About two weeks ago, the Brooklyn Museum posted a screencap of 12 set covers and asked Flickr members to vote on which they’d like to see added to the Commons to celebrate the museum’s 1st anniversary on the site:

What's next for the Commons?

And we did. We voted on the image page, we voted on Twitter, we voted in the Twitter, we voted in the Flickr Commons group …

In fact, we voted so much that the Brooklyn released some sets early — first North African ruins, then Middle Eastern ruins …

This morning the Brooklyn revealed its anniversary set: Pompeii: Places and Objects.

Still haven’t wished the Brooklyn a Happy Commonsversary? You still can! Comment, tag, or do something new today … with the old treasures of Pompeii.

House of Marcus Holionius

Marble fountain

Egypt: Gizeh, ca 1900
Brooklyn Museum: S10|08 Gizeh, image 9613

Happy Commonsversary to the Brooklyn Museum. We celebrate with some highlights of the Brooklyn’s collection on Flickr. This iconic lantern slide of an Egyptian Sphinx is rated as their most “interesting” photograph on Flickr:

Taken some time in 1900
#63 in interestingness (on 2008-05-13)
319 people call this photo a favorite
Viewed 15,439 times

Their lantern slides from the Goodyear Collection are their most storied on Flickr. Here are two more of their top photos of Egypt.

Egypt: Abydos

Egypt: Thebes

Some of the comments these photographs receive are remarkable, demonstrating the power of the Commons to harness the crowds in contributing to the corpus of knowledge about an item. On Egypt: Abydos, Flickr member travelin_g notes,

This temple was started by Seti I, but finished by his son Ramses. Seti insisted on the best artistry possible, while Ramses wanted it finished quickly & cheaply. Compare the carvings above (from the reign of Ramses) to these created under during the reign of his father.

Paris Exposition: Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, France, 1900

Paris Exposition: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, 1900

The Goodyear Collection also includes slides of the 1900 Paris World’s Exposition, which are another hit with Flickr viewers.

In 1900, Goodyear traveled to the Paris Exposition with photographer Joseph Hawkes. They brought back numerous images from the exposition including street life, vistas, pavilions, statues, and other structures and decorative details.

World’s Columbian Exposition: Ferris Wheel, Chicago, United States, 1893.

World’s Columbian Exposition: Ferris Wheel, Chicago, United States, 1893.

Also in the Goodyear collection at the Brooklyn Museum are photographs of the incredible 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which we at Indicommons covered extensively here. On Flickr, Madame Maracas joins the conversation about the fair by informing us that

When they were digging the foundation for the [ice] rink they found the foundation for the original Ferris Wheel under what had been a soccer pitch for decades!

Behind the Scenes: Ron Mueck

Annie Leibovitz Members Preview

While not technically included in the Commons, the museum also uploads behind-the-scenes views and previews of  exhibitions and events. It’s a fabulous insight into the people and activities of the museum itself, and you can find it all on Flickr. Enjoy the Brooklyn Museum’s photostream, and let us know your choices for Best Of in the comments here.

Street scene, Istanbul, Turkey, 1903

On May 28, 2008, the Brooklyn Museum entered the Flickr Commons — so today we celebrate the Brooklyn’s Commonsversary with a round-up of articles showcasing the year’s highlights.

At the Brooklyn Museum’s blog …

• Flickr Commons: High Resolution and what does it tell us? — This was the first open appeal made by a Commons member at theirown blog or website asking for the public to tell them what they‘d like to see in the collection and how they’d like to use the museum’s resources.
• Flickr Commons: Coping with a Small Staff and Community Ideals — This in-depth and introspective take on what it means to be in the Commons was an eye-opener to many Commons fans, used to easily uploading their own material.

