SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE: USING WIKIMEDIA COMMONS TO DISSEMINATE GEOPHOTOGRAPHY

Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org) is an image repository that supports Wikipedia and provides users with a searchable database of thousands of geoscience-related images. Most of these images can be reused for any purpose provided that proper attribution is given and that derivative works can be similarly reused. Images housed on Wikimedia Commons appear in the results for major search engines, particularly if the image is properly titled, captioned, and categorized. Perhaps even more importantly, anyone can integrate these images into Wikipedia articles - one of the most widely used information sources for students and the general public.

Images can be showcased on a user page and/or a category gallery within Wikimedia Commons. My relatively modest collection of teaching images has been used in association with numerous Wikipedia articles, web pages, print publications, and educational materials. Noteworthy recent uses include textbooks (Tarbuck and Lutgens, Earth, 11^th ed.; Prothero and Schwab, Sedimentary Geology, 3^rd ed.), online educational materials (Norton’s Smartwork questions for Marshak, Portrait of a Planet, 4^th ed.), an educational iPad app (Back in Time), books by scientific publishers (Springer’s Im Fokus: Bodenschätze), and educational web pages (The Smithsonian’s Q?rius website; Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program’s Blue Green Algae in Missouri website; SEPM’s STRATA web page). Addittionally, I have received numerous email requests from individual asking about field trip destinations and literature relevant to the images.

The surprising uptake of my image collection demonstrates that the geoscience community needs increased access to quality geologic images that can be reused without complex copyright clearance and/or expensive fees. Geophotography contributions to Wikimedia Commons can help fill this need.