Comments on: Can 23 million views be wrong? http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942 well, what will come next? Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:12:58 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Kate T. http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942&cpage=1#comment-80327 Kate T. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:23:35 +0000 http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942#comment-80327 You don't need 23 million views to be a success. Check out this post at "A Repository for Bottled Monsters," the unofficial blog of the National Museum of Health and Medicine (http://bottledmonsters.blogspot.com/2010/01/why-we-do-this.html): "Today we got an email in the archives from a man in California who found pictures of his mother, a World War 2 nurse, on our Flickr page. His mother's 87th birthday is coming soon and he wants to print one of the photos for her. He said he's not sure she knows these photos exist. So many of our images have no or very little information, but in this case his mother's name was spelled out in the caption to all four!!! photos of her. I have often said to myself, as I am posting this kind of detail, that someone is going to be trolling the internet, looking for their mom or dad, and may very well find one of the things we've tossed up there. It's exactly this reason that we do what we do, with the hope that we're the connection between today and yesterday. Have I said I love my job?" You don’t need 23 million views to be a success. Check out this post at “A Repository for Bottled Monsters,” the unofficial blog of the National Museum of Health and Medicine (http://bottledmonsters.blogspot.com/2010/01/why-we-do-this.html):

“Today we got an email in the archives from a man in California who found pictures of his mother, a World War 2 nurse, on our Flickr page. His mother’s 87th birthday is coming soon and he wants to print one of the photos for her. He said he’s not sure she knows these photos exist.

So many of our images have no or very little information, but in this case his mother’s name was spelled out in the caption to all four!!! photos of her. I have often said to myself, as I am posting this kind of detail, that someone is going to be trolling the internet, looking for their mom or dad, and may very well find one of the things we’ve tossed up there.

It’s exactly this reason that we do what we do, with the hope that we’re the connection between today and yesterday. Have I said I love my job?”

]]> By: Helena Zinkham http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942&cpage=1#comment-80181 Helena Zinkham Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:31:00 +0000 http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942#comment-80181 I enjoyed talking about the Flickr project at the SAA 2008 conference, but in looking back at my talk there was only a brief reference to verifying information-- "Staff also read comments to find, verify, and incorporate new information about the photos and comment on the outcome. This takes 15-20 hours/week." We do still verify information, either by following and assessing the links provided within the comments, or checking our own collections and reference sources. Here's a recent example with a portrait of J.B. Joel--a puzzle based on how young he appeared in a 1912 photo, http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/4195203404 " Barbara (LOC P&P) says: I have searched in vain for another photo in Library of Congress collections to try to confirm that this is Jack Barnato Joel. It seems quite possible that this is Bain's copy of an earlier photograph, which would explain the youthful appearance, and some of the facial characteristics look similar to (though perhaps a bit more debonair than!) the image swanq pointed to at www.tbheritage.com/Breeders/SABreeding/SABree ders.html." A Joel relative later resolved things. I enjoyed talking about the Flickr project at the SAA 2008 conference, but in looking back at my talk there was only a brief reference to verifying information– “Staff also read comments to find, verify, and incorporate new information about the photos and comment on the outcome. This takes 15-20 hours/week.”

We do still verify information, either by following and assessing the links provided within the comments, or checking our own collections and reference sources. Here’s a recent example with a portrait of J.B. Joel–a puzzle based on how young he appeared in a 1912 photo, http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/4195203404

” Barbara (LOC P&P) says:

I have searched in vain for another photo in Library of Congress collections to try to confirm that this is Jack Barnato Joel. It seems quite possible that this is Bain’s copy of an earlier photograph, which would explain the youthful appearance, and some of the facial characteristics look similar to (though perhaps a bit more debonair than!) the image swanq pointed to at http://www.tbheritage.com/Breeders/SABreeding/SABree ders.html.”

A Joel relative later resolved things.

]]> By: indicommons» Blog Archive » The Commons: Vital, virile, virtual and viral http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942&cpage=1#comment-80022 indicommons» Blog Archive » The Commons: Vital, virile, virtual and viral Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:57:54 +0000 http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942#comment-80022 [...] strongest evidence of the power of The Commons is well captured by Seb Chan, Courtney Johnston, and Kate Theimer (ArchivesNext) in recent blog posts regarding the ‘debate’ about The [...] [...] strongest evidence of the power of The Commons is well captured by Seb Chan, Courtney Johnston, and Kate Theimer (ArchivesNext) in recent blog posts regarding the ‘debate’ about The [...]

]]> By: Rob http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942&cpage=1#comment-79389 Rob Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:26:27 +0000 http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942#comment-79389 Let's not forget the beauty of crowdsourcing is that the good information floats to the top. If you post something wrong, it usually WILL get corrected. If you post something right, usually others will back you up. Plus, some information can be easily verified. A classic case is the picture of a factory on the LOC Flickr stream that had only one informational tidbri. They thought it might be in Massachusetts. Flickr users gave the name of the town where it was located, the name of the factory and its exact location within the city. All of this could be immediately verified without too much trouble. In my eyes, the LOC Flickr project is crowdsourcing at its best. Let’s not forget the beauty of crowdsourcing is that the good information floats to the top. If you post something wrong, it usually WILL get corrected. If you post something right, usually others will back you up. Plus, some information can be easily verified. A classic case is the picture of a factory on the LOC Flickr stream that had only one informational tidbri. They thought it might be in Massachusetts. Flickr users gave the name of the town where it was located, the name of the factory and its exact location within the city. All of this could be immediately verified without too much trouble.

In my eyes, the LOC Flickr project is crowdsourcing at its best.

]]> By: Jennifer http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942&cpage=1#comment-79377 Jennifer Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:19:45 +0000 http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=942#comment-79377 They do verify the information--most definitely. I recall a panel discussion with someone from the LOC speaking on how they deal with user comments at the 2008 SAA conference in SF. Put your slides+talk online whoever you are! They do verify the information–most definitely. I recall a panel discussion with someone from the LOC speaking on how they deal with user comments at the 2008 SAA conference in SF. Put your slides+talk online whoever you are!

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