[Wikimedia-l] The British Library releases 1 million images

[Michael Peel]

There’s been quite a lot of discussion of this on the cultural-partners mailing list (https://intern.wikimedia.ch/lists/listinfo/cultural-partners). As a result of that, Tom Morris has set up a working page on Commons at:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:British_Library/Mechanical_Curator_collection

Thanks,
Mike

On 15 Dec 2013, at 17:37, Jens Best <jens.best at wikimedia.de> wrote:

> Just discovered a short note of Andrew Gray, why Flickr was preferred
> instead of Commons.
> http://www.generalist.org.uk/blog/2013/mechanical-curator-on-commons/
> 
> 
> 2013/12/15 Jens Best <jens.best at wikimedia.de>
> 
>> Thanks for the news.
>> 
>> A question comes to my mind when I read this article: Why did the British
>> Library use Flickr instead of Wikimedia Commons? Maybe it has to do
>> something with a better usability of Flickr? -
>> 
>> The usability of Wikimedia Commons most be increased to make it more
>> attractive to individual and institutional users. Don't you think so?
>> 
>> The next steps mentioned in the article indicates good opportunities for
>> us to get involved and show the potential of an experienced platform for
>> crowdsourcing information and knowledge:
>> 
>> "We are looking for new, inventive ways to navigate, find and display
>> these 'unseen illustrations'. and furtheron in the blogpost, "We plan to
>> launch a crowdsourcing application at the beginning of next year, to help
>> describe what the images portray. Our intention is to use this data to
>> train automated classifiers that will run against the whole of the content."
>> 
>> 
>> http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-first-steps.html
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> Jens
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 2013/12/15 Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada <emijrp at gmail.com>
>> 
>> Quote from full announcement
>>> 
>>> http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-first-steps.html
>>> 
>>> We have released over a million
>>> images<http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary>onto Flickr Commons
>>> for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images
>>>> were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised
>>>> by Microsoft<
>>> http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century-Book-Digitisation-Project-343.aspx>who
>>> then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release
>>>> them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a
>>> startling
>>>> mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful
>>>> illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters,
>>>> colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more
>>> that
>>>> even we are not aware of.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary
>>> Example of image http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307195524/
>>> Example of all images from a book
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/sysnum002660292
>>> Stuff for coders https://github.com/BL-Labs/imagedirectory
>>> 
>>> So... :-)
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> --
>> Jens Best
>> Präsidium
>> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
>> web: http://www.wikimedia.de
>> mail: jens.best <http://goog_17221883>@wikimedia.de
>> 
>> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
>> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts
>> Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig
>> anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
>> Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> --
> Jens Best
> Präsidium
> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
> web: http://www.wikimedia.de
> mail: jens.best <http://goog_17221883>@wikimedia.de
> 
> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts
> Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig
> anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
> Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
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