Culture, Community and the Commons

For my presentation this week I got to play around with Flickr's new(ish) initiative, the Commons. Be sure to check out Kira and Pam's blogs as well for other aspects of Flickr!

The Commons is an offshoot of Flickr that enables public institutions such as museums and archives to share their photo collections online. This web tool's two main goals are "to increase access to publicly-held photography collections", and "to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge". Created in 2008 as a partnership with the Library of Congress, the Commons has now grown to include over 40 institutions from around the world. Indeed, the overwhelming requests by institutions to register with the Commons has forced Flickr to close registration for 2010 while they catch up to the demand. Evidently this tool has found a market!


Once accepted, in order for an institution to share a collection they must agree to a Rights Statement which ensures that their photos qualify under "no known copyright". Pretty much this phrasing covers their institutional butts in case some restrictions are eventually discovered. Also, while institutions are sharing these photographs with the online public, they are not expressly providing a warranty for public use. The practical applications of that seem a bit of a mystery to me but again I assume this, again, is to cover their liabilities in case someone uses the images inappropriately.

It is fairly easy to navigate the Commons. For users just intending to browse, along with a description of the project, the front page provides links to a randomly generated selection of institutional collections. Below this is a sample of the photos available to explore within the Commons; I suspect this selection is not so random as funny animal pictures, arctic explorers, ghosts and jazz musicians feature prominently, a choice which is meant to draw the public in, I believe. The Flickr blog also often features Commons collections.

In the Commons, institutions have a "photo stream" that contains all their photograph, but these can also be viewed in "sets" which function somewhat like photo-albums or exhibits. There is a "collection" feature as well which allows someone to bring together themed pictures they like from across Flickr, but most institutions choose to present their photos in a set instead as they are interested in promoting their own images. Users can view these sets independently or by means of a very smooth slideshow interface. Additionally it is important to note that you don't need a Flickr account to view these images, only if you want to comment and make notes. Generally the picture is given a title and the host archive or museum provides some basic information such as the date of creation, location and photographer. Institutions vary with how much contextual information they provide, but I find my experience of their images much richer when they do so. Most institutions also take advantage of their new-found audience by providing links back to their website.

Ultimately the interactivity of the Commons comes from the comments of Flickr users. Responses can be made as notes directly on the photos or underneath the image in the comment forum. Some users provide very valuable information as Rob Ketcherside did when he made notes identifying each of the buildings in Brooklyn Museum Archives' photo of the World's Colombian Exposition (1893) as pictured on the right. Notes can often be a little less constructive (see below) but whether moronic or insightful, notes and comments document how the public interacts with these primary sources.

Another very cool aspect of Flickr Commons is your ability to share interesting slideshows directly within your blog, such as this set on the theme of Remembrance Day from the Musée McCord. This feature makes it easy to share interesting collections of primary sources with your contacts online.

As the first partner involved, it is perhaps not surprising that the Library of Congress made particularly interesting use of the interactivity of the Commons. In late 2009, the Library put out an album challenging Flickr users to help figure out the locations of a series of unidentified travel views. Given that these photos used photochrom technology, the Library knew that they had to have been taken between 1890 and 1910, but the locations of these tourist shots were more difficult to ascertain. Below is one example of one of the mysterious photocrom prints:

The Flickr community responded swiftly. The Library of Congress posted this challenge on December 24th 2009 and within a few days, members had identified every one of the 22 pictures. They did so by posting personal insights, pictures and research in the comments section below the photo. Within this comment section you can see the various ways individuals interact with the Commons (and Flickr more generally). Some individuals took a very cursory look at the photo, identifying it as Mexico or Italy because of the apparent colouring of the flag. Others put in a surprising amount of thought and research into their analysis:

Flickr users engaged with one another, building upon the collected knowledge until a consensus was reached regarding the photo's location. It was taken at Pont Napoléon in Nice, France. Though there was some tension regarding users who chose not to read previous comments and therefore provided redundant insights (about 3/4s of the way down the page, after Kevin's careful analysis, someone writes "umm, just look at the flag."), on the whole this was a inspiring bit of collaborative research that points to one potential use of the Commons. Click here to view the whole conversation.

Harnessing the power of the Flickr community to develop a collective knowledge on a subject got me thinking about the Commons potential for Library and Archives Canada's Project Naming. Project Naming has two main goals which are to a) identify Inuit individuals portrayed in LAC's photography collection, and, in the process b) connect Inuit youth with Elders in order to help bridge cultural gaps. These goals are achieved through either community meetings where the images are projected on a screen and Elders speak out when they recognize someone or through youths' visits to Elders' homes. While it would be vital for any changes to ensure this inter-generational connection, Flickr provides a useful interface that can reach a wide audience and this may be of use to the project. Especially when efforts to identify individuals have failed, Flickr provides a broader pool of people who might have relevant information. Given that it is open and accessible, Flickr facilitates interaction unlike LAC's current protocol that prompts a user to fill out a confidential - and somewhat daunting - form. This accessibility also means that photos can be easily shared via facebook and personal blogs, further increasing awareness. The use of Flickr's Commons to gather not only basic information but contextual and cultural knowledge could allow the subaltern to reinscribe their presence within colonial institutions but it would be necessary to develop a strong moderating system for ensuring genuine contributions and respectful useage. It seems to me like this Flickr detective work could benefit both a variety of communities and institutions if done right



On the topic of power imbalances, it is also important to note that given the expensive nature of digitization (as well as the current backlog of requests), the Commons is currently dominated by developed countries. Some of collections contain photos packed with the colonial gaze and are missing historical context. While some of this context can be provided by users, as mentioned earlier, I would like to see more information provided by the institution, not necessarily about the individual photograph (thought his would be great!) but hopefully about the set. I imagine as the Commons becomes more popular, more budget and work hours will be alloted to maintaining a Flickr collection.

On the whole I find the Commons to be an innovative new way of publicly sharing photography collections. Institutions in the Commons not only tap into a pre-existing online audience, but they also benefit from Flickr's stylishly designed and user-friendly interface. While it is important to be realistic about the power of the Commons to contribute to historic knowledge, this Flickr initiative is an intriguing web 2.0 approach that increases awareness of and interaction with institutional collections.