Open Images for Learning

@theokl

MAPPING AN ECOSYSTEM OF OPEN IMAGES

Image: Olaus Magnus/Public Domain

Images for Education: OEI’s? Open Educational Images

Unlike text and data based resources, curriculum and

lesson designs, textbooks or MOOCs - images for

educational use are less likely to be found in an easily

identifiable or unique educational repository

An Internet search for “educational images” returns an

assortment of search tools, educational repositories, free

images services, and stock agencies.

A curated list of even a few examples can be valuable -

especially contextual information example:

https://opencontenttoolkit.wikispaces.com/Links+to+Open+Content

https://opencontenttoolkit.wikispaces.com/Research

How can we better exploit the wealth of open

digital images available online?

What are the commonalities and

differences between the of sources of images?

What are the key benefits and

challenges for each source?

Questions

Pyritized Ammonite - Macroscopic Solutions CC BY

https://flic.kr/p/pSG7bR

GLAM

Open content from Museum and Galleries

Repositories and archives that include open images

Governmental and public archives

Scientific archives

OER (Open Educational Resources) repositories

Non profit and crowd-sourced repositories

Independent Curators, Archivists & Collectors

Bringing together ‘informal’ and ‘scholarly’ images

Creating a new value

Social Media

Facebook (Historic) Communities

Image Sharing Platforms

Open Images: Mapping the Ecosystem

Historic Sheffield FB group (with permission)

Jan Willemsen; CC BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/8725928@N02/

http://openglam.org/

J. R. James Archive; CC BY NC: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jrjamesarchive/

OpenGLAM...

Historic Sheffield FB group (with permission)

Licence • Size • Quality • Metadata • Discovery & Accessibility

Quality Matters -Technical

Sarah Stierch, Yellow MilkMaid Syndrome PD artwork

http://yellowmilkmaidsyndrome.tumblr.com/10,000 yellow milkmaids all in a row

Image Quality

Colour

Detail

Blemishes

Cropping

Proportion

Repro technology used

Watermarking

Annotations

Rijksmuseum

Some download options for image size

Flickr

New York Public Library

David Rumsey maps

After licencing, Image Size is the

most critical factor affecting what

you can do with an open image

Size Matters

Rijksmuseum

NASA Cassini

Rijksmuseum

Some download options for image size

Flickr

New York Public Library

David Rumsey maps

After licencing, Image Size is most

critical as to what you can do with

an open image

Size Matters

GIVE ME 3OO Bloody PPI (pixels per inch)

4000px image printed at

300dpi actual size (LH)

displayed on screen (RH)

NASA Cassini

INNOVATIVE

INTERFACES &

DATA SEARCH

TOOLS

Representational Context : Rumsye Maps

Curated Highlights and Themes Europeanna

Contextual (timeframe) thumbnail view NYPL

Discovery & Accessibility

Push (Newsletter) Public Domain Review

INNOVATIVE

INTERFACES &

DATA SEARCH

TOOLS

Representational Context : Donald Rumsey Maps

Curated Highlights and Themes Europeana

Contextual (timeframe) thumbnail view New York Public Library

Discovery & Accessibility

Push (Newsletter) Public Domain Review

Museum Metadata NYPL

Metadata

Metadata Crowdosurced

Crowdsourcing Metadata

Metadata

Report on

Crowdsourced

tagging on LOC

Flickr images

Springer et al 2008

GLAM: Summary

Benefits

● 10’s of millions of images and increasing exponentially

● A commitment to Open becoming more commonplace

● GLAMS make good use of online networks and encourage media

presence and promotion

● Metadata available ( and a move towards open data)

● Trusted Sources and Licensing

● Unlike textual artefacts images are multi contextual

Challenges

● Quality issues: technical, representational, conceptual

● Discovery search & management (image overload)

● Varying licences, some non-standard, complex or restrictive

● Timeframe: skewed to historic (pre 1922) with limited

contemporary data

● Focus on certain aesthetics (steampunk, Victoriana, advertising)

Historic Communities: (Facebook)

What? Where?

Who? and Why?Provenance unknown - shared as fair use, claimed

‘Historic’ Communities - A Thousand Stories

Above Left, Facebook Communty Screencap, Old Carlisle

‘Historic’ Communities - Local History

Social Media: Research into ‘Historic’

communities

Social Media Platforms

“Instagram gets something like 5+

million new photos a day. If we could

get just a small fraction of people to

agree to CC license their photos we

could make a huge impact on the free

culture movement”

http://i-am-cc.org

Wikipedia Wonderland Group on

Pinterest, “Showcase Wikipedia images

Anything, subject to Group Board Rules: (1)

IMAGES MUST originate directly from

Wikimedia: Wikipedia, Commons,

Wikispecies, Wikinews, Wikivoyage

https://uk.pinterest.com/stepinput/group-

wikipedia-wonderland/

Most social media platforms do not make it easy to be open ... but it is possible!

Open Marginalis is a good example of sharing

Open Images with Tumblr. Images linked back to

source together with useful notes

http://openmarginalis.tumblr.com/

Social Media

Challenging Group but potentially an untapped sources for valuable images

Benefits

● Engages participants from outside formal education

● Motivates members of these communities in discovery and research

● Unearth valuable forgotten or unknown resources

● Wealth of personal narratives and interpretations

Challenges

● Provenance - where do the images come from?

● Little or no licensing information

● Technical quality of images

● Often accessible only to members, Copyright applies ©

● Users and admins may be unwilling to share images outside community

Independent Curators

A Unique Group

Amateur archivists and collectors with specialised knowledge and interests. These individuals

curate and share visual artefacts such as vintage technology, product design or ephemera.

The artefacts are often annotated with very precise information and the authors may use Creative

Commons licences. Issues with such resources include quality, licensing and provenance.

In some instances it has to be assumed in copyright materials have been scanned or photographed

and uploaded, (illegally or unwittingly), creating potential pitfalls for educational users.

Image Credit: Joe Haupt: CC BY

Independent Curators

Autohistorian: CC BY : https://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/ (14,400 images)

Bibliodessy : CC BY : https://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/ (10,152 images)

Okinawa Soba : CC BY NC SA : https://www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/ (8,542 images) - also RH image

Independent Curators - knowledge

building

Independent Curators

Benefits

● Specialised knowledge

● Forgotten or unique resources

● Detailed annotations

● Many use open licences

● Discover or mop up artefacts and ephemera of possible future

significance, that many museums don’t the have resources to find,

curate or manage

Challenges

● Resources can dissapear, be re-licensed, sold etc

● Do these curtors and collectors own ‘rights’ to content

● Dependent on one individual

● Checking veracity and bias of metadata and descriptions

● Only some (probably a minority) use open licences

● How well do individual curators understand licences - copyright

● Plethora of platforms, Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest,InstagramImage Credit: Joe Haupt: CC BY

Open Images: Strategy

● Check Licensing (can I use it for my intended purpose?)

● Check Provenance ( Does it match what it what it says on the tin?)

● Check Quality - does it fit you needs?

● Always attribute and credit source (even with public domain)

● Share your work and images

● Make source clear in your educational outputs

● Involve others with similar interests

● Curate - many digital options available

● Disseminate across social media and content aggregators

● Establish a dialogue with image provider if it helps (let them know ; )

Images - my personal choice

https://medium.com/@TheoKL/flickr-part-1-f2badfda29a#.5ff1i4p8qImage Credit: Brizzle : Paul Townsend; https://flic.kr/p/8HM7BD CC BY

Ecosystem Map

CC BY

Map of Image Ecosystem; Linkhttps://mm.tt/679996438?t=94czmOkzBf

Thank You

An invitation to help with

Mapping Open Images

Twitter: @Theokl - email : theo.kuechel@gmail.com

I also invite you to contribute to the Open Content Toolkit https://opencontenttoolkit.wikispaces.com

Presentation CC BY, Other images as credited