The Powerhouse Museum is not just a fabulous institution for Sydney, Australia; it’s also a powerhouse in the world of “museums 2.0″. For the Powerhouse’s first anniversary in the Commons, I had an opportunity to interview Paula Bray and  Seb Chan — two of the staff making the museum an industry leader.

What is your job at the Powerhouse Museum, and what is your role with the Powerhouse’s Commons presence?

Paula Bray

PAULA: Paula Bray, Manager Visual & Digitisation Services. I manage Photography, Photo Library, Image Resource Centre, Rights & Permissions and just recently Audio Visual has moved into our area. I have been working on the Commons since we launched last year. I select the collections and choose images from each of these on a weekly basis ready to load to the Commons. I then send them to Luke (Dearnley), one of the Web & Social Technologies team who uses the Flickr API to upload them. Once made public, I add them to sets and groups and watch what happens. I participate with the members checking comments, tags and notes. I check the account several times a day. The Commons is a really big part of my working schedule now and I consume this with great appreciation.

Seb Chan

SEB: Sebastian Chan, Head of Digital, Social & Emerging Technologies. I’m Paula’s boss and also manage the managers of the Museum’s Research Library; Web & Social Technologies team; our digital media teaching labs; and a number of national and state-wide digitization and online projects. I develop strategy and direct the general directions we take our around digital content and the like. I was much more involved directly in the Commons in the early stages but I still pop in to the account every week and communicate the learnings and usage data to our Director/CEO.

When did the Powerhouse first hear about the Commons?

SEB: George Oates and I were both speaking at Web Directions South in September 2007 and the conference organizers knew we both shared similar interests in designing for social behaviour on the web and put us in touch. George visited the Powerhouse and met Paula and during the visit mentioned that the Library of Congress was working with them on this “Commons project”. We immediately told her that if the project expanded we’d want to be involved. Over the months between September 2007 and April 2008 we saw the LoC go live and George stayed in touch with us so that we could come online second just in time for Museums & the Web 2008, where we were both speaking!

What lessons did you take from the Library of Congress’s first couple of months for your own Commons debut?

Sydney GPO colonnade

SEB: We were fascinated by the rapid take-up by the Flickr public and we were conscious that our content would be very Australian-centric. I had a long conversation with George about the global makeup of the Flickr userbase and its US-centricity — and she assured us that there was a sizeable Australian userbase. Because we already had tagging on our own website we were less interested in tagging but very excited about the geotagging possibilities — especially because most of the initial set of photos we were uploading were of places, buildings and scenery.

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The Powerhouse Museum (by Rory Hyde)

Flickr members and Commons fans love Sydney, Australia’s Powerhouse Museum, but most of us have never been there. So on the anniversary of the Powerhouse’s Commons debut, it seemed like a good time to ask some Flickr “Sydneysiders” for a word or two from the local point of view. Some had a few, focused words. Others have found that the Powerhouse inspires them in many ways indeed. And all know the Powerhouse as more than a collection of photographs — as a place of discovery.

I remember being taken to the PHM as a wee dork, being mesmerised by the real-sized trains, planes, floating space machines and really really Old Stuff™. It meant — and still means — Star Wars exhibitions, the whole possibility of the unknown, discovery and general child-like wonder.

—waferbaby, Flickr staff

The Powerhouse was where I finally understood what everyone saw in Princess Diana when I was sent on a job to photograph the uncrating of her wedding gown.

—Charlie Brewer, photographer

My recollections of the Powerhouse (or its collection) go back into the mists of time. I was sometimes taken to the Technology Museum (if that was what it was called then) by my father in what might have been the late 1950s or, more likely, the early 1960s.

I remember seeing and playing on the noughts and crosses machine which, in a breathtaking display of processing power, actually played noughts and crosses against all comers. It was the first computer game I ever saw. There were other exhibits where you pressed a button to watch things go round, although I do not remember much detail.

I also remember being taken to a shed out the back of the museum to see locomotive Number 1 — the first steam engine to run on NSW railways. It now takes pride of place in the Powerhouse but my recollection is that being allowed to see it was something special arranged through Dad’s contacts, probably in the Railway Historical (Hysterical) Society.

When the Powerhouse opened I went there a couple of times to have a look at the exhibits, but it came into its own when I had a child of my own. I think, for a while, they still had the noughts and crosses machine. Engine Number 1 is easily accessible but the lesson learned by thousands of sub-teen children pressing buttons was well learned. From the age of about 4 my daughter delighted in playing tunes by jumping on a giant keyboard, blowing beads and balls around, playing with film techniques and all the myriad other hands on ways of learning of which the museum is full. She still enjoys going occasionally, and I, as a perpetual child, am always happy to go. We loved the exhibition of Japanese fashion a couple of years ago.

—Ian Sanderson, Aged 54 3/4

We hope you’ll add your answer below to the question, “What does the Powerhouse mean to you?” — and wish Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum a happy Commons-versary!

It’s been one year since Sydney, Australia’s Powerhouse Museum became the second institution to join the Commons on Flickr — a year that’s clearly impressed the museum as much as it has its fans.

The Powerhouse today has, to celebrate its first year with the Commons, announced that it’s giving a gift back to the community it found there: a Commons photobook.

Then and Now: Stories from the Commons celebrates both the Powerhouse’s Commons collections and the greater life they gain on on the site, as Flickr users add their own comments and information about each image.

