Wikimedia Foundation/Communications/Sound Logo

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Have you heard? Wikimedia has a sound logo

What a journey

More than a year ago, we embarked on a new journey: to find a sound logo for Wikimedia. Inspired by the Wikimedia movement's experience of visual logo contests and mandated by the Foundation's Board of Trustees, the Sound Logo team, together with Wikimedians, engaged with audio professionals and sound enthusiasts around the world, created an online collection of sounds, had on-wiki conversations, hosted community calls, organized workshops in sound editing and audio production, attended virtual and in-person community events, and created listening booths.

3,235 sound logos were submitted by 2,094 participants in 135 countries during the month-long contest between September and October, 2022. Per community curiosity, the Sound Logo team shared random batches of submissions as they were coming in. The interpretations of the creative prompts were just fascinating – sounds of crowds and birds, pages turning, knocking on doors, drums, chimes, and gongs, vocals, mouse clicks, and typing on keyboards.

Luckily, there was help!!! Community members volunteered to screen submissions as they were coming in, and at the end, a selection committee of Wikimedians, in collaboration with audio professionals from the MassiveMusic network, presented the movement with 10 sound logos to vote on.

We thought to give the finalists a fair chance and prompted voters to listen to all 10 sound logos and order them according to their preferences. A strong method previously used in Wikimedia visual logo contests was selected to determine the winning sound for Wikimedia. 2065 votes were cast with 76.7% of voters registered on Wikimedia Commons for more than a year. And now, officially, we have the winning sound.

You can refer back to the contest information at any time.
We also decided to keep the sound library, and
We uploaded more of the sound logo submissions to Wikimedia Commons. Have a listen.

The winning sound

Thaddeus Osborne is from Norfolk, Virginia, USA; nuclear engineer by day and music producer at heart. He conceptualized our sound logo based on what knowledge consumption and seeking information mean to him: leafing through books, the crescendo of wanting more, and that unquenchable thirst for learning. Read more.

Thank you!

Preparing Wikimedia content for audio devices and doing it in a way that was true to our values and practices was not an easy endeavour. Many thanks to the screening team of volunteers, the selection committee, the dynamic team of community liaisons, and most importantly, you! We are grateful to many of you who took part in on-wiki, virtual, or in-person conversations, listened, shared, voted, or in any other way participated to help bring us to where we are today, with a sound logo for Wikimedia projects. Thank you, well played.

What is the sound of all human knowledge?

These days, people can ask computers and smart devices questions with their voices and major search engines often search Wikimedia projects to answer them. Without sound logo as a means to identify Wikimedia content, the public does not always know that this knowledge comes from Wikimedia, a trusted source for verifiable information. In tune with a legacy of visual logo contests and with exciting new parameters regarding sound logos and audio production, the Wikimedia Foundation is organizing a global contest for a sound logo for Wikimedia, and we'd love to hear from you.

We have curated themes and sounds in the sound lab for you to experiment with and get inspired. Happy listening.

Read our Diff blog series to learn more:

Timeline

The tentative timeline for the contest is below. We intend to keep this updated as the logo contest moves on, but it may change as needs arise.


October 2021 to February 2022	March & April 2022	May & June 2022	July 2022	August 2022	September 2022	October 2022	December 2022	March 2023
Phase 1: Initial scope	Project preparations	Phase 2: Community outreach & discussions	Contest design based on conversations and input	Sound logo events at Wikimania	Phase 3: Contest	Shortlisting, due diligence	Voting & results	Winner announcement
Community events, early conversations	Project team set up	Contest design discussions with the community	Contest design finalized	Submission portal set up; team of liaisons; Screening Team and Selection Committee set up	The global contest for The Sound of All Human Knowledge launches	Contest closes, initial copyright reviews, Selection Committee shortlists	Voting on Wikimedia Commons, Dec. 6-19, early results shared	The Wikimedia sound logo, The Sound of All Human Knowledge is officially revealed.

Project team

We are...

