The discussion of Getty Images got me to thinking about the company, which I frequently used to obtain images when I worked at my previous museum job. Looking at their site, I found that they pride themselves on four advantages that make all the difference between a media dump and a media collection. It is worth considering how our own image bank meets these standards, which, as they say, have emerged as industry standards over the past several years. That is not to say we should adopt them all. On the other hand, this could open the conversation as to what we might want to adopt. For instance, we may not be able to provide an "instantaneous feed" of the most current entertainment images, but could begin to develop a "photo assignment service" for particular niches among our contributors. So, here they are, from Getty's own site: Simplicity. We built a one-of-a-kind platform to help customers find and manage the right images, and in a few short years it has become the industry standard. We provide the most accessible and reliable way to search, download, license and manage the broadest and deepest selection of relevant still images and film clips. How can we improve our own platform to simplify the process for people wishing to use free images? Expedience. To serve the demands of a fully digital publishing industry, we provide instantaneous feed of news, sport and entertainment images as well as painstaking archival research. We also offer a full-service photo assignment service that can be tailored to your exact photographic needs. How can we expedite any number of processes so that people get what they want, and quickly? Relevance. We are the first imagery company to employ creative researchers to analyze demographics, sales data and behavioral trends to anticipate the visual content needs of the world’s communicators. Do we have the kinds of images that people really want to use/reuse? How is that determined? Experience. Our photographers are subject-matter specialists with years of experience, not generalists -- a distinction that helps ensure that our images capture defining moments and deep insights. Do we obtain those kind of images, and how is that measured so as to help the end users find what they are looking for. I have always been drawn to Robert Capa's poignant image of a man shot in the Spanish Civil War (_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Capa%2C_Death_of_a_Loyalist_Soldier.jpg_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Capa,_Death_of_a_Loyalist_Soldier.jpg) ). He captured a defining moment--had he taken the picture a split second later, all he would have gotten was a picture of a bloody corpse. Are any of these applicable as enhancements to Commons? As I said earlier, this is what distinguishes between a dump and a collection. Danny **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489