Thanks Sue, Actually, my last comment was saying e...

2009-07-29T19:39:25.231+12:00

Thanks Sue,
Actually, my last comment was saying exactly that - i.e it was 'rude' that Wikimedia took the 3000 images in the first place without some kind of rep dialogue.
The issue is already heading to be a key case study to the GLAM Wiki session in Canberra next week.
See
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/GLAM

It's debatable whether the NPG's return on...

2009-07-29T18:00:44.267+12:00

It's debatable whether the NPG's return on investment in its high res photography & digitisation will increase or decrease as a result of being on Wikimedia, i.e. increase as a result of being more easily visible, findable and more people requesting more high res reproductions, or decrease as a result of being more visible etc because they will be satisfied with the low res/low quality image. The technology appears to allow anyone to help themeselves to an image of whatever resolution and change it into a lower or higher resolution, so that's fighting a losing battle.

Overall, what is the purpose of digitisation? access? preservation? revenue generation?

The reality is that it costs lots of money to both digitise and preserve something properly to a high quality, so I think it's important that the NPG receives full attribution and credit for it's images even if they are in the public domain ie out of copyright(It's hard to tell if the wikimedia website does this). The NPG is contributing to the greater creation of new knowledge by making its content available on its website this way. Access has become everything these days (see the threats on the wikimedia website to put all the NPG content at full res on bittorrent), but really access is not everything, it's the context which is important also, and the NPG website excels at that in terms of its learning, research and 'beyond the gallery' programmes - no other website or point of access is ever going to match that.
PS: in relation to your Postscript, I think it's 'rude' that wikimedia took the 3000 images in the first place - scrapping them off wikimedia is nowhere near as rude.

Comments on P E O P L E P O I N T S: Wikimedia Commons - National Portrait Gallery - Bl...

Thanks Sue, Actually, my last comment was saying e...

It's debatable whether the NPG's return on...