There needed to be more of a destination for the community to gather so that the community could get to know each other and for the Library of Congress staff to get to know the community… forming relationships.

Well, the Flickr community launched a Flickr Group dedicated to discussing the photos that had been contributed to the common, which is AWESOME but it didn’t stop there.

Members of the community have recently launch Indicommons, a blog which dives even further into the photos and the institutions which posted them.

If like me, the Flickr Commons project and it’s photos has captured your imagination.  I’d definitely think that this blog is a must read.

These two are my favorites:

As my long time readers know, I acquired a love for the institution of the Library of Congress during my tenure as a contractor for their Web Services division.

I had the pleasure (and honor) of being on the team that helped kick off the Library of Congress’ foray into the world of Flickr.

Well this week the project team issued a 50 page report detailing its success, (which in and of it self is cool because typically the Library has kept these internal reports pretty close to the chest.)

Here are some deets:

• “As of October 23, 2008, there have been 10.4 million views of the photos on Flickr.
• 7,166 comments were left on 2,873 photos by 2,562 unique Flickr accounts.
• 67,176 tags were added by 2,518 unique Flickr accounts.
• More than 500 Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) records have been  enhanced with new information provided by the Flickr Community.
• Average monthly visits to all PPOC Web pages rose 20% over the five month period  of January-May 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.”

It’s so cool to see this project reach such unparalleled success.  I’m going to write more about my thoughts about it later but I just want to encourage you all to read the report.  It’s fascinating to hear about a government project that used Web 2.0 be so successful.

Here are thoughts from DCist and Thomas Hawk.

This week the Library of Congress has uploaded another batch of great photos to their Flickr account.  The one above of Capt. Von Krosigk especially caught my eye.

What else is cool is that someone has already commented that the photo might match up with a 1901 New York Times article.

This is kind of stuff that makes me REALLY excited about the Web.

This one is of guys tearing up the floor at the chamber of the House of Representatives at the US Capitol building.

This one is a great drawing of Grand Central Station in NYC.

This one is of a Greek church service for King George in NY.

I found this photo in the recent upload of Library of Congress photos to Flickr.  I thought it was pretty cool so I figured I would share it with you all.

It’s entitled “Where Wilson ‘will be’ sworn in, East Front of Capitol.”

Considering before too long we’ll be inaugurating a new president, I thought the photo was fun and appropriate.

Plus I think it also displays the little known fact that up until recently that the inauguration happened on the East side of the Capital and not the West side like we do it today.

In the article, they give an update on the success of the project for the Library of Congress…

Six months into the project, the library has been able to update 500 photo records with new information provided by Flickr users — everything from names of people and places in photographs to specific airplane models shown in photos, says Helena Zinkham, acting chief of the Prints and Photographs Division.

And go on to say…

Both partners call the project a success. The photos have garnered 8.2 million views and 5,000 comments, and The Commons has attracted five other institutions: The Powerhouse Museum in Australia, the Toulouse Library in France, the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

8.2 million views.  Holy crap man!  That’s a lot.

I hope that you all will subscribe to the Library’s photos.  They’re adding more all the time.  Plus, keep tagging  and adding info to them.   This way more folks will be able to find them and enjoy them.

By the way, here’s one of the cool photos that the Library recently put on Flickr: