Panning photo of Nicolas Sarkozy at a political rallye in Toulouse

Some months ago, I was asked permission to reuse one of my photos of Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French President, that I had taken during his rallye in Toulouse. The photo was printed on the cover of a newsletter issued by think tank in London called the Stockholm Network. They contacted me via flickr but I told them to credit me via Wikimedia Commons instead, where the photos also were.

I am now being contacted by someone working for Community Connection News Magazine, “a minority print media publication company based out of Milwaukee, WI and serving the tri-state area” who’s interested in a picture of school bus from Québec.

School bus in Québec

The lady emailed me through flickr and asked permission to use photos from my gallery there. She was quite astonished when I told her about Wikimedia Commons offering more than 1.8 million free media files.

Eventually, flickr may help Commons to get some attention. Teachers and librarians, who are always very doubtful about Wikipedia, usually love the idea of a free media repository where they can pick media for their courses or to where they can send their students without risking that they copy/paste articles full of errors. Commons may be the next coolest project, as soon as developers find the time to improve its usability to make it more user-friendly and more “2.0“.