The Powerhouse’s anniversary photobook is not only a gift to us, though: it also gives new ways for Commons supporters to give back. Ten people who give back with words on the Powerhouse’s Photo of the Day blog will receive free copies of the book. And every person who purchases a book will be helping to digitize more of the Powerhouse’s photography collections — for the Commons.

So a happy first Commons anniversary to the Powerhouse Museum — with thanks for showing us again that the Commons is truly “for the win”, for everyone.

Girls skipping at an athletics carnival (Powerhouse Museum)

Fans of the Library of Congress’s still photograph collections in Flickr’s Commons will be excited to hear that the LoC’s YouTube channel is now live, with film from late 19th century, in Edison’s own labs, until today. You can read about the project on the LoC’s blog — including about Flickr’s Commons as a model for ongoing institution participation.

One collection of videos that will prove especially interesting to archive-followers will be the Journeys and Crossings playlist of presentations by LoC staff. In this video — with strong connections to the LoC’s Commons collection on Flickr — Sheridan Harvey talks about the evolution of Rosie the Riveter and the lives of women workers in World War II:

Recent uploads from the Commons:

The Oregon State University Archives requests help in finding a cover image out of their collection for a book on the history of the U.S. Forest Service, by Gerald Williams! See newly uploaded photos from this collection in the OSU’s John Fletcher Ford set.

Gerald W. Williams Collection - John Fletcher Ford

Videos are an exciting first for the Commons! The State Archives of Florida has posted some nostalgic must-sees. Get out the popcorn! Florida also has newly uploaded polo photos.

Filming Florida

Get out your Easter bonnet and enjoy many Sam Hood photos from the State Library of New South Wales. Yes, the one with all the frills upon it!

Easter

Sun K. Kwak meets the Brooklyn Museum’s 1stFans! I hope she didn’t wrap them all up in tape.

1stFans

The Powerhouse Museum brings us the delightful images of Thomas Lennon, a Sydney photographer. Read about the mystery bush hikes!

Thomas Lennon Photographic Collection

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A few days ago, in the group Flickr Commons, the Powerhouse Museum’s Paula Bray gave us a heads-up that the museum has something planned for its Commons anniversary. Indicommons followers will want to keep an eye out for this, too — Wednesday, April 8, Australian time (that’s April 7 for some of us!):

We have a surprise!

April 8th will be our first anniversary of participating in the Commons and we have been really busy working on a special project to celebrate this significant date and the amazing Commons project. To find out what this is, check Photo of the Day on the 8th April.

Check in here then — or, better still, if you don’t already, start following the Powerhouse’s Photo of the Day now!

The Library of Congress catalogued this 1942 image by Andreas Feininger as being near Creede, Colorado. Comments on the photograph led me to find its real location — the old US Route 40, west of Denver, a few hundreds miles to the north.

Library of Congress	zyrcster
THEN	NOW

See here for the whole story.

Heard around the Commons:

• The Glenview Public Library suggests using the Commons for genealogy.
• Help the Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen decide to join the Commons.
• Derivative Images, of the University of Colorado (Yay! Buffaloes!), discusses the Commons.
• Some brief summaries of the Flickr Commons session at the Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington, Virginia: Digitization 101 (Jill Hurst-Wahl and David Lee King), Librarian by Day (Bobbi L. Newman), and Library Geek Woes.
• Lots of logging information from the Oregon State University Archives’ April Fools set! Timber!
• The Powerhouse Museum’s Photo of the Day blog celebrates its 500th post … and you can win a print!
• Meet curator Erika Dicker at the Powerhouse Museum’s new blog, Object of the Week.
• Elizabeth Thomsen explores Commenting the Commons.
• Profiling Social Networks: A Social Tagging Perspective. Hat tip to the National Library of New Zealand for this find.
• The Brooklyn Museum posts a series of articles, “Wikipedia Loves Art: Lessons Learned.” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
• Seb Chan at the Powerhouse Museum also discusses Wikipedia and that the museum’s online documentation is now licensed under Creative Commons.
• The Smithsonian Institution (SI) tells us about Ray Strong painting the Golden Gate Bridge. See more at the SI’s Flickr group, 1934.
• Hat tip to the SI for this info on U.S. stimulus funding for research. Government money—It’s not just for Wall Street!
• The Library of Congress reports that the public-domain status of early sound recordings is delayed until 2067.
• The National Media Museum aims to open a London satellite for photography exhibits.
• The Bibliothèque de Toulouse posts a review of Jean-Paul Lilienfeld’s “The Day of the Skirt,” a broadcast about women, racism, and the integration of young people.
• The Australian War Memorial reports on the conservation of the Mark IV tank. Oooh, tanks.

Go Visit!

April – It’s Jazz Appreciation Month! Check out the Smithsonian’s offerings.

03 Apr. – Live webcast from the Smithsonian’s Chandra Observatory! Part of Around the World in 80 Telescopes.

03 Apr. – Charles Parker Day, from the National Media Museum.

Starting 03 Apr. – Film screenings in 200-seat Art Deco theater resume at Library of Congress Packard Campus. A Hard Day’s Night!

04 Apr. – Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum—Swing-era tunes, French and Italian arias, dance, talks, and more.

04 Apr. – Join the National Galleries of Scotland for a selection of faces in the Portrait Gallery’s collection, including Mary Queen of Scots.

05 Apr. – Open day at the John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland, Australia) in honor of its 75th birthday.

05 Apr. – Join the George Eastman House for a screening of Victor Fleming’s 1934 Treasure Island. Arrrrr.

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