About the project

The project i am researching is openclipart. The main purpose of the project is to create a collection of vector clip art that is free content. The project was started in early 2004 by Jon Phillips and Bryce Harrington. Originally the project was created to collect designs of flags from all over the world but as the project was doing very well its aims also started to include generic clipart and now the project has over 10,000 images from over 500 artists. This is the link to the website.

openclipart

where does the project get it's resources from?

The openclipart project gets its resources from volunteers who want to contribute to the project and add some of their own images.

Who are the main people associated with the project?

The main people associated with the openclipart project are:

• Jon Phillips
• Bryce Harrington
• Andy Fitzsimon
• Ryan Lerch
• Johnny Automatic

The Project is a part time job for these participants as it is free and non-profit making. Jon Phillips and Ryan Lerch are involved in creative Commons and Jon Phillips has been doing Creative Commons Case Studies.


Does the project have any competitors?

Yes the project does have some competitors. Some of these are the main one microsoft clipart and others like libraryclipart Libraryclipart
An advantage that open clip art has over its competitors is that its images are of a better quality than those of microsoft office clip art and often look more life like and more three dimensional. The openclipart project does however have a weakness compared to Microsoft office clip art which is that Microsoft office clip art is a lot more well known and as a result more people use it.

How easy is it to contribute?

It is quite easy to contribute to the project because if you just want to add a few items quickly then all you have to do is dedicate your work to the Public Domain then just go to the Creative Commons website and fill out their form for doing this and then find the incoming clipart page on the website and upload your work, including the Public Domain statement. if you have a lot of clip art items that you want to add to the project then instead of filling out the Public Domain statement and uploading each piece individually you can establish your own clipart package. This way you only have to fill out the Public Domain declaration once for the package and adding new material is as simple as copying it into the package archive and re-uploading it. The project also seems to be welcoming to new comers as there is a lot of information on the website about the project, how people can help and how to get started.

My opinion of the Project

overall i think that the project is a good one because the images that have been created by the various artists are very good and more detailed and more 3d than those of other cliparts such as Microsoft office clipart. I don't think that the project really needs to improve much but maybe they could promote the project more and try to get more people aware of the project and to join in.