[Wikimediaindia-l] National Museum in Delhi

[Yann Forget]

Hi Liam,

2011/3/10 Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com>:
> Hi Yann,
>
> There is no shortage of museums that have huge collections of great stuff to
> photograph! :-) But yes, it would be good to get more Indian cultural
> heritage onto Wikimedia.
> According to the museum's website http://www.nationalmuseumindia.gov.in/ you
> can enter for 300rupees and are allowed to take photos for a further
> 300rupee fee. Presumably therefore, if you do buy this ticket, that means
> their policies allow people to take photos inside. I can't confirm this and
> it would be good if you would check for yourself so as to avoid any
> confrontations. I do not personally have any contacts at that museum and
> directly coordinating GLAM outreach relationships is not something that the
> Wikimedia Foundation can achieve. It is up to the local communities (and
> especially the chapters) to work out their best plans. I can help when
> necessary but we don't have any "official" capacity to contact anyone -
> we're just Wikimedians after all :-) Relatedly, I am working on the concept
> of the "GLAM Ambassador" who would have some kind of formal backing so they
> could get access to institutions, but this is a very young idea still.
>
> In the mean time I would suggest that, if you can confirm if they DO allow
> photography, that you go ahead and do it - but make sure that you also add
> their record/accession/item record number to the metadata when you upload it
> so that it can be tracked back to their catalogue. If they do NOT allow
> photography then it will be a longer process to form a relationship with
> them to either have them donate their own images or allow Wikimedians in for
> a specific photography event.

Well, there are several problems with that.

1. In order to make good photographs, a tripod will be necessary. I
doubt they will allow that for the usual fees.

2. Seeing the size of the museum, many days will be needed to take
good photographs (not snapshots) of a sizeable portion of the museum.
At 300 Rs. each, it would be expensive for me. Actually I might not
need to pay that much, as I am a resident in India, and I am entitled
to the Indian fees.

3. For some items, there might copyright issues to publish the
resulting images under a free license.

> Sincerely,
> -Liam

Regards,

Yann

> wittylama.com/blog
> Peace, love & metadata
>
> On 9 March 2011 16:44, Yann Forget <yannfo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I visited the National Museum in Delhi today and I have discovered
>> that it contains a huge collection of arts which would be very
>> interesting to have in Wikimedia Commons. I have a decent camera and a
>> tripod, and I could spend some time taking photographs there, if the
>> museum would allow.
>> Would it be possible to contact them officially, either Hisham or
>> someone from Wikimedia India?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Yann