[Foundation-l] 1.6 Billion USD to spare? How about liberation of some pic...

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

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




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