Keynote, Smithsonian 2.0
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This was a presentation I gave at the Smithsonian 2.0 meeting in January 2009, to the conference participants and the National Board of the Smithsonian. I was chuffed that I had the privilege of sitting next to Secretary Clough over dinner.
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Keynote, Smithsonian 2.0
- 1. Hello. Tagging The Smithsonian Washington, D.C. January 23, 2009 http://flickr.com/photos/george/2247202168/
- 2. “The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age, since it represents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information by throwing in the reader’s way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful matter, peradventure interspersed.” - Edgar Allan Poe, c. 1844
- 3. “The enormous proliferation of data in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest opportunities of this age, since it represents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information by throwing in the reader’s way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful matter, peradventure interspersed.” - Edgar Allan Poe, c. 2009
- 4. Flickr Today
- 5. Nearly 5 years old
- 6. Over 3 billion photos
- 7. Around 3 million uploads every day
- 8. About 25 million unique tags
- 9. Almost 100 million photos on the map
- 10. Itʼs made of people. http://flickr.com/photos/carthorse/340434797/
- 11. Over 30 million members 47 million unique visitors a month http://flickr.com/photos/carthorse/340434797/
- 12. The Commons on Flickr flickr.com/commons
- 15. Over 1 million digital records, looking for a “Web 2.0” partner
- 17. Why choose Flickr? ★ Designed specifically to browse and search photographs ★ An active, engaged community with a deep connection to photography ★ An infrastructure big enough to support hosting 3 billion photos ★ Available in 8 languages
- 20. 20
- 21. View by Tag, or Search Browse 21
- 22. 22
- 23. 23
- 24. 24
- 25. 25
- 27. 3 simple objectives... 1) To increase access to public photography archives 2) To gather information about them 3) To share feedback with the institution & the web
- 28. flickr.com/smithsonian Selected highlights
- 29. Challenge #1 The Smithsonian is enormous.
- 31. Start small http://flickr.com/photos/glam/232904352/
- 32. Challenge #2 Photos all over the place!
- 33. Took the chance to filter through SPI http://photography.si.edu/
- 36. Smithsonian Keywords 1980s, president, ceremony, capitol, 1989 Presidential Inauguration, George H. W. Bush, Opening Ceremonies, Swearing In Flickr Tags Smithsonian Institution, John Dillaber, President George Herbert Walker Bush, Barbara P. Bush, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, President, Inauguration, 1989, armor, armour, 8 keywords / 23 tags lecturn, heater, wiring, microphone, robe, judicial robe, judge, blue, red, Bible, oath, swearing in, ceremony,
- 37. Smithsonian Keywords 1980s, president, ceremony, capitol, 1989 Presidential Inauguration, George H. W. Bush, Opening Ceremonies, Swearing In Flickr Tags Smithsonian Institution, John Dillaber, President George Herbert Walker Bush, Barbara P. Bush, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, President, Inauguration, 1989, armor, armour, 8 keywords / 24 tags lecturn, heater, wiring, microphone, 1 typo robe, judicial robe, judge, blue, red, Bible, oath, swearing in, ceremony, lectern
- 38. Smithsonian Keywords 1980s, president, ceremony, capitol, 1989 Presidential Inauguration, George H. W. Bush, Opening Ceremonies, Swearing In Flickr Tags: Smithsonian Institution, John Dillaber, President George Herbert Walker Bush, Barbara P. Bush, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, President, Inauguration, 1989, armor, armour, 8 keywords / 24 tags lecturn, heater, wiring, microphone, 1 typo robe, judicial robe, judge, blue, red, Bible, oath, swearing in, ceremony, 3 matches lectern
- 39. Challenge #3 Is it OK to share the photos we pick on Flickr?
- 43. Tag Cloud screenshot
- 45. hannahlasco says: but that's so cute!! http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/3113302958/
- 46. artland says: wonderfulllllllllllllll !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/3113302958/
- 47. zyrcster says: Wiilard Delmont Doremus, of Washington DC, was quite the inventor. His US Patent of 1889 for this mailbox can be seen here. Other patents on file for him are found here and here. He had also been acquitted of a conspiracy charge In a Post Office Case of 1906 and was involved in a 1911 US District court case in regard to his cotton gin. Tony Shaman says of his postbox, quot;In 1889 the U.S. Post Office Department ordered a new style letter box that had been designed by Willard D. Doremus. Three sizes of the design were produced. Unfortunately, they were poorly made and did not stand up well. Thieves were able to break into them to steal valuable mail. Nor did their poor construction keep out snow, sleet, or rain.quot; Mr. Doremus also created a postal canceling machine in use from 1899 through World War II in the US. Some examples of these cancellations are found midway through this page. -- Seen in a discussion of Flickr Commons. (?) http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/3113302958/
- 48. Smithsonian Institution snow winter boy child mail letter US mailbox bw grain texture post usps history doremus william doremus design letterbox 1880s national postal museum postal mailboxes halftone young lad newsprint boots gloves hat city street town iron america usa mailing sending Willard Delmont Doremus US Mail Victorian 19th century nineteenth century http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/3113302958/
- 54. “Although there is no known copyright for the original image, I promise not to represent this as totally my work.” http://flickr.com/photos/lynchburgvirginia/3078329663/
- 60. “Photos and identification of fishes. Would like this to be an extensive collection of pictures of fishes identified to at least genus level. Photos of both dead and live fish are welcome, but it must be possible to identify the species from the photo. This is a not a group for showing off angling photos.” http://flickr.com/groups/fishspecies/
- 64. 100,000 views in a day
- 65. Over 1,200,000 views since launch (on June 16, 2008)
- 66. Inauguration “ripples” Over 1,200,000 views since launch (on June 16, 2008)
- 67. Across the Commons Greater than the sum of its parts?
