There are more than 10 million multimedia files on Wikimedia Commons.

Ten was the number of years for the Wikimedia Foundation. First, in January, the foundation celebrated the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia , and now, a multi-millionth file has been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons — the multimedia file storage used by Wikipedia.

The jubilee file was a photograph of a waterfowl observation site near Lake Lipno in Poland. She was uploaded by Leinad, who uploads her work to Wikimedia Commons since 2006, and also actively participates in Polish Wikipedia.

The multimedia files contained in Wikimedia Commons are used to illustrate all Wikipedia and all other Wikimedia Foundation projects. Before the appearance of the Wikimedia Commons, illustrations were downloaded separately to all the projects that used them. Of course, it required a lot of storage space and it was just uncomfortable.
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All images, sound recordings, videos and other Wikimedia Commons files may be used for any purpose, including for commercial use, under conditions compatible with the Definition of Free Works of Culture . This, together with the educational orientation of the project, distinguishes the Wikimedia Commons from all media libraries.

Jay Walsh, who is responsible for communications at the Wikimedia Foundation, noted that if the frequency of new Wikipedia articles may have decreased, then Wikimedia Commons is growing faster than ever. The last five million files have been uploaded in less than two years.

Part of the growth can be explained by the increased cooperation with cultural institutions and owners of collections that transfer their content to the public domain. Nevertheless, the fund hopes to further accelerate the growth of the project after the introduction for users of new download tools that are currently in beta testing.