Wikimedia Foundation Communications Department:

Lena Traer, Senior Creative Project Manager
Mathoto Matsetela-Hartmann, Senior Manager, Global Brand
Tas Elias, Brand Collaborations Lead
Kelsi Stine-Rowe, Senior Project Manager
Mehrdad Pourzaki, Lead Movement Communications Specialist
Rae Adimer, Movement Communications Associate

... and fantastic liaisons:

Arupako
Calliandra Dysantha
Erina Mukuta
MBenloulou-WMF
Victor Grigas, liaison for the initial phases of the project

Together, we’re leading and supporting the global contest for the Wikimedia sound logo.

Music Production Drop-in Clinic

If you want to learn more about sound logos, need help with your submission, or if you have a great idea for one, but don't know how to capture it, join this conversation with our technical partner MassiveMusic on September 29, 15:00-16:00 UTC. Sign up directly on Zoom or below using your Wikimedia username and we will send you the call link using the "Email this User" feature. Please share your questions in advance so we can best adapt the workshop for you.

Masterclass led and recorded by MassiveMusic on how to create a sound logo for the Wikimedia The Sound of All Human Knowledge contest.

Community conversations

Phase 2 of the Wikimedia sound logo contest involved open community conversations on the contest proposal (you can view slides of which). Two meetings were held, on May 27 and another on June 2. You can see the May 27 video recording. A presentation involved dissecting the TED sound logo, showing a few basics of how to use Audacity audio software and some basics of audio recording, a synopsis of the contest proposal and how it has developed and question and answers.

Phase 2: sound logo at different community events

WikiCon Brasil, 23-24 July, 2022: notes and concurso
WikiCon (German-speaking), October 7-9, 2022: The sound of free knowledge
CEE Meeting, October 14-16, 2022: notes and links
WikiArabia, October 28-30, 2022: notes and links
WikiIndaba, November 4-6, 2022: notes and links
WikiConference North America, November 11-13, 2022: program

Phase 1 connections with communities

Below is a table of all the places - past and future - where we are joining Wikimedians to talk about the sound logo project in addition to our talk page. If you'd like to invite the team to your event or schedule a call to talk about the project, please email soundlogo wikimedia.org. We can make interpretation arrangements if needed to speak with groups in languages other than English.


Name of group or discussion	Summary	Event notes
WikiArabia - Conference Roundtable, 15 October 2021	Tas and Samir from the Brand Studio and Kelsi from Movement Communications connected with approximately 25 volunteers as part of a Sound Logo Roundtable at WikiArabia 2021. Tas presented an introduction to exploring a Sound Logo for Wikimedia content, which had no engagement in the public chat and no questions asked on the call but those in attendance were informed of the opportunity.	See program link and notes.
Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network - Presentation and Q&A, 31 October 2021 (both meetings)	Kelsi from the sound logo team connected with approximately 30 volunteers from across the movement at the first October 2021 SWAN meetings. The idea of a sound logo was received with general positivity, and including asked questions about trademarking, use by volunteers, and whether the sound logo could contain words. Volunteers also demonstrated excitement for the upcoming sound logo contest by sharing logo ideas in the side chat. At the second SWAN meeting held on October 31 18:30 UTC the Brand Studio team (represented by Mathoto, Zack and Samir) connected with approximately 40 volunteers. The Brand Studio team thanked nominated community advisors who helped guide the next steps for brand work which includes plans to expand flexible naming options, a single community pilot, update the existing brand guidelines portal on meta and the sound logo exploration. Attendees celebrated the positive impact the color letter had on the movement and were generally pleased to see brand projects being initiated to support the movement again on a surer basis. There was also positive interest and helpful suggestions for the sound logo project particularly around it requiring clear usage guidelines.	See the event link and notes.
Communications Committee, October 26, 2021	Mathoto, Tas and Lena from the sound logo team joined the Communications Committee monthly meeting held on October 26, 2021 (9 community members in attendance). Mathoto shared an overview of brand next steps and presented the idea of the sound logo exploration. We received helpful suggestions around framing of the project idea and inspiration for the sound logo contest.
WikiIndaba - Conference Roundtable, 04 November 2021	The brand studio team hosted a WMF Communications Department Roundtable at Wiki Indaba 2021. Mathoto shared an overview of brand next steps focussing on how the Foundation will update the existing Wikimedia brand guidelines portal on meta and Tas shared information on the Sound Logo project. The Sound Logo did not elicit any notable response as many of the commenters wanted to know more about brand guidelines updates and training planned for next year.	For more information, see the event link and the session notes.
Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting - Conference Roundtable, 06 November 2021	The Brand Studio team (Mathoto, Tas, Samir) connected with approximately 30 volunteers from Central and Eastern Europe as part of a WMF Communications Department Roundtable at the Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting 2021. Mathoto recapped the Board resolutions for brand work with Tas presenting an introduction to the exploration of a Sound Logo for Wikimedia content and Samir presented the project to consolidate and update Wikimedia brand guidelines. The Sound Logo was received well with lots of engagement. Creative ideas for sounds, existing use cases (such as Spoken Wikipedia and WikiQR) and new use cases (such as a moving audiovisual logo for Wikimedia content) were shared by several communities.	You may find program and recording.
WikiConvention Francophone- Conference Roundtable, 20 November 2021	Tas and Kelsi from the sound logo team presented about the new sound logo project in front of about 50 attendees at WikiConvention Francophone. The audience response was overall positive, with questions about whether a sound logo would also have an accompanying moving visual logo, how well the project would support minority languages, whether the sound logo would have speech or text, and if the sound logo would be language neutral.	You may find event link and session notes.

