Follow the chain

I’m really interested in this concept.  Will it catch on?  If it is to do so, it’s because people believe in the concept and promote it.

The concept is described right up front on the Mediachain website.

Mediachain automatically connects media to its creator and information about it.

The basic premise is something that I know that all educators believe it and teach kids – give credit where credit is due when using works created by others.  In return, you would expect that your efforts are treated in the same way.

I’ve always been a proponent that students should create their own content by various means – screen captures, digital drawing creation, taking their own pictures, etc.  Going hand in hand in the concept is assigning your own copyright to it; it’s the perfect lead in to Creative Commons.  I think that most would agree that assigning some level of copyright to one’s efforts helps give respect to the rights of others.

At the heart of this is the Mediachain Attribution Engine.

From this screen capture, you can get a sense of its functionality.

If you can work a search engine, you can work the attribution engine.

I’ll search for my standard “House” and choose the first result.

Of real interest is the text at the bottom to provide attribution for inclusion in your own blog.

<figure><img src=”http://cdn.mediachainlabs.com/hh_1024x1024/c23/c235123efd3cff7fa65ad2d454ecd3a1.jpg”><figcaption><span>Image<span&gt; by <a href=”http://images.mediachain.io/image/c235123efd3cff7fa65ad2d454ecd3a1&#8243; target=”_blank”>Ryan Hafey</a></span> <span>via <a href=”http://images.mediachain.io/image/c235123efd3cff7fa65ad2d454ecd3a1&#8243; target=”_blank”>Attribution Engine</a></span>. <span>Licensed under <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/&#8221; target=”_blank”>CC0</a></span>.</span></figcaption></figure>

which, when embedded, reveals this….

Image by Ryan Hafey via Attribution Engine. Licensed under CC0.

The image appears nicely referenced.

That’s the “use other’s content side”.  How about the other side?

There’s an option to upload your own content although it’s in private beta at the time of this writing.  But, if you’re an artist and are interested in spreading your work, this may just be the ticket.

I really like the premise behind this site.  Not only does it provide content ready to be used with proper credit but it’s ready to help spread the work of others.

It’s a definite addition to your image search/use library.