- 68. Current participants screenshot
- 69. Highlights include... ★ About 30 million views across 15,000 photos ★ “Well-behaved” ★ Emergent “collections” ★ Growing interest ★ Re-use, proliferation, useful information (!)
- 72. screenshot http://flickr.com/commons/tags/armisticeday/
- 74. Feedback Flickr screenshot Tags
- 75. Personal Investment Time, labour, thought, even code
- 78. “Indicommons.org isnʼt just about about blogging about Flickr Commons–related news, showcasing Commons-related research and community- generated ʻsubcurationʼ. Weʼre also active in creating new tools to follow, search and sort the Commons collections.” http://indicommons.org
- 79. “Indicommons.org isnʼt just about about blogging about Flickr Commons–related news, showcasing Commons-related research and community- generated ʻsubcurationʼ. Weʼre also active in creating new tools to follow, search and sort the Commons collections.” http://indicommons.org
- 81. Greasemonkey + The Commons = “Greased Commons”
- 82. screenshot http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/streetandstudio/flickr.shtm
- 83. Access vs. Release A different mindset for Smithsonian II?
- 86. Fountain, pathway, flow screenshot http://flickr.com/photos/daveynin/560170975/
- 87. Fountain, pathway, flow screenshot “The very ʻstuffʼ of the Web is profoundly social and meaningful. It thus lets us see that our traditional realism is not only wrong but dreadfully alienating.” - David Weinberger, Small Pieces Loosely Joined http://flickr.com/photos/daveynin/560170975/
- 89. “The SFMOMA ArtScope is designed for wandering, for the chance discovery of artworks you might not have encountered before.” http://www.sfmoma.org/pages/artscope
- 91. Before After http://www.kottke.org/09/01/the-countrys-new-robotstxt-file
- 92. Reimagine “PR” Take public outreach done offline actively to the wide, wide web
- 94. Thank you! George Oates glo@abitofgeorge.com All photos used are under a Creative Commons license, in addition to those shared in The Commons on Flickr! http://flickr.com/photos/aureusbay/297387489/
Editor's Notes
- - So where are we?
- - A baby in institutional terms, but... not bad for a website.
- - people who socialise, argue, explore, participate, observe... all the things that regular people do
- - people who socialise, argue, explore, participate, observe... all the things that regular people do
- This is the Library of Congress in Washington... it’s America’s oldest federal cultural institution, and the largest library on the planet. The Library was founded in 1800. On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes. On January 30, 1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950.
- - They’ve had an enormous web presence for over 10 years! - In mid 2007, the Library of Congress approached Yahoo! to see how we could work together... that eventually trickled into my inbox, so I gave them a call. - The Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress contains some 14 million visual images
- - The P&P catalogue has over 1 million records online already, and is already a huge, popular resource - Was a really radical move for such a hallowed institution to take on “the great unwashed”!
- - Just on that first point, about being able to use the Flickr design... Flickr’s really sort of about getting lost. Certainly, you can search, but you can also just click around... - Compare that to ~95% of institutional online collections begin with a search UI
- - There’s a presumption of knowledge, not encouragement of exploration - How do I know what to search for if I don’t know what you’ve got?
- - Screenshot of the Commons home page
- - Multiple points of entry
- - And as an example of how photos on Flickr manage to get all over the web...
- - This is fertile ground - we’ve had such a loud response, we’re thinking through what’s best
- - I was here in DC almost a year ago to the day, to present at the Library of Congress about the Commons pilot 2 weeks in. - There were Smithsonian infiltrators! I met Effie Kapsalis, Kathy Spiess and Mike Edson soon after, and we got started.
- -
- - Incidentally, let’s just do a quick comparison...
- - the usage model we adopted in The Commons is “no known copyright restrictions”, where it’s the responsibility of the publisher to ensure they can make that claim
- - The initial release was “safe”, photos that the Smithsonian knew to be in the public domain. - It’s been really interesting to hear about how many conversations even the idea of participating in The Commons has started in various institutions. There was one potential member who has ended up rewriting their entire copyright policy as a result.
- Today, there are 1,387 photos, 12 sets from 9 different units within the institution
- - tag cloud. “smithsonian institution” is the only one added “officially” - and now, a glimpse into the sorts of things that are happening...
