http://www.flickr.com/photos/scouttwentynine/4968998806/sizes/o/in/photosof-jimforest
Jim, Nancy & the Dutch national library
A story about 3 explorers
Hallo, my name is Olaf Janssen
I’m a product developer at KB, the national library of the Netherlands
in The Hague
Photo: Olaf Janssen
These are my colleagues…
Source: KB intranet
Source: KB intranet
Every day we give our best…
... because we are on a mission...
http://kb.nl/bst/beleid/missie.html
http://kb.nl/bst/beleid/missie.html
Our mission is:
Bring people and information together
Our mission is:
Bring people and information together
http://kb.nl/bst/beleid/missie.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_Archive_book_scanner_1.jpg
Does converting paper into bits & bytes bring people and information together?
Does storing these bits & bytes bring people and information together?
(Foto: KB - Jacqueline van der Kort)
We “offer” They consume
Does “broadcasting” these bits & bytes bring people and information together?
Slide: @mpedson
Bringing together, according to me, is all about creating, or at least facilitating dialogue
Flickr: alexbcthompson
Flickr: alexbcthompson
Bringing together, according to me, is all about creating, or at least facilitating dialogue
Dialogue is about communicating two ways
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two-people-talking-logo.jpg
Dialogue is about listening to each other
Flickr: rthakrar
Dialogue is about sharing information
Flickr: furiousgeorge81
Dialogue is about learning from each other
http://youthinarts.org/blog/2011/04
Back to the mission & vision of the KB …
I noticed the WHY is missing ...
(the WHY touches the soul of any organisation *)
* http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
WHY
does the KB want to bring people and information
together???
Just a bet:
“Because we believe our written cultural heritage is so wonderful we want to show it to as
many people as possible”
?!
My best personal bet:
”Because ultimately people want to know who they are. For that they explore their histories &
origins.
We want to help them in discovering & understanding their worlds”
!!
Example: people wanting to find out about
THE MIDDLE AGES
(in Europe)
http://kb.nl/galerie/middeleeuwen/onderwijs-en.html
Question:
Where do people go to learn about
medieval times?
http://kb.nl/galerie/middeleeuwen/onderwijs-en.html
Some would start here …
Some would start here …
Because KB has wonderful medieval objects online …
http://kb.nl/galerie/middeleeuwen/onderwijs-en.html
Flickr: jimforest
and onsite.
(and the expertise about it!)
Many would start here …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages
Or here.
But there are more ways to learn about medieval times…
Flickr: jimforest
But there are more ways to learn about medieval times…
Flickr: jimforest
This photo was taken in the KB by a certain Jim Forest (?)
But there are more ways to learn about medieval times…
This is Jim Forest .. and this is Nancy, his wife
This is Jim Forest .. and this is Nancy, his wife
aaa
Originally from the US, they now live in the town of Alkmaar, the
Netherlands
(which is all about canals & Dutch cheese)
Jim & Nancy have a tremendous zest for life, and life-long learning.
They document this in photos …
to share with their friends & family back home in the US…
... and with us.
They share nearly 23,600 (!) images in public sets …
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=1
about every possible interest in their
lives…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=1
Mermaids
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=1
Auschwitz
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=1
Stanley Spencer…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=1
Paris…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=1
Cats…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=4
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=4
Jim & Nancy, like most other people, have amazingly diverse interests!
Finding out about these worlds is all about making connections, it’s an exploration, a collage
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/?&page=4
Jim & Nancy, like most other people, have amazingly diverse interests!
Finding out about these worlds is all about making connections, it’s an exploration, a collage
This is important, I’ll come back to this later!
Jim & Nancy are also interested in finding out about the Middle Ages
(!)
These are some of the photos taken by Jim & Nancy with “medieval” in the
description
In 2005 Jim & Nancy visited the KB
… where they learned about medieval manuscripts.
They shared that learning experience with the rest of the world (= these photos & annotations)
Jim has also bookmarked photos taken by other Flickr-photographers.
These include medieval objects as well.
Like this one ... A painting from 13th century Spain
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/in/photostream
This photo is part of a collection named “The Cloisters” (?)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
(yes, indeed, there it is!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
The Cloisters is apparently a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, New York, USA. They curate a lot of European medieval art & architecture
(I did not know that before making this presentation)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
Please note: all these photos were taken by enthusiastic amateur photographers, they are not “official images” from the MetMA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
There are some excellent objects here…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2152112595/in/set-72157601070709853/
He looks pretty fit for his age (700)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2152112595/in/set-72157601070709853/
(he looks pretty fit for his age – 730 yrs)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
The photographer has been so kind to mention the unique object-ID used by the museum.
