Flickr is a great resource for finding photos, as Deviantart is for finding other forms of digital art.

A problem with Flickr is that unless the uploader says differently all rights are presumed reserved. Though it is worth notice that unlike many services, Flickr has quite good Creative Commons – but lacks support of the public domain or licenses such as the GFDL.

Wikimedia Commons is a wiki which is ran by Wikimedia
(who run the Wikipedia). The wiki allows media to be uploaded and shared. It is then available to be used in most, if not all, Wikimedia projects.

Images and any other media can be given a description (which anyone can edit) and can be added to categories and galleries hosted at the Commons. Also, it can be included in Wikimedia projects. Media can be uploaded other an already present image, while the old editions are still available; this allows a version system to be created.

A benefit of the Commons from a tech perspective is that only one copy of a file needs to exist for all Wikimedia projects. This saves an images existing on, let’s say, both the English and French Wikipedia – and this makes a more efficient use of diskspace.

The benefit to the user is that not only are there more files than there are on the English language Wikipedia, but it allows people to find free (libre) media through searches, categories and galleries – which is much more effective than the Wikipedia. Also, not all images on the Commons are used – but all should be discoverable.

Currently there’s 552,000 files on the Commons. In my view, this is quite a lot – especially considering you can redistribute many (on your own pages, for example).

Amongst photos, you have numerous vector images and incons, which are generally used in open-source software such as a Linux desktop environment. I imagine this is useful for a web or graphics designer!

The last point I want to make is Wikimedia Commons‘ strict approach to copyright. You can’t copy media from another site unless it is explicitly states that the file’s under a compatible license. Also, unlike the English Wikipedia, fair use images cannot be used. Any images or media which breach these rules will be deleted!

Tags: images, image, wiki, photos, graphics, photography, wikipedia, wikimedia, wikimedia commons, media, opensource, open-source