Heard at Indicommons …

• Interview: Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology, Brooklyn Museum — Our first interview was with Shelley at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s a gem of an interview, too, and pretty much launched Indicommons into public awareness (thank, Shel!).
• Interview: Mary McKercher, of the Brooklyn Museum, on Egypt — Our interview with Dr. McKercher was a treat. As an expedition photographer and archaeologist, her insight into the work in general and the Brooklyn Museum in general is invaluable. She brings to life the Brooklyn’s Goodyear Archives with her knowledge and sheds light on the work the scientific work of the museum.
• Tools: Batch Date Changer — At the request of the Brooklyn Museum, our developer David Wilkinson created our first tool to help Commons institutions manage their uploads.
• Brooklyn Browser — The museum released its own public API so that any developer could access their extensive Collections database. And David Wilkinson wrote a nifty program with it: the Brooklyn Browser.
• The Real Brooklyn (Museum) — A stirring personal tribute to the museum, by a fan and neighbor, Amy Dreher.
• Slap It on the Scanner — a well-received article by Deborah Wythe, Head of Digital Collections and Services at the Brooklyn Museum, on the trials and tribulations archivists have when it comes to scanning.
• And the Best of the Web are … — The outstanding work by the museum over the past year resulted in many commendations at this year’s Museum and the Web Conference.
• A Thank-You from — and an Appeal for — the Brooklyn Museum — Exactly as the title says: after winning awards at the above conference, the museum was rocked by grim financial news. However, harnessing the social web, the support came pouring in. This is just one example of how institutions and their supporters can use social networking to increase practical support. Museums and archives and libraries, in the Commons and not, are all in financial need today, with potential serious consequences for their collections. If you can, offer support today, to an institution that means something to you.
• Who’s on First? — A fun write-up on the softball exploits of the museum community … and one which highlights the Brooklyn’s witty web presence.

The first year of the Commons undoubtedly brought surprises, mirth, and new eyeballs to the museum’s collections. Here’s to another fine year!

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)

One year ago today, after an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes work, staff at Flickr and the Library of Congress held their collective breath while the first 3,150 digitalized photographs from two important archive collections were made publicly available for the first time in The Commons — the newest addition to the repertoire of the well-established online photosharing site. Users of the site were invited to visit the collections, view the images and, if they felt so inclined, leave comments or even tag those images with what they thought might be relevant information. Would the community respond to these images, or would they languish unseen on the Internet equivalent of a dusty shelf? They responded: Within two days, the collections had received 650,000 page views, with every image viewed at least once. Flickr members had commented on 420 images, and “faved” 1,200. In all, this activity amounted to a total of about 1.1 million views on the Library of Congress Flickr account.

So what had everyone been looking at on that first day of The Commons?

News in the 1910s

This first set (now of 1,500 images) is taken from the George Grantham Bain Collection of almost 40,000 glass negatives created by the Bain News Service. Most of these photographs arrived with little in the way of explanation or description, but provide a fascinating insight into the sporting, theatrical, criminal, celebrity and political world of New York.

Library of congress

As this is a post to celebrate the first day that archive photographs were made public within the auspices of The Commons, it seems appropriate to share this charming photograph from that collection. Documenting the 7th Annual Excursion Day of Brooklyn Orphans, it was in fact the first upload to the Library of Congress Flickr account. This excursion, according to the New York Times, was sponsored by volunteer drivers on behalf of the Automobile Club. An appropriate image then, to celebrate an act of sharing undertaken almost a hundred years later.

1930s & 40s in Color

The other set launched that first day one year ago (now containing 1,615 images) belongs to a collection of color transparencies created by photographers working for the US Farm Security Administration and later the Office of War Information (FSA/OWI 1939-1944).

Library of Congress

Most imagery at this time was still commonly viewed in black and white, rather than in the rich and vibrant tones we can now enjoy. This is what makes these photographs so special. Here, images of men and women taking part in the collective World War II mobilization effort sit alongside the important work undertaken by FSA photographers in the rural areas of the US.

Within months of uploading this richness of material, the Library of Congress’s Flickr account had recorded 10.4 million views and been made a “contact” by 15,000 people, and the library had enhanced 500 Prints & Photographs Online Catalog records with the valuable data provided by the Flickr community through its 7,166 comments and 67,176 descriptive tags — data that will now be passed down to future generations as part of their photographic heritage.

If you haven’t had the chance to explore these first collections yet — or the rest of the LOC’s 5,249 Commons photos — then perhaps it’s time to make your contribution, whether in information or, most importantly, in pleasure.

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Yes, it was one year ago today that the Library of Congress pilot launched on Flickr, and The Commons was born.

When the LOC approached Flickr with an inquiry about uploading a large number of images, Flickr designer George Oates saw the potential and had a beautiful Big Idea.

Library of Congress

Instead of just another Flickr account, The Commons was created as an entirely new space with a unique solution to the copyright issues faced by museums, libraries and archives. The “no known copyright restrictions” rights statement allowed public institutions to share the millions of images stored in their archives for which they did not hold any specific rights, giving Flickr users access to their incredible photographic collections.

At the time of the launch, both Flickr and the LOC hoped “that the project will eventually capture the imagination and involvement of other public institutions as well”. I think it’s fair to say that neither Flickr nor the LOC was prepared for the tremendous reception they received from the Flickr community who welcomed them with open arms.

Barely one year later, the National Galleries of Scotland are the 18th public institution to join the Commons and share their amazing photos of Scottish life with us. The number of Commons photos now exceeds 12,000 and the number of tags and comments added by Flickr users are in their millions.

Over the past year the interest among the Flickr Community has grown with the announcement of each new Commons member in the Flickr blog. And over the past month the Commons Community has come together to share in the enjoyment of George Oates’s beautiful Big Idea. The excitement and passion for the Commons project can only mean that The Commons’ second year will bring even greater achievements.

Some things are guaranteed to happen. There will be ever more institutions joining the Commons, adding their photo collections into the mix and being welcomed by the Flickr Community. We will have our first ever Commons Flickr meetup and get to speak to some of the incredible people working behind the Commons accounts. And there will be ever growing cooperation between Commons partners and Commons fans.

So help yourself to a piece of Birthday Pie and join me in celebrating a very happy first Commons birthday!

Library of Congress

As part of the Indicommons marking of the first anniversary of The Commons, I interviewed Helena Zinkham, Acting Chief, Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, to learn more about how The Commons came to be a year ago.

Let’s start with a bit about you. What’s your job title, and what do you do when you’re not doing things for The Commons?

My work as Acting Chief for the Prints & Photographs Division at the Library of Congress is a lively mix of activities. With 40 very capable colleagues, I’m trying to make the 14 million pictures in our care as available and useful as possible. I’m a communication switchboard, project coordinator, cataloging teacher, and paperwork scrambler. For fun, I write about ways to read and research photos, and, of course, I enjoy interacting with the Flickr members tremendously.

Celebrating the Commons launch!

After 30 years of working with old pictures, it feels like I’ve come happily full circle. From local historical societies in the 1970s, where we spent time poring over old photos with researchers, asking, “Could that be … ?” or “Do you see …?” then running to a crumbling city directory volume to check a street address. Now, it’s a vast virtual reading room where people all over the world can offer identifications and debate their ideas by tapping the new online info sources as well as their personal experience and expertise. Flickr Commons has a comfortably familiar feel while also expanding enormously the number of people who can participate. I’ve got tremendous respect for the Flickr members.

Most people on Flickr assume that Flickr came up with the idea for The Commons then called the Library of Congress with an invitation. What actually happened?

The Library of Congress initiated the contact with Flickr, but it was Flickr designer George Oates who had the brilliant idea to create a brand new community space — The Commons, where many cultural heritage organizations could offer photos. To be clear, LOC is far from the first library to participate in Flickr. We called Flickr up, though, because we wanted to load a fairly large quantity of images and invite lots of tags and comments to better identify the images. And we couldn’t do that with the available licenses for photos on Flickr.

Our relationship to the photos is that of a steward. Unlike photographers who load their own work to Flickr, we don’t own the copyright for images in our collections. We needed a new rights statement that became “No known copyright restrictions.” The rights conversation and other discussions over the summer of 2007 resulted in The Commons launch on January 16, 2008.

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This coming Friday on Indicommons and in the Flickr Commons group, we’re celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of The Commons, January 16, 2008. In the days leading up to that anniversary, we’ll be talking about the lead-up to that day, when the Library of Congress’s first sets of photos were released into The Commons and we were all invited to participate. On Friday, we’ll celebrate that first day and the Library of Congress’s Flickr photostream. And after Friday, we’ll follow up with a look at the LOC’s first major report on its Commons project. All week long, we’ll be featuring Flickr Commons group members’ favorite Library of Congress photos. We’re collecting them in the group, and you’re invited to join us!

Bain News Service
Martha Lachman(?) 100 yd. Swim, 1912?
Library of Congress: LC-B2-2300-9

Pennylrichardsca’s favorite Library of Congress photo is of a swimmer, probably Martha Lachman, looking truly happy with her 100-yard swim in 1912:

“Her hearty smile and comfortable stance just make me happy to see”.

view + comment on Flickr