It's very encouraging to see museums wake up to the value of projects like Wikipedia and try to make them better rather than continue to pretend that they don't exist.
Here's a very interesting example from the Netherlands of how this could be done:
In June, volunteers will visit Dutch museums to take photographs of art objects. The photos will be published online with a creative commons (CC) license, which means that they can be freely used provided the source is acknowledged. In Amsterdam, the Tropenmuseum, the Jewish Historical Museum and the Netherlands Media Art Institute participate in Wiki Loves Art, which was preceded by similar initiatives in New York, London and Australia.
Close to ten thousand photos have already been published on the Flickr website. For online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, this is a way to obtain illustrations for articles. So far, mainly ethnic and classical art seems to have been photographed. In the Netherlands, museums with ethnic and craft objects participate, but also museums with media art and graphic design collections.
For participating museums, it can be worthwile to go web 2.0, the organisers argue. They can reach new audiences, increase brand recognition and boost turnover. By now, eight museums in the Netherlands have joined. “We’re very happy with these entries, this is a good start. But we’re still looking for more museums that would like to participate”, an organisation spokesperson said.
Not only does it grow Wikipedia's own digital archives, but it also helps to bring more publicity to the participating museums. On top of that, this is a very interesting use of crowdsourcing.
Read More
(0)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE