Announcing STEM-Art: An Open Access Image Commission Project

in #steemstem6 years ago (edited)

Announcing STEM-Art: An Open Access Image Commission Project

As part of our continued mission to make STEEM a go-to source for high quality scientific communication with our commitment to the generation of open-access materials, today the @steemstem team is excited to present to you the #stem-art project.

What is STEM-Art and How is SteemSTEM involved?

Whether you are an amateur STEM blogger or STEM professional, you are likely very aware of the value that a good image brings when assembling a publication. The STEM-Art project looks to provide you with a way to have unique images generated according to your specific requirements - be that for your personal blog or for a scholarly publication/text book/lecture materials/etc, at no cost to you!

By connecting STEM enthusiasts directly with artists, we can turn a request into a visual reality.

However, there is one requirement for the art commissioning and generation process: Use of this service requires that the image generated be released to the public under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. This license ensures that everyone who would like to use the image in the future can do so - at no cost to them. This initiative is a win for the requesting user; they get a high quality, unique image for their upcoming work at no cost to themselves. It's a win for the artist; they get to continue to build their body of work and receive a STEEM reward. It's a win for users of the future; they now have access to one more high quality image that may benefit their works as well.

You're going to get tired of all the winning!

How do I Commission a Work and What are the Rules?

Works can be commissioned through direct communication with available artists in the #stem-art room in the SteemSTEM Discord Channel. Individuals who would like to commission an image should make a request for an artist to contact them via DM and give instructions on their expected time frame, image details and more. The artist then gets to work creating the commissioned image, which must include the steemstem.io watermark:

The SteemSTEM.io watermark must be added to all requested images in order to receive support from this initiative. The watermark at minumum should be set to 50% transparency and included in the image (as illustrated in most of the images here). The included SteemSTEM watermark must have at minimum the following dimensions (Dimensions). In addition to the inclusion of the watermark, participants in this initiative accept that their image will be released to the public under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license and included in @steemstem's compendium of open source images, which can be accessed here.

Upon completion of the work and publication of a STEEM post (requirements described below), the artist places a link to the post in the discord chat for curation by the SteemSTEM team, and notifies the requester that their image is ready. That's all there is to it!

How does the Work get Paid For?

Requests commissioned by users of the STEM-Art project will be published by the artist on the STEEM blockchain in a post displaying the work, indicating its release under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, and will include the #stem-art tag. The steemSTEM team highly reccomends that the artist set a 5% beneficiary status to @steemstem as well as an additional 5% beneficiary status to the requesting users steem account (beneficiaries can easily be added to any post published with https://www.steemstem.io). The artist's post will then be supported by @steemstem for their work generating the open-access STEM based image. Additional gratitude can be shown by the requester in the form of a STEEM/SBD tip to the artist as well if they so wish.

What Are The Long Term Goals of STEM-Art?

Long term, STEM-Art seeks to bring additional attention to STEEM through building an open-access database of public domain images, similar to what we have with sites such as https://www.pixabay.com, but with an emphasis on images with a STEM subject matter. We feel that the unique properties of the STEEM blockchain enable us to ensure generation of a large volume of high-quality images, which can be released freely for public consumption/use while simultaneously providing a reward to the artists who showcase their talents in the works, as well as serve as long term advertising for the blockchain.

Any interested Artists who would like to join the STEM-art project please feel free to reach out to the management team on the steemSTEM discord chat.

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Very innovate idea!

  1. Along with images (art), we can also ask for photos of say specific plants ?

For example, I found an local medicinal plant used for the treatment for jaundice used for the treatment of kidney stones in Mexico and US. From looking at the photos, I think they have slightly different colour. But I was surprised by the usage of this specific plant for medicinal purposes in India and in Mexico. Now I no expert in plants or anything - but there could be cases where someone is doing a research and they want to compare ?

  1. Long term discoverability and storage

IMHO something like wikipedia commons (if the license is compatible) a good choice for long term storage. That may get more "visibility" too.

So the issue with allowing photography, is that it puts significant extra burdeon on the team to vet the originiality of the photo.

Though I can see the usefulness in allowing such a thing. It's a good question and suggestion!

We are requiring the use of the CC BY 4.0 license (international open access, full reproduction with modification compatable, just original artist attribution needed) whichtely comparable with wiki's requirements.

I will try to look into depositing the images to wiki, this is another great suggestion.

Thanks @bobinson :)

So the issue with allowing photography, is that it puts significant extra burdeon on the team to vet the originiality of the photo.

After aggressively protecting photographs I took and shared under CC for many many years I changed my opinion on the copy right thing. I am generally fine if anyone uses a photograph of mine in any form for a good cause without giving any attribution.

Doubt: the originality of the digital art also will need to through the same scrutiny as that of photos ?

Well the way that we are setting this up, requires the art to be commissioned and generated (by a trusted artist, who is a part of the project) for a specific purpose. IE it is an original piece of work. Now in this context whether or not a part of that work is not usable is on the artist. The legal ramifications are not on steemstem. Additionally, even here we are not just accepting any user's work, unless said work was already published elsewhere under an open access license of course!

For a photograph, that is a bit more difficult. Its really hard for us to prove that someone took it them-self. It would be pretty easy to find some obscure photos online and post them as original work.

I am likely being overly paranoid.

I am likely being overly paranoid.

I am more more paranoid that you ... I am ready to have a wrestling/boxing fight with you and prove that if needed :-D

@steemstem, In my opinion, this will going to generate effective cycle of opportunity and exposure means, opportunity, service, database, Economy and most importantly marketing which is vital to raise the awareness and spreading the word of both Steemstem and Steem Blockchain. Keep up team, hope that this Initiative will be successful and will attain Fruition. Stay blessed.

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We hope so too!

Good wishes from my side. Have a great time ahead. 🙂

Yes, we hope a lot and do our best to make this happening! The future is close :)

Vibes are really awesome. Keep up and good wishes from side. Stay blessed.

Appreciated! Thank you!

Thank you and welcome. Have a great time ahead.

So beautiful pictures! Follow me I follow you and pls upvote!

:-P

Nah, great stuff indeed, much appreciated. Resteemed it.

I will think about it. Is the upvote bottom the one with the little red flag... Damned... I can't downvote on steemstem.io (well... yet). You are so lucky :D

Now it gets bigger and more broader to include a variety of talents. Where are the artist at? You are needed here :)

Awesome initiative. Go steemstem.

We are expanding on all sides! :D

Just like the big bang :)

Somehow... yes :D

Great idea. Collaboration is still the best way to grow the blockchain. This is apt and timely and will open up more users to the #Steemstem community.

Kudos!

As said in the other comment, we are trying to expand the project though several different aspects. This is one of them.

This is simply amazing. With time, we would have a one-stop gallery for any science image you may want to use for any science publication ... Yeah; this is attainable.
Kudos guys

I will use it for my next post. At least I will try.

omg omg omg, this is so cool! I love this project!

Me too! :D

Very good initiative and a giant step in the right direction. Kudos to everyone involved.

We extend as we can, i.e. everywhere ;)

This project sounds great. Having @steemstem support the artist's work is should hopefully be enough incentive to get things moving!

Its worth a try at least. How's your sleep?

Better than I was expecting, but the kid is still waking us up 3-4 times a night

Ugh. I can only imagine how tough it is.

I have just try to order a picture for my next post. Let's see whether it works :)

I was wondering when will such project start on Steem, as we all know that all good photos are not free for use :)
Congrats guys, great idea!

Thanks, hopefully people will make some requests for the artists and help in the construction of more open source images.

The answer is thus: it is currently starting (for a few weeks already :p).