Interested in this project?

Add your username here for more information about the contest.

Add yourself

Maddy from Celeste (talk)
VGrigas (WMF) (talk) (Community liason for the sound logo project)
Shoodho (talk), New to this and curious to learn more
Binksternet, audio engineer. Sound design is one of my interests.
Fuzheado (talk), former multimedia professional, active in the Wikimedia movement
Borys Kozielski (talk), I'm involved in sound projects and leading Wikiradio
Graham87, I don't work with sound much myself but I know of several other blind people who do and may well be interested in designing something for this project. Graham87 (talk) 05:08, 30 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Deniz_Erdogan_(WMDE), I'm working at SWE for Wikimedia Deutschland, and sound design is a hobby of mine
ProtoplasmaKid (talk) also composer and musician using free licenses :)
Suyash Dwivedi (talk), I loved this idea from very beginning, I am an Electronics engineer and have some experience with sound engineering.
Daramlagon (talk)
KaraLG84 (talk), I am a musician and interested in sound design.
Другий Хрущ (talk), I have a beautiful melody in my eye.
Bachounda (talk), Last year i Directed realisation of WikiGhonya wikipedia videoClip and I want to involve world musicians in this project
Islahaddow (talk) (UTC)
EpicPupper will give this one a try. Please ping for messages.
Arlo Barnes (talk) Interested in UI design, but aside from reading the ENWP article on the THX soundlogo, this area of design is new to me -- looking forward to see how this progresses.
TomDotGov (talk) is interested in the accurate assessment of movement opinion when it comes to brand issues.
'bones I'm totally ignorant about sound design, but a lack of knowledge doesn't usually stop me from trying things! After hearing about this I just spent an hour selecting three 3 second sound clips. Would they work? No idea. Beam me up, Scotty.
Skimel (talk) Musician, home-sudio enthusiast and always eager to collaborate on sounds for Wikipedia, sound design is new for me and I'm eager to discover it.
Tompw (talk) (en) this is such a unique opportunity, I can't miss out!
TaronjaSatsuma (talk)
Anthere (talk)
GFontenelle (WMF) (talk)
Husky (talk)
Pacha Tchernof (destination adress) As a musician and hyper attentive person to the sounds in the world around me, I love this project and would like to get updates.
User:Base, although I am music-0.5 at best, I have quite an obvious idea and thus would like not to miss stuff out (unless I already did)
3BRBS (talk)
Muhammed amine benloulou, Artiste manager of Wiki Ghonya - Wikipedia.
JMeybohm (WMF) (talk)
Reda Kerbouche (talk)
User:BCornwall-WMF (talk)
User:Hasslaebetch (talk)
User:Kateregga1 (talk)
User:Ferdinand IF99 (talk)
User:Rachmat04 (talk)
Talk2Faves (talk)
Kaizenify (talk)
Buszmail (talk)
787IYO (787IYO)
Kambai Akau (talk)
AuggieVelarde (talk)
PSYCHEDWIZARD25 (MUSICIAN/RAPPER)
User:إيهاب السماك (talk)
User:Isaacayodele32 (talk)
User:Acabashi
doramiso-meta (talk) 09:55, 8 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]