Group items tagged

Originally shared by Julia Hollins on 15 Jul 13. The original post was removed and this one shared instead, due to technical issue with the original post. This site provides free music, photos and videos. The second criterion is it had to be a repository. Repositories are large storage spaces for indexing, retrieving and managing visual information. The user may find a database using any of the text-based meta-search engines. These were extremely helpful in locating the three sources used for evaluation. The third criterion used to evaluate online video and photo repositories was whether or not the content progressed into developing a visual information retrieval system. Some of the methods for retrieving digital images and videos were easier than others. Some queries used features such as colors, textures, shapes, motions and spatiotemporal compositions (Chang, Smith, Beigi, & Benitez, 1997). Lastly, the fourth criterion used to evaluate the online photo repositories was whether it had multimedia features. The repository databases classify information according to the domains that use them. For example, online repositories used by museums, libraries, archives and photo stock differ by the following features: 1) automation, 2) abstraction, 3) content collection, and 4) generability and categorization.

Users of this site should be advised that resources are royalty free. Please check the legal details on the following page: http://www.pond5.com/legal/

This online database contains very high-quality "Public Domain," "Copyright-Free" photographs that are easily accessible from 10 different category divisions on the "Gallery Index" page; Abstract, Architecture & Cityscapes, Food & Drinks, Industrial & Machinery, Miscellaneous, Nature, Sports & Recreation, Technology, Textures & Backgrounds, and Travel. In the "Terms of Use" statements, the creators state that "Picdrome.com is a growing Public Domain digital photography collection, free of copyright and licensed under Creative Commons…all images are free to download for personal, educational and commercial use, without restriction." They also advise users to check the "Disclaimer" statement link regarding any additional licenses; however, in the disclaimer statement there didn't appear to be any other restrictions listed. Students in upper Elementary school through High school would be able to easily navigate and download these photographs that were relevant to project work they were completing. For example, my Middle School students would greatly benefit from the close-up photos of food from all of the food groups in this repository, when they complete "Family & Consumer Science" class projects that present visual examples of nutritionally balanced menus. The only problematic portion of the website is the banner advertisement located directly below the title/search box and right above the category links…it often advertises products and sites that require purchasing but, the banner looks so much like the website heading that it is easily clicked on by "mistake." Educators would need to forewarn students of this obstacle before giving them free reign of the site's valuable images.