Main Page

1. 00:00 Welcome to Wikivideos, the wiki for collaborative educational videos.
2. 00:05 Like other wikis, such as Wikipedia, you can edit almost any page by clicking on the Edit buttons near the top.
3. 00:13 However, unlike other wikis, the main element of every page is one or more wikivideo tags.
4. 00:20 The syntax is similar to gallery tags, with images followed by text.
5. 00:25 But when you save the changes, the result will be a video, with each image shown while an automated voice reads the text aloud.
6. 00:33 This will allow us to collaborate building videos, much like we do with Wikipedia articles, using familiar tools and concepts such as diffs and watchlists.

How does it work?

Wikivideos is based on the WikiVideos extension, a new software that translates wikitext into videos. At its simplest, the software makes videos by showing images while reading the text associated to each.

Here's a basic example, based on a famous haiku poem:

<wikivideo width="300">
File:Old pond.jpg | Old pond
File:Frog leap.jpg | frog leaps in
File:Water sound.jpg | water's sound
</wikivideo>

Video output when the page is saved:

1. 00:00 Old pond
2. 00:02 frog leaps in
3. 00:04 water's sound

This is only a very basic video for demonstration purposes. See the following examples for more advanced and interesting possibilities:

• Malaria - All about malaria
• Ecobrick - How to make bricks out of recycled plastic
• Ecopot - How to make a pot out of a bottle
• Ecomaceta - How to make a pot out of a bottle, in Spanish

Current features

• Audio is generated using Google's Text-to-Speech service, so any of the supported voices and languages may be used.
• By default text is displayed below the video, along with timestamps for easy navigation. You can hide this by setting chapters=no in the <wikivideo> tag.
• Optional captions are also automatically generated (click on the three dots to enable them). You can enable them by default by setting captions=yes in the <wikivideo> tag.
• Use JPG, PNG or GIF files
• Images may have no text associated (in which case the image is shown for one second before moving on)
• Text may have no image associated too (in which case a black background is shown while the text is read)
• Set the "width" and "height" attributes in the <wikivideo> tag to control the width and height of the video (this controls the display size of the video, not of the raw video file)
• Support for reusing images directly from Commons (currently you need to upload them to wikivideos.org)

Future features

• Support for more file types (SVG, WEBM, etc)
• Support for limited wikitext in chapters, for example links and references
• Per-line attributes to override global settings, for example for switching voices and simulating dialogues
• Support for automatic captions in multiple languages using Google Translate
• Support for automatic voices in multiple language using Google Translate + Google Text-to-Speech
• Support for other service providers besides Google (like Amazon Polly)

Why Wikivideos?

• Videos are an effective and engaging way to share knowledge.
• Videos can reach a growing audience of illiterate people online.
• Wikivideos allow anyone with a browser to create and improve videos, without needing heavy software or a powerful computer.
• Wikimedia projects notoriously lack video content.