The quantity of open images available online is growing exponentially. An emerging challenge for the OER community is to identify relationships between sources of images. The ecosystem of open images is complex. Provenance, openness and issues of quality are all factors to be considered. This presentation showcases examples from three distinct sources, and discuss the challenges and affordances of each respectively.

1. Open Images for Learning
@theokl
MAPPING AN ECOSYSTEM OF OPEN IMAGES
Image: Olaus Magnus/Public Domain

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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/

5. OpenGLAM...
Historic Sheffield FB group (with permission)
Licence • Size • Quality • Metadata • Discovery & Accessibility

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Museum Metadata NYPL
Metadata

12. Metadata Crowdosurced
Crowdsourcing Metadata

13. Metadata
Report on
Crowdsourced
tagging on LOC
Flickr images
Springer et al 2008

14. 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

15. Historic Communities: (Facebook)
What? Where?
Who? and Why?
Provenance unknown - shared as fair use, claimed

16. ‘Historic’ Communities - A Thousand Stories
Above Left, Facebook Communty Screencap, Old Carlisle

17. ‘Historic’ Communities - Local History

18. Social Media: Research into ‘Historic’
communities

19. 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/

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. Independent Curators - knowledge
building

24. 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,Instagram
Image Credit: Joe Haupt: CC BY

25. 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

26. Ecosystem Map
CC BY
Map of Image Ecosystem; Link
https://mm.tt/679996438?t=94czmOkzBf

27. 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