[WikiEN-l] Finding out what to take photos of

[Timwi]

Bogdan Giusca wrote:
> I think the first fair use criterium should be more clearly written:
> it seems that many people think that the part about a replacement
> which could be "reasonably be found or created" excludes the variant
> of getting out of the house and taking a picture. :-)

The following isn't entirely related to the above, but I'm quoting it 
anyway because it reminded me that I was going to mention this at some 
point.

So suppose an article has no picture, and a contributor wishes to add a 
picture to that one specific thing. What are the odds that this specific 
contributor gets a realistic chance of taking a photograph of the topic 
of that specific article, be it a celebrity, a sight or a building?

Take me as an example. I live in [[Cambridge]]. I'm not particularly 
interested in sight-seeing or architecture, so I know little about the 
sights and buildings in this city. However, I would be happy to take 
(free-license) pictures of something in this city and upload them to 
Commons (indeed I have already done so for some of the Colleges). The 
problem (for Commons/Wikipedia) is that I don't know, and don't have 
much interest or motivation in researching, what sights or buildings 
exist in this city that don't already have a free picture on 
Commons/Wikipedia.

Similarly for people. Imagine (hypothetically) that I'm planning to 
visit an event where I will likely see some celebrities. If there was a 
way for me to find out which OF THOSE celebrities don't already have a 
free picture on Commons/Wikipedia, it would be easier to know in advance 
which celebrities to focus on. The way it's now, however, I will likely 
just not care and only take images of things that /I/ want, not the 
things that Commons or Wikipedia needs.

So, in summary: Commons or Wikipedia needs an organised index or 
catalogue of things that don't have a free picture. Ideally, there 
should be somewhere I can click to list the things in Cambridge that 
don't have a picture.

Timwi