Commons or Flickr

There have been several collections of museums and archives that found their way to Flickr. The latest I know off was a collection of medical images. There was a discussion about this and I have been thinking about this for some time. I would like to see more collections going into Commons. So what do we have to offer to the archives and museums when they collaborate with us (as well).

• The images are actually used, Commons is not like a stamp collection
• Researching things like copyright is something that we do
• Providing updates to the meta data was important to the Bundesarchiv
• The material is used in projects in many languages

Many archives have collections that reflect the history of multiple countries. When the paintings, the gravures, etches and photos that are part of such collections are digitally available in Commons, it will be shared and this gives the collection even more relevance.

The arguments why Commons should be an obvious partner are easy to make. The benefits to Commons and our projects are equally obvious. We have to figure out how to be inclusive and how to reach out to the archives and museums of countries where we are thin on the ground. This is important because this is how we prevent systemic bias.
Thanks,
        GerardM