Monthly Archives: November 2014

Weiwei on Alcatraz

I was really inspired by Ai Weiwei’s new art installation on Alcatraz Island.

It’s a wonderful tribute to freedom and human rights, evoking global issues that impact us all, creatively blending fear and hope in the face of oppression.

Here are my photos from our expedition with art friends from Pataphysical Studios (see the full album for more pix).

‘With Wind’ features a giant dragon made of kites created by Chinese artisans, with quotes from dissidents.

‘Trace’ displays pixillated portraits of 176 prisoners of conscience from around the world, created with over 1 million Lego blocks.

‘Refraction’ is a large metal wing made of solar cookers, evoking the freedom of flight enjoyed by birds on Alcatraz Island.

‘Stay Tuned’ fills prison cells with the words and music of many poets and activists imprisoned for their views.

Well known for blending art and activism, Weiwei was himself imprisoned by Chinese authorities in 2011 and his travel is still restricted to his native China.

I highly recommend a trip to Alcatraz to see this exhibit. It’s a short boat ride from San Francisco’s Pier 33 and the round trip lasts about 3 hours. And the unique setting on Alcatraz contrasts the prison’s dark history with amazing views of the Bay and birds in flight.

Learn more about the exhibit and tickets here. For more info on how and why Weiwei created @large, watch this video or this one.

Thanks, Weiwei, for inspiring us to speak up for freedom and human rights!

Structured Data for Multimedia

How can we make multimedia data easier to use on Wikipedia and Wikimedia sites?

Today, information about media files on Wikimedia sites is stored in unstructured formats that cause a range of issues: for example, file information is hard to search, some of it is only available in English, and it is difficult to edit or re-use files to comply with their license terms.

To address these issues, members of the Wikidata and our Multimedia teams met with community volunteers for a week-long bootcamp in Berlin in October 2014.

The Multimedia and Wikidata teams meet with community volunteers in Berlin to discuss structured data on Commons.

The Multimedia and Wikidata teams met with community volunteers in Berlin to discuss structured data on Commons.

The focus of this event was to investigate how to structure data on Wikimedia Commons, reusing the same technology as the one developed for Wikidata. Participants collaborated in small workgroups to explore a range of problems and solutions, in parallel sessions focused on community, design, engineering, licensing and product management challenges.

Each workgroup produced concrete examples of how these ideas could be implemented, including:

first data models for making file information machine-readable and license-compliant
first user interface designs for viewing and editing structured data seamlessly
a working prototype of a high-level API for transferring metadata about media files
improvements to a prototype identifying files missing machine-readable data.

These preliminary ideas are now being documented on Commons so they can be discussed and improved with Wikimedia community members. For a project overview, check out this development page and these project slides.

The bootcamp was very productive, but many questions remain unanswered. Next steps include community discussions, design, prototyping, testing and a series of experiments — before starting actual development and data migration next year.

Everyone is invited to contribute to this important project. Your ideas and comments are much welcome, and developers would love your active participation to define and guide this project.

We look forward to working with our community to modernize our multimedia infrastructure and better support the needs of our users.

Update: To learn more, check out this video of my presentation at Wikimedia Foundation’s November metrics meeting.

Credits: I am the main author of this blog post, which was originally published on the Wikimedia Blog, under CC-BY-SA 3.0. Photo: Structured Data Bootcamp Group Photo by Christopher Schwarzkopf, under CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Adam and Dani’s Wedding

Our son Adam and his sweetheart Dani were married on September 20, 2014 at Olympia’s Valley, a rustic farm in the rolling hills of Petaluma, California.

Here are selected photos from this happy occasion, which gathered a hundred and fifty family and friends from around the world.

The wedding started with a ceremony under the chuppah by the pond …

… followed by a reception and hora dance with ritual chair rising …

… and even wider circle dances across the lawn. More >>

We were all blessed by a thousand cranes lovingly prepared by Phyllis: they swayed in the wind under a willow tree, as a graceful tribute to our two love birds. More >>

Throughout the day, I asked family and friends to write down their wishes for the newlyweds. We’re grateful to all for sharing their hopes, dreams and words of advice. More >>

The celebrations continued through the evening, with a lovely dinner, toasts and dancing in the barn. More >>

Adam-Dani-Wedding-Favorites-Photo-01

The night before, we hosted a welcome dinner at the Petaluma Library, where many friends and family members joined us to toast Adam and Dani. More >>

One of the highlights was this video of Adam and Dani growing up and joining with each other: it brought back many fond memories for us — and a few tears of joy. 🙂

We are lucky to be part of such a creative and diverse community, bringing together jewish, christian and many other cultures and perspectives. We all seemed to share an appreciation for social change — and for the cosmic dance of life.

See our photo album for more pictures. Many of these photos were taken by other family members, such as Benedicte and Claude Florin, as well as Tony and Margie Bartovich, to name but a few. I’m very grateful to them for capturing these memories.

Thanks to all who joined us for this important rite of passage!

Fabrice Florin

Be good. Do good.

Monthly Archives: November 2014

Weiwei on Alcatraz

Structured Data for Multimedia

Adam and Dani’s Wedding