LIveblogging Webwise Day 2, second session continued

Next up: Shelley Berstein

How Brooklyn Museum's community mission is enhanced by their use of Flickr. Started to use it simply to post pictures of a graffiti exhibit- then have gradually expanded to panels, behind the scenes pictures of exhibit installations. Have grown the platform and opened it up to more and more participation- users and visitors can post their own photos to the Museum's group, and museum staff respond to user submissions and promote debate.

Brooklyn were the third institution to participate in the Flickr Commons, sharing images from their library and archives with the Flickr community globally, and waiving their rights to the images. The DE archives could do similar projects- in fact had worked on a non-digital participatory exhibit last year where attendees could submit comments and information about a touring exhibit of pictures that the Archives did not have a great deal of information (metadata) about.

Brooklyn's participation in the Commons ran into trouble because of popularity became so great that institutional resources could not keep up with the information and requests of the community. Flickr users formed a group independent of the museum to service the collection and deal with inquiries and enhancements. User participation made the project become a much more valuable resource both for the public and the Museum. The internet is a collection of monomaniacal obsessives, and that is something that Wikipedia and many other websites leverage to their own advantage.

Brooklyn's particular motivation that inspires their use of Flickr is the institutional value of community service and engagement. Their priority is local and community engagement, rather than just exhibition and pageviews.