Wikinews talk:Audio Wikinews/archive 2006

General Complaints

I like that we're trying to make this better but we have a bunch of concrete problems that need to be fixed more then orginizational problems are gui errors before we start discussing minute details. My biggest complaint is the reporters of the audio news. I think it's great what they're doing but can we get people who don't sound like some guy talking on a $5 mic who has a really annoying voice (or is that what we're going for?)? --69.76.197.242 05:24, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

As you may know, this is a Wiki operated entirely by volunteer editors. Anyone is free and welcome to create an audio version of an article or a news brief. Most don't use advanced equipment or editing software (Audacity seems to to be the most popular recording tool). If you have a voice that is pleasing to the ear and own professional recording equipment, I would encourage you to use those gifts to record audio content for Wikinews. Please let me know if I can assist you in any way in creating or uploading/updating Audio Wikinews content. --Chiacomo ^(talk) 05:28, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Coming in late on this discussion, But if you Like the way someone sounds, tell them. I imagine all of us like to have our ego's boosted a little and a compliment really helps. It also helps the announcer/reader gauge their own impact in doing the work. dzcowart 21:12, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Music

Could someone tell me what the theme tune of Wikinews Full report is? IS it PD?

New Opener Music

I don't really think that the original opener music sounds too professional, that's what motivated me to re-record it. Please listen to Voxhumana-opener.ogg and a brief demo of both old and new music. Also notice that this "premixed music" is actually much easier to use than the original one. So please, give it a try. --Voxhumana 18:16, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I like it! I'm starting to use it in my recordings. Do you have a closer to go with it? KeithH 09:39, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I like it too. It is much better than the orginal opener music. Can we get an admin to support the change in "Official" opener music? dzcowart 21:06, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Standard date representation

The dates of the News Briefs use the "/" separation character, while the Spoken Wikinews section uses "-". The "-" is the ISO international standard, so I am about to change the "/" characters to "-".
See http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html .
—67-21-48-122 21:08, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

What exactly is the point of this?

If a person wanted to listen to the news couldn't they just take the straight text and get it read out to them by a suitable computer program? Am I missing something or doesn't this seem like a lot of wasted effort and money for very little benifit? Mathmo 19:10, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, granted, voice synthesis has come a long way, but if you really LIKE the sound of a computer-generated voice (or have no other choice because you're visually impaired), nothing stops you for doing that. There is something about the sound of an actual human voice, read over radio or TV, and I think that's what Audio Wikinews tries to emulate. FWIW, you might ask the Associated Press why they put out video, audio, and podcasts when most people read AP's products. [1] Just a thought. KeithH 02:14, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Heh, guess you are kind of making valid points, Although I did already know that, and it still seems of marginal benifit. After all I expect in only a few shorts years it will be common place for you not to be able to tell the difference of it is "real" or not. Oh well, it does come down to a choice for everybody. You can help out with this, but I'll be keeping my attentions fixed on other parts of the wiki! :p Mathmo 05:43, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Full Reports

I've just added an "idea" to my Ideas page about continuing the Wikinews Full Reports. It can be viewed at User:Skenmy/Ideas. --Skenmy

Ogg

I'd like to revisit the use of ogg rather than mp3. I use a mac (please no jokes) and have spent a *lot* of time compiling Audacity to work on it [2]. Ogg may be an open standard but it is probably the least supported. Is there any way we could use mp3 instead? WillJenkins 21:34, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it'd be useful to also support the mp3 format (quite often I'm on other computers which don't have any software that can play .ogg files). We should continue to primarily use the OGG format on principle, but if there's any way of additionally supplying MP3 versions (is there any way of doing automatic conversion?), then that would be useful... Frankie Roberto 22:16, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I remember to have read in another discussion, that mp3 is "out of question" due to licence problems. Sorry, this must sound like I´m trying to squash the starting discussion. I´ll try to find the original source an forward the link. Gumboyaya 07:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Audacity can export to MP3 aswell. I don't see it becoming a lot of extra work for the speaker to make one of each - licensing permitting. --Skenmy 08:20, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll be honest, my gut feeling was that this would be a licensing issue. I can't think why though, there are free (as in GPL'd) open source coding/decoding codecs for mp3. WillJenkins 10:28, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I Don't see why everyone has a problem with ogg. Just download a codec and it works fine on WMP or VLC or whatever you're using. I remember reading somewhere that wikimedia projects shalt not use mp3 or othe proporitry formats. I'll try and see if I can find it. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:02, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

From Commons:File types:

Quote

---

The Commons doesn't accept MP3 sound files. These should be converted to Ogg files and use the FLAC, Speex, or Vorbis codecs depending on your needs. Speex is intended for recordings of speech, Vorbis is for general audio and is lossy (quality is reduced) - FLAC is for general audio and is lossless (quality is preserved), but current filesize caps prevent its use for anything but short clips. In most cases, Vorbis should be used.

