. This simple act goes a long way. It improves content discovery and use, making quality images easier to locate and use across articles and other platforms. It also helps recognize and celebrate the work of photographers, and in turn, encourages more contributors to share and refine their images. What a positive ripple effect this creates! Check out this tutorial to learn more about nominating and voting for quality images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDydAHg_i9Y or COM:QI
Utilize Tools Like PetScan and QuickCategories to Identify and Fix Gaps
Don’t know how to identify these images? You can find where your contributions are most needed by using powerful tools like PetScan and QuickCategories.
PetScan helps you find files by category intersection and exclusion. For instance, some files might already be categorized by species (like Category:Amphibia) but aren’t yet categorized by location. PetScan can pinpoint these files by combining and excluding branches of the category tree. You could get a list of all files in Category:Amphibia that aren’t categorized under Category:Amphibians by country. By going through these files, you can help categorize more files by location. Conversely, you can also help identify species of plants already categorized by country with this query: https://petscan.wmcloud.org/?psid=35420065.
Sometimes you’ll want to apply a category or a set of categories to many files at once. QuickCategories can help with that, and it can even assist in removing incorrect or unnecessary categories. What’s more, you can use the results of a PetScan query as input for QuickCategories! Simply select PagePile as the output format for PetScan and input the resulting PagePile ID into QuickCategories. This powerful combination allows for efficient mass changes, such as adding the Category:Working dogs to a targeted list of files (using this query). However, always ensure you understand the changes before applying them broadly.
Join the Commons community
Just like other interest groups within the Wikimedia movement, there are multiple organized and loose groups dedicated to Commons. One such group is the “Commons Categorizers Group”, a collective of Wikimedians dedicated to improve visability and usability of Commons content through categorization and addition of SDC tags. You can join them by adding the {{User categorist}} template to your Commons userpage. Or, join our annual meetup at Wikimania (Commons Categorizer Meetup 2025).
Call to Action: You Can Do It!
Wikimedia Commons isn’t just a space for photographers. It’s a collaborative hub for all kinds of contributors. Your skills, no matter what they are, can help make Commons a more accessible, organized, and valuable resource for everyone. Ready to dive in? Start with one of these tidbits and watch the impact unfold. Your participation can elevate the platform, inspire others, and spread free knowledge globally.
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