- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 2 weeks, 2 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Is there a central repository for Astronomy outreach event material. I suspect societies are creating their own material and wondered if there is a place they are stored so good ideas could be shared and reused. Activities, PowerPoint presentations etc.
As far as I know, there isn’t any such repository. We have discussed setting one up in the past, but unfortunately it’s always been one of those lovely ideas which is really hard to put into practice.
Many of the people who give really good PowerPoint presentations are very reluctant to share their slides in an editable format. This is understandable because of the risk that other people will then introduce content that the original author does not condone, and then redistribute the slides with the original author’s name appearing to be associated with some nonsense about supermoons.
The other big issue here is copyright. Basically, all outreach presentations will have images whose copyright is owned by the original observers. Your average local society will typically operate on the basis that nobody is going to complain about their images appearing in a talk – but as soon as you start distributing the slides online, you are redistributing people’s work and clearly need consent to do that. Within the BAA this is managed through our T&Cs, which say that any images submitted to sections or online can be reproduced in any BAA publications, but that does not extend to inviting local societies to edit and reuse the images and share them online.
Sorry if that all sounds very negative!
The other big issue here is copyright. Basically, all outreach presentations will have images whose copyright is owned by the original observers. Your average local society will typically operate on the basis that nobody is going to complain about their images appearing in a talk – but as soon as you start distributing the slides online, you are redistributing people’s work and clearly need consent to do that. Within the BAA this is managed through our T&Cs, which say that any images submitted to sections or online can be reproduced in any BAA publications, but that does not extend to inviting local societies to edit and reuse the images and share them online.
Sorry if that all sounds very negative!
A possibility might be to see if any of the Creative Commons terms and conditions are usable and, if so, insist that an appropriate copyright notice be attached to the material in question before the BAA would host it.
Agreed, copyright can be a minefield with the mines laid in a swamp.
I think one of the Education & Outreach section’s aims is to create such a repository.
Would be best to contact them or join their mailing list to get involved
https://britastro.org/sections/education-outreachCallum
I have had an email discussion with Helen Usher in recent weeks about this very topic. For relatively low level engagement, such as a group of 10 year olds, or an informal U3A group, the images and resources do not need to be astrophotography of the year standard, and graphics not NASA-animation standard and I am sure many members would be happy for their images to be used, potentially even without stipulating who took the image, with permission. As long as not for profit, I’d have no issue with any of my images to be used and wouldn’t stipulate that my name be used. But it is a minefield.
Some will say ten year olds are not going to sign up for membership, but the purpose isn’t to drum up membership primarily, the objective is to inspire, educate youngsters, and to help make the work of outreach easier for those members of the BAA who undertake it from time to time. I suspect it also ticks a charity obligation box for the BAA.
Hopefully Helen and her team will get the ball rolling and in time we will see such packages.
James
Seconded. Anyone can use any of my images taken to date, such as they are, under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
`Paul
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.