We’ve been running an experiment over the last month or so. In short, we began the process of ‘opening up’ the site to see if and why people would contribute to the picturethuk project. The results have been pretty amazing.
It seems that people want to contribute or collaborate for all sorts of different reasons. There are those – like me (a co-founder of the site) who just get very excited about landscapes/buildings/local people/local knowledge and want to add to a site that gathers such information. Then there are those who collaborate to get something back. It might be a link or direct or indirect promotion of their business (a holiday cottage) or trade (a photographer). And then there are those who collaborate because it’s their job to do so.
We’re quite close to launching a more comprehensive community section so it’s going to be interesting to see how this process of collaboration evolves.