AmateurSpaceImages.com, A site to gather great amateur-processed space images Options

[elakdawalla]

I can't believe I haven't started a dedicated thread on this before now!! I wanted to open a discussion on the Planetary Society's plans to develop a website called AmateurSpaceImages.com, a place that will collect amateur-processed space images into one place that is easy to browse and search for great pictures, and from which you'll be able to share them easily via social networks. The organization of the site will be based on Photojournal, which is itself based on the way the PDS structures space data -- all images will be filed under the "target" and "mission" and "instrument," plus there will be image titles, captions, and correct credits; plus there'll be tags and a search feature. The site is currently under development and is planned for launch early next year (hopefully March, if the schedule doesn't slip). We're now raising funds from the community to support its development.

Some of you have been emailing me privately with questions; I think it'd be neater (and less effort for me ) to have that discussion in the open, on this thread. If for some reason you'd like your question to be anonymous, you can email me and I'll post it here. Since this is a website we are creating especially for the community that has grown up in and around UMSF, I hope you will participate in its formation!

[Juramike]

Since I'm one of the private e-mailers mentioned above (and a potential financial backer), I'll post my questions out in the open:

How will the images be selected?  (open submission, single admin, or
panel of judges, or invite only?)

Submitted only from UMSF members? Or non-UMSF members as well?

Is the initial start up fee ($5400) a one-time deal?  Or will there
be an annual maintenance fee as well?

Finally, how will this be significantly different from a flickr group pool?

[elakdawalla]

How will the images be selected?  (open submission, single admin, or panel of judges, or invite only?)

Anyone will be able to submit an image through a form, from which they'll also be asked to provide information about the image including title, caption with information about what processing was done, data processing credit, and information on target/instrument etc.

Submissions will be vetted by a moderation team that will likely overlap significantly with, but will not be identical to, the unmannedspaceflight.com moderation team. It would be better if we had a few more moderators lined up -- please send me an email or PM to volunteer. Only one moderator need OK an image. Our goal is to make a pretty large image database that will be easy to search; moderators will be instrumental in making sure that images are correctly tagged and credited before they are allowed to go live.

Submitted only from UMSF members? Or non-UMSF members as well?

Anybody! AmateurSpaceImages is a project inspired by UMSF and both will be financially administered by the Planetary Society; they're regarded as being part of the same project. However, there will be no direct relationship between UMSF membership and AmateurSpaceImages submission (so I hope that some of the good image processors who've gotten booted out of this website for rules violations will share their stuff at AmateurSpaceImages). Also, the Society will use the same server to host UMSF and AmateurSpaceImages.

Is the initial start up fee ($5400) a one-time deal?  Or will there be an annual maintenance fee as well?

That start-up fee is a one-time deal for design and development. There will be costs associated with the hosting but they'll be an increment on top of what we pay already for the dedicated UMSF server (we just need to expand the storage space). Next year when I pass the hat for UMSF I'll be raising funds for both.

Finally, how will this be significantly different from a flickr group pool?

Mainly in the site's organization around space image targets, instruments, and missions, which will hopefully make it easy to browse as well as search because of its specificity to the subject matter. Also I wanted a destination, a dedicated gallery. And I wanted it to be moderated, both to establish a quality bar and to make sure that credits are correct -- both for the data and for the processing. The tools for social network sharing will generate code that includes a credit line. I'm very insistent about this part because I know how sensitive both the data producers and the data processors are about making sure that credit is given where it's due.