I was just about to respond with this :-) I discussed this with the BL team a few weeks before the release, and while we could sort out the technical issues of a million items fairly easily, it looked like the lack of metadata would make them very unsuited for Commons.
There's nothing stopping us harvesting them individually, of course, but I think adding a million unidentified images and saying "the community will sort them out" would be a very quick road to my getting beaten up ;-) Andrew. On 15 December 2013 17:37, Jens Best <jens.b...@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.b...@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 <emi...@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... :-) >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list >>> wikimedi...@lists.wikimedia.org >>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> -- >> Jens Best >> Präsidium >> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. >> web: http://www.wikimedia.de >> mail: jens.b...@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.b...@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. > > _______________________________________________ > Commons-l mailing list > Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l > -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk _______________________________________________ Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l