Curated Commons/picsome: Start of the beta phase!

Since May we have been working on the prototype, developed three iterations and were able to test them intensively with the help of our volunteer testers – many thanks for your support!

For those of you who are interested in the technical side of things, there will soon be a blog entry here that offers a comprehensive look into our “engine room” with some of the challenges, options and decisions that have kept us busy over the past few weeks.

A number of other things have happened, such as the renaming of the application: Curated Commons has become picsome. So the packaging is new, but the content remains the same.

We would like to invite everyone interested to test picsome on their own in a closed beta phase before it goes public. Since the first step is a closed beta phase, the application is behind a password that has to be entered when visiting the website. The password is given to everyone who fills out our short questionnaire.

Our goal is to learn as much as possible from the test phase: How is the application received? Does it prove itself in everyday life by simplifying the handling of freely licensed images?

Although picsome is still a prototype, there is already a lot to discover – and everything can be tried out! For inspiration, here is a small overview of functions that are already available:

Check images with the license checker
The built-in license checker currently supports CC-licensed images from Wikimedia Commons and from Flickr (other repositories are to follow). Image URLs from these two platforms can be entered into the license checker, which then shows how images can be used in a license-compliant way.

Create collections and add images to collections
picsome already supports the creation of collections. All created collections can be found and viewed (but not yet edited) by other users.

Logged in users can add images to their own collections if they could either be found via the built-in search or analyzed via the license checker.

Add tags to images and collections
Images can be tagged to make them easier to find in the search and to link images together.

If you would prefer to try out the beta version in a guided test scenario, you are welcome to sign up for User Testing. In these approximately 30 to 45 minute video interviews (online), we test the application together and there is ample opportunity for feedback.

We are happy to answer all questions regarding beta testing in a personal meeting. For this purpose, 15-minute appointments can be arranged with us via Calendly every Tuesday. Of course we can also be reached by mail at picsome@wikimedia.de.

picsome is a prototype. There will be some hiccups here and there, some features are either not fully available or not available at all yet. For example, many search queries will also not yet receive curated search results.

However, no need to be discouraged: The more images are collected and tagged, the more collections are created, the better the search (and picsome) will become for everyone over time. All contributions during the test phase will remain and form the foundation of picsome!

So: Let’s test! And many, many thanks in advance for the support!!!

Team picsome