Monday, August 12, 2013

What #Commons can learn from #Shutterstock


When you are in need for an #illustration you can find it at Shutterstock. When you are willing to contribute illustration to a project like Wikipedia or Wikivoyage, you can do that at Commons.

At Shutterstock they have over 25 million images and at Commons there are almost 18 million images. With such big numbers finding the perfect image is a serious problem. Shutterstock is optimised for finding images; it pays their rent.

Arguably, Commons has a much better coverage of subjects both in time and in geography. Try Kiribati for instance..


The reason why Shutterstock is worth billions of dollars is because people download images and use them for their purpose. As far as I am aware the Wikimedia Foundation does not know how often an image is downloaded from Commons.

There are so many reasons why Commons could be much more relevant. Relevance comes with use and people will use Commons when they can find their perfect picture.
Thanks,
      GerardM

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