[Clipart] clipart Digest, Vol 62, Issue 25

chovynz chovynz at gmail.com
Fri May 22 19:36:38 PDT 2009


My question is, What is the point of having an externalsource tag without
the location? If you really want, I can provide numerous examples from the
current OCAL site. People use the External Source Submit form without
thinking, or without filling it in with the external source material.

You and Papahishu are the exceptions that I know of. You guys actually put
effort into your clipart uploads, and that is awesome. It does mean you have
to know HMTL links, or copy and paste into the description, or even where to
find the info. What I'm suggesting here is that we use some fields that we
already have, and put them to good use, instead of lumping all info into the
description.

This idea means clipart is uploaded as normal, and the uploader gets credit
for doing so. But if someone makes a "trackback", a feature not available on
the OCAL site at the moment, - a sighting of where the clipart is used,
AND/OR where the clipart comes from (in your case you'd probably use it lots
for Wikipedia Commons, or the mentioned pdfs),  then the information is
collated and displayed automatically. They are stored separated to the
clipart description. It means they can be sorted, searched and reproduced,
and inserted later on, if we implement trackback/externalsource features or
Metadata insertion. Having this data will enable research on who uses the
clipart, and how.

I'm approaching this from the POV of easiest usability for General Public,
not people who know HTML, or are proper in attribution methods.
i.e for my grandmother who is not computer or internet savvy. She would
upload, but not know to put the source in the description (current use), nor
would she know any HTML to make the link "pretty". If she used the external
sources form then the only thing that gets added is externalsources tag,
with no location. I'm suggesting we come from the other way.

If someone uploads a clipart, it's usually considered "original". If they or
someone else in the future makes a trackback, then the externalsource tag
gets added to the clipart, and all the relevant info is stored, ready for
regurgitation when needed.

Not much changes on the external. This has copy and paste, that has copy and
paste. Part of what what I'm suggesting is separation of good information
from descriptions (like original author, locations clipart is used, external
sources where this clipart is from.) Another part is attempting to use
something that we already have the facilities for. We have trackback
facilities; lets use them. This is one way I can think of, for using them.

In everything I suggest, it may mean initial work or re-training, but in the
end, the work is easier for everyone; Joe Public, Members, Librarians, and
Admins alike. I'm not trying to make Web 2.0 OCAL, but better OCAL
usability, ready for the future users. I hope you'll give this idea serious
consideration.


On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 12:37 PM, John Olsen <johnny_automatic at mac.com>wrote:

>
> On May 22, 2009, at 5:23 PM, clipart-request at lists.freedesktop.org
> wrote:
>
> > Message: 5
> > Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 12:23:35 +1200
> > From: chovynz <chovynz at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [Clipart] BETA OCAL: External sources/trackbacks visual
> >       concept and     ideas
> > To: "clipart at lists.freedesktop.org" <clipart at lists.freedesktop.org>,
> >       Michael Krnac <michaelkrnac at googlemail.com>,    Victor
> >       <fourstones.net at gmail.com>
> > Message-ID:
> >       <9fc7fe2a0905221723x39c0164er2c615e6b05cf1c5c at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> > For the Beta site, I have an idea for using trackbacks as a more
> > comprehensive "External Sources."
> > Please refer to the attached visual concept and continue reading.
> >
> > Idea Summary: Use Trackbacks as an External Sources form/data/
> > information.
> >
> >
> > Suggested procedure for external sourced clipart: Upload the clipart
> > as a
> > normal one, via the Upload page. After it's uploaded, use the
> > Trackback/External Sources Javascript found underneath the clipart
> > in the
> > gallery view, to generate the external sources info.
> >
> >
>
>
> Who are these people who currently do not add links or info on where
> their art came from, that will do so with the proposed system?  Take
> my workflow.  I often go to Archive.org, find a suitable PDF of a book
> with good images.  Then I use photoshop and Illustrator to make SVG
> files of the original art from the books.  Sometimes its months before
> I get to the book, but when I do I have the PDF and can glean the
> title,author etc. from there.  But this is effort on my end.  If
> someone isn't keeping track of this then there is no way to deduce
> where these submissions come from.  I may be missing something here,
> but it seems that this is just an elaborate replacement for those of
> us already doing it.  For me, finding the actual link in Archive.org
> is a lot harder than just putting the original publishing info that
> proves it's PD into the submission data.  Now for the recent clipart I
> just uploaded I could put the website for the coloring book it came
> from, and I did.  Is the whole point of this just to save one copy and
> paste action?
>
> John Olsen
> _______________________________________________
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> clipart at lists.freedesktop.org
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/clipart
>



-- 
Cheers
Chovynz
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