We can now go to the museum website to find out more …
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2152112595/in/set-72157601070709853/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2152112595/in/set-72157601070709853/
The photographer has been so kind to provide the unique object ID of the museum.
We can go to the museum site to find out more ….
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/70018085
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/sets/72157601070709853/?page=2
More interestingly, other people have spontaneously included this image in a collaborative open group about “Middle ages in Europe”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2152112595/in/set-72157601070709853/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/middle_age_in_europe/
(by the way, this group is just 1 of 100s of Flickr-groups related to the Middle Ages. Together these groups have 10,000s of
members)
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?w=all&q=medieval+europe
http://www.flickr.com/groups/middle_age_in_europe/
2.229 people from all over the world are members of this particular group!
They have organised themselves into
Capitani di venturas Attendenti en Compagnias
http://www.flickr.com/groups/middle_age_in_europe/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/middle_age_in_europe/
They have organised themselves into
Capitani di venturas Attendenti en Compagnias
?
They have organised themselves into
Capitani di venturas Attendenti en Compagnias
They have organised themselves into
Capitani di venturas Attendenti en Compagnias
(this is about war lords & mercenaries in medieval Italy)
(I did not know that either before
making this presentation)
http://www.flickr.com/groups/middle_age_in_europe/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/middle_age_in_europe/
Collaboratively the members of this group have shared over 35,000 (!) photos of European
medieval objects between them, and the rest of the
world!
Some of them are really…
suprising!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luigistrano/6164541445/
Others are quite…
medieval!
(this looks brutally medieval, I
wonder what kind of dark place that Castle of Milazzo
is)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luigistrano/6164541445/
This photo was taken on September 17, 2011 in Milazzo, Sicily, Italy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luigistrano/6164541445/
This map give us access to other photos that
were taken in (or around) Milazzo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luigistrano/6164541445/
Over 1,400 photos were taken by Flickr
members…
Unfortunately, the photos here are not
really useful to help us get an idea what kind of place the castle really
is…
But hey, we can also check out Google Maps !
(zooming in…)
(zooming in more…)
In Google Maps you can trigger a layer with photos taken by people all across the world
This is possible because users of another photo sharing service,
Panoramio, allow their photos to be visible in Google Maps. Thanks to them you and I can look around
Milazzo…
This image could well be the castle…
Thanks to the Panoramio volunteers we can get a pretty
good idea what the Dark Castle looks like
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/in/photostream
So far for the castle..
Let’s go back to Jim’s favourite image
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/
The photographer has been so kind to add tags to this photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/in/photostream
This tagging is a form of cataloguing, done by the public, on their own initiative
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/2163082112/in/photostream
Tagging connects this single photo to the rest of the world…
This tagging is a form of cataloguing, done by the public, on their own initiative
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/gothic/?page=5
505,385 images tagged “gothic” have been
shared by Flickr-users…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/gothic/?page=5
(on the KB site I only found ± 35)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/gothic/?page=5
Let’s look at this one...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spikeybwoy/7250193520/
Medieval stained glass
from St. Martin’s cathedral in Ypres,
Belgium
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spikeybwoy/7250193520/
(Isn’t this beautiful? You probably wonder what the rest of the
church looks like…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9tpV0airxU
We are lucky an altruistic person shot a
Youtube clip in the cathedral.
Thanks to him we can have a look around the
church.
Enough about stained glass…
Let’s go back to Jim & Nancy …
Just like in real life, they made some friends on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/people/jimforest/contacts/?filter=&page=3
These are some of their 139 friends
http://www.flickr.com/people/jimforest/contacts/?filter=&page=3
Let’s check out “Lawrence OP”
http://www.flickr.com/people/paullew/
A priest from Kuala Lumpur .. interesting
http://www.flickr.com/people/paullew/
Lawrence is a priest from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ..
Lawrence is also very much into medieval objects …
So far he posted 784 photos with “medieval” in the description
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=35409814@N00&q=medieval#page=3
Because Jim & Lawrence are direct friends on Flickr, Jim gets automatic
notifications when Lawrence has uploaded new photos
Like this medieval statue for instance…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/6222458554/
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
Remember how I told you learing is about making connections, an exploration, a collage ?
If you ask me, this is learning
If you ask me, this is learning, all done without central authority or coordination!
And the question now is not how institutions like KB can compete against all this …
…but how we can help people like Jim & Nancy to explore and understand their world
And the question now is not how institutions like KB can compete against all this …
… thus to create and facilitate dialogue between people
… and between generations
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/5511802582/in/set-72157627302719120
Thank you very much! (*)
Olaf Janssen
KB, the national library of the Netherlands
(*) and a big thanks to Michael Edson (@mpedson)
Director of Web and New Media Strategy of the Smithsonian Institution
This presentation builds upon hisAn outside-in look at the National WWII Museum