Triathlon

"Land, air and sea" by Susie Mallett 1984

This looks like it could be great fun, as well as a wonderful experience for all who take part.

http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?ID=33497

I hope more athletic clubs join in soon.

St. Johannis

"24th June 2008"

It is Midsummer-Day today, St. John’s Day

I live in the district called St. Johannis where a street festival is held each year on the weekend nearest to St. Johannis Day, St John’s. This year it began yesterday, a bank holiday here in Germany, a time when many people make a long weekend of it by taking a holiday on Friday. I only have half the day off today, I am about to get on my bike and cycle to work, but perhaps, after a visit to the Hat Museum this afternoon and dinner in the corner café this evening, I will take another look at the festival.

I cycled past it on Thursday and watched a bit of the children’s bungy-jumping action and saw that there is, as always, selling Langos, and also, as always, there was a long queue!

Notes

As well as being St. John’s day, today is also Take-your-dog-to-work-day in England, Féte nationale du Quebec in Canada and Discovery Day.

Yesterday was Fronleichnam, Corpus Christi, it is a catholic holiday which means it is not a national holiday, only about half the counties of Germany celebrate this day. Here in Bavaria it is the last of many Bank Holidays that occur in the weeks around the Easter Festival so as I get my coffee made and biking clothes on the streets below are very quiet.

St. Johannis -

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Johannis

Images of my face, my work, my paintings…

"A red sky at night is the shepherd's delight"
by Susie Mallett, June 2011

Do I give them to the whole world to use when I post them, or when someone else posts them without my permission?

Is there the image equivalent of plagiarism?

I have been thinking about photographs and how images get used all over the internet with and without permission from the people featured in them or from the photographers.

What do we do if we find photographs of ourselves on websites, or, perhaps even worse, receive Google alerts or Facebook alerts in email in-boxes, telling us that we are featured in newly posted photographs on websites, sometimes without even knowing that photographs had been taken?

It has happened to me, I expect it has happened to many others. I have seen myself on the website of a centre in Germany where I was featured at work with adults. I had not been consulted about their use, I had not even been aware that someone had taken the pictures because I had been concentrating on my work.

I have in the past refused to be photographed with groups attending meetings and conferences because these are also circulated on the Internet without the permission of those featured.

I always ask anyone that I photograph whether I can use the picture or not at the time of taking it, I have never had anyone ask me this.

Recently, on June 19^th, there was something on Andrew Sutton’s Facebook page about this same subject. He had written a blog about cerebral palsy in Malaysia:

http://duniacp.blogspot.com/2011/06/pendidikan-konduktif.html

Two conductors consequently wrote in wondering why they were featured on this blog in photographs taken in Spennymoor, County Durham in the north of England, several years before.

What do people think when they use photographs from other centres? Do they think at all? Do they ask permission?

These are all questions that I have been asking me for several months now.

Are the photographs that we have posted somewhere on the Net really there for everyone’s use? Should there not be a reference to the sites that they come from, a thank you for the use of them, a note of who posted them or who the pictures were taken by?

What a rip off!

I was prompted to post the above that I began several days ago when I read a report about the Hungarian Conductors’ Association:

http://konduktorok.hu/

on this website:

http://playingwithangels.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/forms-of-conductive-education-part-1/

The report featured many photographs that I inadvertently, by clicking on them, discovered came not from the Hungarian Conductors’ website but from the Petö Institute site, The Carson Street, WA site and Massagermommy blog.

http://massagermommy.blogspot.com/2010/03/conductive-education.html

http://www.peto.hu/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58:the-principle-and-aim-of-conductive-education&catid=36:general&Itemid=58

http://www.carsonst.wa.edu.au/conductive.htm

http://www.peto.hu/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=12&Itemid=67

All these photographs can also be found on Google Images. When I accessed the Google Images “conductive education” page myself, I found the picture featured at the top of this posting! I had taken it myself in Budapest several years ago and it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Conductive Education, but with my interest in the life in Moszkva Tér, memories of meeting there, az óra alatt, on many occasions, and my love of pogácsas!

This same photograph headed a blog posting of mine about spina bifida in 2009

http://www.susie-mallett.org/2009/11/new-blog-on-block.html

While looking through the 265,000 images that resulted from my search I found a few more pictures of my artwork that feature in my postings but none of me at work.

After clicking on a chosen image there is a column next to it that tells the source of the picture and that the photograph may be subject to copyright. As far as I know my artwork has not been picked to illustrate any other websites that deal with conductive education, I have never been contacted with copyright enquiries. So do those who use these images actually take the trouble to find out whether they are subject to copyright or to ask the owners whether they mind their being used elsewhere?

I have often wondered why people do not reference their sources, especially after there was such a lot in the media about German politicians accused of plagiarism in their university dissertations earlier this year, and also several mentions over the years on Andrew Sutton’s blog and Facebook pages. Many people do not reference their sources of information but even less reference the source of their pictures.

What do others think about this subject? What about centres that pay lots of money for professional photographers to illustrate the websites and flyers, what do you all think?

I am certainly going to be even more careful about the images that I post and any photographs that are taken in my presence.

Notes

Google Images –

http://www.google.com/imghp

Andrew Sutton on plagiarism -

http://www.conductive-world.info/search?q=plagiarism

http://www.conductive-world.info/search?q=plagiarism&updated-max=2011-05-28T10%3A12%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=20

Andrew Sutton on Facebook -

http://www.facebook.com/ConductiveEducationPress

More furniture!

"An evening in the Norfolk countryside" by Susie Mallett, June 2011

What do you think of the room on this web-page?

http://www.condedfurn.com/Custom/default.htm

I love the white boards for drawing on. I am going to see if we can get some made in our centre, with the adjustable hand-holds.

Anne, I though immediately about you and wondered whether you are designing classroom space.

I like the bed too, the design incorporates so many places to hold on to that it is sure to save the difficult job of securely attaching bars and handles to the walls.