The Commons

The wildly popular photo-sharing site, Flickr recently announced a new initiative of interest to historians: The Commons - a unique attempt to expand public history and technology. They debuted with two Library of Congress photo sets and the promise of more.

The appeal for historians, as stated on LoC Blog:

The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

Flickr promises that more cultural institutions will be joining up in the future - using perhaps their new designation for copyright:"No Known Copyright Restrictions". Intriguing possibilities....