Alamy Contributor Blog

48 hour turnaround

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:30:00 GMT

© Photos 12At our contributor event in 2007 we announced that we were aiming to drastically reduce the time it was taking for us to process your images through the Alamy system. Earlier this year we released a number of development and process changes designed to address this very issue.

This improved system has been in place for some time now but we wanted to see a significant improvement over time before formally announcing it.

We have been delighted with the results. Previously, at worst we were taking up to 5 weeks to move images through our upload and QC processes. The average time from receiving a submission to getting a decision on QC and making the images available to keyword is now less than 48 hours. These improvements along with the introduction of Alamy Upload have hopefully revolutionised how you submit and how quickly you can get your images up on the site.

Contrary to urban myth we have done this without lowering or raising the bar on Quality Control. We still assess images using the same criteria and submissions will still pass or fail based on the same standards.

We appreciate that "Processing Errors' can occassionally still hold submissions up, so we have also been working on changes to our software which will ensure that these are greatly reduced. Where errors are valid (e.g.the image may be in the wrong file format) they will be dealt with swiftly and will not hold up the 'good' images. We will make an announcement on the blog when we have also seen an improvement in this area.

Improving the turnaround time for all contributors was a priority for us during the first half of the year and we are now looking forward to completing the other projects on our target list for 2008. We stand by the upcoming list of projects we announced in November 07 and have already undertaken a considerable amount of work on many of these inititaives. So be sure to keep an eye on announcements as they appear on the blog.

Novel Use opt-out now closed

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:49:00 GMT

As per our previous blog post we opened a window for contributors who had signed up to Novel Use to opt-out. This opt-out window is now closed. The opportunity to Opt-out will be available again in April 2009. It is essential that we have a stable pool of images in order for us to pursue new opportunities through the Novel Use scheme

We'd like to remind all contributors that Novel Use is a scheme you have to actively Opt-in to. If you haven't signed up to Novel Use your images are not included in the scheme.

Image Keyworder software customised for Alamy Users

Pippa Greig — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:46:00 GMT

© Photodisc Annotating your images in line with our requirements is essential if you want to maximise the sales potential of your images. If you submit regularly to us, you might be interested in some new keywording software called Image Keyworder which has been developed by keywording specialists OnAsia.

The Windows-based Image Keyworder software now offers a fully customized “Alamy mode” for contributors. In Alamy Mode the program allows you to annotate metadata fields which have been tailored to precisely match our submission requirements.

It should also help you work faster. Groups of images can be annotated in batches, templates can be created and saved for similar image types and keywords can be selectively added and removed from sets of images.

The software comes bundled with a thesaurus comprising over 40,000 terms. Several relevant terms can be added to your images with a single click, making it much easier and faster than keywording manually. If you can’t find a term in the thesaurus, you can also click to suggest it for inclusion as well as manually adding terms. OnAsia’s keywording team is also regularly updating and expanding the thesaurus.

Image Keyworder has an Alamy Export function that enables you to produce a spreadsheet of metadata in line with our requirements. The programme will error check your export and let you know if you have missed any of our required fields, ensuring you have error free submissions.

Each time you have a batch of at least 50 images which have passed QC (in the “Prepare for Sale" section of Manage images) you can send the spreadsheet to the Image Management team to be applied.

Please do remember that although Image Keyworder is saving metadata directly to your images, we do not currently extract metadata directly from images submitted this way. You MUST send us the Excel spreadsheet created by Image Keyworder’s Alamy Export wizard.

A free 30 day fully functioning trial is available, after which you can purchase a license for just US$79.99, including a 12 month renewable subscription to the Image Keyworder thesaurus valued at US$39.99.

For more information and to download the software visit the Image Keyworder website.

Please note that for specific help regarding this software you should contact Image Keyworder support.

We would like to stress that Alamy does not benefit financially from the sale of Image Keyworder.

Downtime on Sunday due to Limited Use launch

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:26:00 GMT

Limited Use will be launched on Sunday. The Alamy web site will unfortunately be unavailable on Sunday 15th June because we need to carry out some essential maintenance to enable us to launch the scheme. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Novel Use announcement

James West - CEO — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:35:00 GMT

An opt out has been made available for Novel Use. The opportunity to opt out will be available for two weeks from today. I apologise unreservedly to those of you who feel you have been misled. This was never my intention and it is not the Alamy way of doing things.

To opt out of Novel Use go to My Alamy and follow the link to 'Novel use' under 'Additional revenue opportunities'. Select 'No thanks' and then 'Submit'.