But thats just commons, I'll see if I can find some wikimedia proclamation. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:06, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

It says something similiar in meta:Multimedia but no referenses to where it came from. Theres also this post to the mailing list. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:14, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I have a problem with it because a) I don't/can't use WMP b) I have to download VLC specially to listen to Wikinews c) Audacity is the *only* software for the Mac that will record ogg. I had to battle to compile it from source which took a long time. I just don't see it as a very friendly format if novice users have to download special codecs/software just to listen to Wikimedia. WillJenkins 21:32, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I still haven´t found the discussion I remember. Mabye Bawolff is more successful. I checked the whole watercooler this mornin´, and all I remember at the mo´ is, that someone complained in more or less rude words about ogg-files, and someone else posted a polite but rather clear answer which told clearly, why MP3 can not be used.

To skenmy: As you put it correctly, it´s no bother for the speaker to produce an MP3-file with audacity, but the problem - as far as I remember - is closely related to the question of money, combined with judicial questions.

To Will Jenkins: Mabye one of the people in IRC can help you. I´d suggest you place your question at around 9 p.m. (your local time) there. I have the best experiences, whenever I had questions, usally someone is around who could at least give me a push in the right direction, or solved my question "from the hip", so to speak/write.

Gumboyaya 23:18, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Thats a good idea. If not you could email the wikimedia mailing list. Bawolff ☺☻ 17:48, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

We can not use MP3s, because they are not a free format. In countries that recognize software patents (US & Japan), there are no free, non-infringing encoders. See pedia for more information.--Cspurrier 18:22, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

One loophole here, You could create and host the mp3's externally, and then list them on audio wikinews as unoficial media in alternate formats with link. Bawolff ☺☻ 18:27, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

DPL

I noticed that there was the big link for news briefs and spoken wikinews that looked like a title. What do you think of putting a WN:DPL under it of spoken/news breifs? Bawolff ☺☻ 21:38, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

I´m always happy of displaying myself as an ignorant idiot. :)

What is DPL?

Gumboyaya 21:11, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I was hoping someone would ask that :)

WillJenkins 09:25, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

It's an abbreviation for DynamicPageList. In short, this is the thingie that makes new articles magically appear on the main page. --Deprifry|+T+ 09:38, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Gumboyaya 18:09, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

As Deprify said, It'd make new newsbriefs/spoken wikinews automaticly apeare in a list.

• File:Wikinewbrief-01-03-06-0200utc.ogg
• File:Jan 27 news brief.ogg
• File:Australian rugby league club to have extra police at all NSW games.ogg

Bawolff ☺☻ 21:49, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

WikiCast

Hi,

WikiCast an attempt to have a wiki realted radio staion on the net would like to use Audio Wikinews content

Could someone Please contact me about this?

I have a talk page on the main Wikipedia... ShakespeareFan00 18:37, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Is this concerning a technical question, or a general question?

If it is a Wiki-project, why should there be any problem to transfer the contents of one project to another? Or did I misunderstand your intention?

If it is a purely technical question that you´ve got, I´d suggest the Water cooler (technical). There are usally loads of users about, who can help you concerning your questions.

Sorry mate, couldn´t find your main page at Wikipedia (which one of the many wikipedias ? :), hence I do hope you read this.

greetings Gumboyaya 22:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Category:Wikinews audio

have belatedly created this category (linked to by a number of media (Image:) pages and articles, and tagged for merger with Category:Audio Wikinews News Briefs and Category:Audio reports. revert (creation or merge tagging), if this is not desired. Doldrums 14:56, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

copyright issues with news briefs.

What is the copyright situation with news briefs, all they still PD like they were historically, or are new ones CC-BY (like how the rest of wikinews switched). The reason I ask is some on commons have contridicting tags (for example: ) Bawolff ☺☻ 23:18, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

• Recent Recording (by Gumboyaya and I anyways) have been released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License (what that means, IDK, but just what Gumboyaya did, so I used it as well terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 22:09, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Audio Wikinews Newsline

I've got an idea, posted about it here: User:Terinjokes/AWN terinjokes _{User Page} / ^Talk 22:23, 6 November 2006 (UTC)