I've recently written a blog post [1] in which I suggested that institutions
should "provide a Creative Commons licence for [marketing] videos and
encourage people to reuse it". I'd go even further and suggest that those
photos of smiling students (who happen to be wearing the University
sweatshirt or are pictured next to an iconic representation of the
institution) should also be made available under a CC licence. And I'd
suggest that a licence which permits reuse for commercial purposes would be
desirable - if we want commercial companies to do our marketing for us, we
should acknowledge that they will need a financially viable reason to do
this.
Flickr Commons [2] seems to allow institutions to do this (although Google
Video or YouTube might be a better choice for videos).
Is anybody making such marketing materials available under a CC licence? And
is there any interest in Flickr Commons? At present only the Library of
Congress and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney are using Flickr Commons and
Flickr are still gauging demand for this - and the focus has initially been
on photos of historical interest [3]. But George Oakes from Flickr is
visiting the UK next month to speak at a museums conference at the
University of Leicester [4]. It does seem to me that this could be an
opportunity to explore the potential of UK Universities making use of this
service.
What do you think?
Thanks
Brian
1
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/sites-which-rip-off-marketing-vid
eos/
2 http://www.flickr.com/commons
3
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/01/17/flickr-commons-
mass-exposure-of-historical-images/
4 http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk/meetings/2-2008.shtml
--------------------------------
Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1225 383943
Web site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
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