STORY:
Worldwide Scope for Millennium Photo Project

5,000 photographers will document world's activities at change of century

One of the most ambitious photography projects ever undertaken is close to achieving its goal of signing up 10,000 photography enthusiasts according to a company press release. The photographers for the Millennium Photo Project will spread out across the world this New Year's Eve and document the entry into the new century.

This collaborative, community-led initiative, which started with a single posting on the Internet, has now mushroomed into a global 'Community Enterprise' involving over 5,000 photographers and 250 volunteers worldwide. Nearly 100,000 people have visited the site since it was launched.

"We're absolutely thrilled with the response from both the general public and the photographic community at large. We had obviously hoped the project would attract a lot of attention, but we never dreamed it would be this successful", said project founder, Alx Klive in a company press release.

MMP's website, which is now available in seven languages, has already signed up photographers from practically every country on the planet. A unique community-led volunteer scheme is seeing the site translated into additional languages and publicized through a network of volunteer e-mail publicists.

"We're particularly happy with our volunteer effort", says Klive. "We now have over 250 volunteers around the world. These people are helping to spread the word and co-ordinate our efforts worldwide on a region-by-region basis. It's a fantastic community enterprise application of the Internet."

The project, which launched in April, signs up photographers based on where they plan to take their pictures. There are quotas for each country to ensure broad geographical diversity. From the 10,000 photographers and the 30,000 anticipated photo submissions, a selection of 300 pictures will be made for the book of the project, which is to be entitled '2000 How the World Celebrated the Millennium'. 2000 pictures will be chosen for a permanent Internet gallery exhibit and worldwide gallery tour.

The reward for the successful contributing photographers will be a share in the commercial proceeds. This takes the concept of 'Open-Source' software initiatives (e.g. Linux) to the next logical level. Contributors earn shares in the actual business itself. Hence the term 'Community Enterprise'.

A book of photographs celebrating the millennium in New Zealand is in production. New Zealand: The Millennium will be published soon and be followed by an exhibition of the photographs at the Canterbury Museum from December 2 to 19.

Source: Millennium Photo Project

DATE: 8/30/99

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