- - This is “Mailing Letters” by an unknown photographer - “Young boy does his best to put his letters into a Doremus-style mailbox. Mailboxes of this type, designed by Willard D. Doremus, were not very strong. The lip covering the letter slot could too easily break, letting rain, or in this case, snow, into the mailbox.”
- - and by the way, 44 tags have been added
- - As the description informs us, that bust of Henry Tanner in the corner of the studio was given to the Met
- - Lo and behold, the Met pops by to direct us to their catalog record for the bust
- - I wrote to Bob to ask if he’d be OK with me showing this to you today (because it’s not CC licensed) and he was downright chuffed that he’d been noticed :)
- Halichoeres radiatus, Terminal Phase (Puddingwife Wrasse), from the fabulous (and popular!) Belize Larval Fishing Group set, taken by the Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian...
- So, 2 comments on the photo, telling us what’s going on. One, a note to let us know that the photo has been added to the Wikimedia Commons, and two, and invitation from a fishy person to add the pic to a group
- - Here’s the group... - I read the group’s description... thought it was worth a mention
- - The group description explains...
- And in the pool of just over 1,000 photos...
- The Puddingwife Wrasse and its neighbour, the Caribbean Sharp-Nose Puffer, sit nestled alongside contributions from other Fish Fiends on Flickr.
- From the Smithsonian Institution: Documentary of a famous America trial - Tennessee v. John T. Scopes: The seven scientists asked to testify for the defense standing in front of the Defense Mansion.
- - Got picked up on a popular site called Digg
- - Those 1,387 photos have been seen a lot.
- - Network effects produce more views again, like, Flickr’s promotion around the inauguration, or a new Commons member joining, or fresh uploads to the account - The Library of Congress is far and away the most viewed Commons member, with well over 10 million views. That’s probably just because they were first out the gate ;)
- - There are 17 institutions today, with enquiries from well over 100 museums, libraries and archives from across the globe
- Emergent collections... 63 photos of smiles
- 91 photos tagged with moustache
- - What if we try to collaborate, in the Flickr environment? - I put out an open call to all Commons members to see if they’d like to dig up some pictures to commemorate Armistice Day. Unbeknownst to me, the Dutch National Archive has an enormous collection of war-related photography. - 2 new members - the Australian War Memorial, and the Imperial War Museum - 7-8 Commons members shared content, that we tied together by a specific tag,
- - One of the other Commons members, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, has actually begun re-ingesting tags added on Flickr into their own internal systems
- - One of the other Commons members, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, has actually begun re-ingesting tags added on Flickr into their own internal systems
- - This is probably just semantics, but using the word “access”, as in ‘we need to increase access’ assumes some sort of barrier, or a right of entry
- - 657 members, 71 threads in just over a month - entirely community-driven (though staff now participate)
- - A Flickr member, clickybd, has developed a couple of fantastic scripts to help people brose the Commons more easily. - And, here’s an interesting way to reward and thank the people who make the effort...
- - Tate Britain held a wonderful photography exhibition last year called Street & Studio. - As part of the program, they created a group on Flickr, and asked members to contribute photos that represented either street, or studio - The submissions were judged by a panel, and then the winners were exhibited on the walls of the Tate Britain, and, the Tate printed a book showcasing the winners, and invited all the photographers to the launch party.
- - This is probably just semantics, but using the word “access”, as in ‘we need to increase access’ assumes some sort of barrier, or a right of entry
- - This is probably just semantics, but using the word “access”, as in ‘we need to increase access’ assumes some sort of barrier, or a right of entry - Expectations are different now - Like, I was watching CNN on the plane, the Press Secretary’s first meeting, a journo asked “Why wasn’t Obama’s retaking of the oath made explicitly public? Why wasn’t there video on the internet?”
- - The broadcast model is being stretched into something else - The audience are now ACTORs. Creators and participants - At least on Flickr, the audience can affect what is shown and how it is represented
- - Can the Smithsonian grow a genuine intent to release content to the web? - Can it be a loosely federated presence?
- - What the institution might describe as inane or facile might actually be a gestiure of affection or interest...
- - Bran talked about affinity this morning... That’s basically what Flickr is - an “affinity engine” - a place where people share knowledge voluntarily, Commons or not
- - The images are sorted by accession date. Not a sort order you’d necessarily expect...
- - I had a peek at the 2400 lines... it’s basically a list of every URL on the site. - /includes/ is probably the place where they keep their scripts... not much good to web search
- - I’m not actually convinced that the best strategy is to “just add community” to all the Smithsonian’s web presences. It takes a LOT of work to do well, and a lot of nurturing to “culture” in the way you’d like.
- - By exploring opportunities on the wider web, you give yourselves a new opportunity to show your personality, on an individual level, and also as an institution. - By putting your content on the web where the people already are, you save yourself time, money and effort, and give yourself a new opportunity to show personality - One good first step towards the new world order might be to “inject some stimulation into the web” as Mike Edson said this morning... think about what sorts of data you can share, or broadcast... Not just photos, but, well... anything really. Keri Thomson from the BioD Heritage Library said “our target market is machines” - that’s the sort of data I’m talking about... - You’ll be surprised what people do with it :)