Help Wanted: Join APOD Image Chasers Group
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:25 pm
Did you ever want to help APOD out? One thing APOD could use, on occasion, is the explicit rights to use an image that is floating around the Internet. Sometimes, it is very difficult to find an image copyright owner and secure permission to use that image, for free, on APOD. Many times, to find such information takes time, Internet savvy, and even luck.
One recent example of this was a quest to find the copyright owner and secure image permissions for a image taken of the space shuttle Endeavour launching. A discussion of that is here: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=23693 . Here is another: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22839 . And another: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=20712 . And another: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20036 . So there is a precedence for this kind of chase on the Asterisk, with some images being found, and others not.
To help out please go to the bottom of this Asterisk page and click the "Subscribe topic" box. You will then get an email whenever anyone makes a new post to this topic. I plan to do this next when I see an image for which I request tracking help. I think this will be a better plan than before, but time will tell.
I ask that people joining this "Image Chasers Group" adhere to several rules. First, as always, be polite. If turned down -- so be it. Next, please post even trivial or incremental progress you have made here in reply to this post. This may reduce the amount of redundant work that other APOD image chasers may be doing, and possibly point fellow chasers in the direction of the true bottleneck(s). Next, don't post someone's private information on the Asterisk if it looks like they want that information to remain private. Rather just post here that you found such information. Last, never offer to pay for an image.
The ultimate goal is to have the real image copyright owner send RJN an email (at email address nemiroff at mtu dot edu) explicitly granting APOD the right to post the image to APOD. Sometimes, an image will lose its appeal -- "go stale" -- if this process takes too long. A good intermediate goal is to just post a link that enables RJN (or JTB) to send the image copyright owner an image permissions request on behalf of APOD.
Unfortunately, APOD offers no compensation for your efforts. Anyone who helps will gain the relatively useless gratitude of the APOD staff, and possibly the once removed but usually anonymous gratitude of the many APOD readers who are able to enjoy a cool image because of your efforts.
- RJN
One recent example of this was a quest to find the copyright owner and secure image permissions for a image taken of the space shuttle Endeavour launching. A discussion of that is here: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=23693 . Here is another: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22839 . And another: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=20712 . And another: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20036 . So there is a precedence for this kind of chase on the Asterisk, with some images being found, and others not.
To help out please go to the bottom of this Asterisk page and click the "Subscribe topic" box. You will then get an email whenever anyone makes a new post to this topic. I plan to do this next when I see an image for which I request tracking help. I think this will be a better plan than before, but time will tell.
I ask that people joining this "Image Chasers Group" adhere to several rules. First, as always, be polite. If turned down -- so be it. Next, please post even trivial or incremental progress you have made here in reply to this post. This may reduce the amount of redundant work that other APOD image chasers may be doing, and possibly point fellow chasers in the direction of the true bottleneck(s). Next, don't post someone's private information on the Asterisk if it looks like they want that information to remain private. Rather just post here that you found such information. Last, never offer to pay for an image.
The ultimate goal is to have the real image copyright owner send RJN an email (at email address nemiroff at mtu dot edu) explicitly granting APOD the right to post the image to APOD. Sometimes, an image will lose its appeal -- "go stale" -- if this process takes too long. A good intermediate goal is to just post a link that enables RJN (or JTB) to send the image copyright owner an image permissions request on behalf of APOD.
Unfortunately, APOD offers no compensation for your efforts. Anyone who helps will gain the relatively useless gratitude of the APOD staff, and possibly the once removed but usually anonymous gratitude of the many APOD readers who are able to enjoy a cool image because of your efforts.
- RJN
