Metrics matter: Open Images releases media usage metrics

Open_Beelden_logoOpen Images, a Netherlands based initiative that provides an “open media platform that offers online access to audiovisual archive material to stimulate creative reuse,” has released their first metrics report about the usage and dissemination of their media materials. This is part of an initiative, which grew out of the OpenGLAM workshop at OKFest 2012, being led by Sound and Vision and Kennisland, to analyze Open Culture Data usage.

This report showcases visitor statistics in relation to media on the Open Images website, the reuse and dissemination of Open Image content on websites such as Wikipedia and Europeana, and a general overview of API usage and applications created using Open Image content.

Highlights from the report include:

  • A 68% increase in unique visitors, up from 2011, to Open Images webpages
  • Over 3,200 unique visitors have visited Open Image media files on Europeana since May 2012
  • A 60% increase on how many Wikipedia articles are using Open Images media, totaling 1,600
  • Those Wikipedia articles had an increased view of 110% in 2012, meaning Sound and Vision material was viewed nearly 40,000,000 times.

Yes, that last statistic reads correct: those 1,600 articles with, Open Images media in them, have been viewed almost 40,000,000 times. 

 

And if you’re curious, the most viewed article is refrigerator, which features this great video documenting the first cooperative refrigerator in the Netherlands in 1956 (above). That video has been potentially viewed over 9 million times in January 2013 alone.

Metrics such as these are critical to not only show the public how open data is being disseminated, viewed, and used, but, it also provides a remarkable “selling” point to create institutional buy in into the importance of sharing open culture data. If your institutions content is being viewed on Wikipedia articles almost 40 million times, that is not only helping you expand your public mission to disseminate cultural heritage, but, it also is providing the public with greater access to your content.

OpenGLAM can help you learn about tools and techniques to analyze the use of your open cultural data without cost. Contact us!