Getting social with photographic collections: Flickr Commons and beyond

With Paula Bray

In April 2008 the Powerhouse Museum joined a project called the ‘Commons on Flickr’. This project has led the Museum to think differently about the way it makes its photographic collections accessible. The images were loaded to the Commons under ‘no known copyright restrictions’ which has led to an incredible amount of citizen research, comments, tags, location identification and some great innovation. The number of views has exceeded expectations but it is the connections with this new audience that has led to some different thinking and a change to the Strategic plan. The Museum encourages the social connections and conversations that are taking place online with photographic collections through Flickr and on the Photo of the Day blog.