The U.S. Library of Congress has decided to begin making available thousands of its photos through the photo site flickr. For the time being, the ownership of these photos are being designated as having “no known copyright restrictions.” There is a more complete description of this designation, the photos, etc. here. This is a new classification, so we’ll have to watch how it plays out. In the meantime, they are asking that the online community view the photos and add comments and tags, so that they can be further classified. That seems to be a reasonable request, and it could be a lot of fun for those of you with lots of time on your hands. 
Posts Tagged ‘photo’
Library of Congress Photos on flickr
Thursday, January 24th, 2008Kwansei Gakuin University
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
This weekend I had a chance to visit my good friend Paul Hays up in the Sanda area of Kansai (think Kobe-north); he teaches media and policy studies at Kwansei Gakuin University. I got a chance to visit and participate in his seminar on Ambient Findabilty (a book that coincidentally has a reference to one of my confluences). One student was in charge of one of the chapters and led the discussion which was held in Japanese and English.
The campus is beautiful. The relatively new buildings have that Mediterranean feel and the well-manicured lawns have, how can I describe them?, “Stay off the grass!” signs. Built during the bubble years, the campus is a little out of the way and a bit hard to get to. The train line stops about 6 km. away and one needs to catch a bus the rest of the way. I understand that, for some, it can be quite a commute, but then I have at least one student commuting from Fukuoka. I guess it’s all relative.
Web Those Photos!
Thursday, June 14th, 2007Geotagging is taking on a whole new meaning. The New York Times had an article the other day about how people are taking shots of their trips and adding the GPS coordinates to help others see what various travel spots actually look like. Flickr is getting in on the act in a big way. If you start seeing more flashes in your hotel room on your next vacation, there may be a good reason.
