Into the Wild: Breathing New Life Into Collections

Using ‘The Commons’ project as the basis for this presentation, George Oates will show how this innovative pilot program, whereby cultural heritage institutions are invited to share content from their photographic archives on Flickr, can dramatically increase an institution’s profile and online positioning. The motives are straightforward: to increase access to these historic photographs, and to elicit general information and additional context from interested members of the Flickr community. Launched in January 2008, ‘The Commons’ on Flickr has already attracted worldwide attention, and is growing fast. In addition to outlining the program in general, George will talk about some of the new ideas and challenges for museums that are spurred by participation in ‘The Commons’. What does it mean for museums to engage so directly in such an open communication channel? What sort of information has the program generated so far? How can this new interaction and activity be useful?