Locally Grown Northfield

I coaxed Northfield Interim Community Development Director Michele ‘Mitch’ Merxbauer to stop by my corner office at GBM last Friday so I could take her photo to go along with her email request for photos:

The City of Northfield is undergoing a major website overhaul and we need your help! The City’s website is representative of our community and we are in need of pictures to showcase all the great places, people and events that make Northfield a fabulous place to live, work, shop and play!

Please submit any photos you feel represent Northfield. All seasons are needed! The website committee will review all submitted photos and choose several to frame the main pages of the new website. All photos used will be credited to the submitter. By submitting your photo, you are giving the City of Northfield permission, without compensation, to use the photo on the website and in any other media to represent Northfield.

Photos not chosen for the main page frames *may* still be used in other spots throughout the new website. Photos should be submitted to http://nfldmn.net/cpg/login.php by August 20, 2012. Photos should be submitted in JPG format at a maximum width of 300 pixels. For additional photo information, please see the web page listed above.

I think’s a very good sign that the City is engaging the citizenry in a little crowdsourcing at this early stage in the web site development process.

An even better sign? When I first registered for the photo submission site, the disclaimer text stated that the City of Northfield would have exclusive ownership over submitted photos. I explained to Mitch how that would be a big disincentive to many people, especially hobbyists like me and professional photographers, from submitting their favorite Northfield-related photos. We want to share the photos but we also want to retain ownership. Within a couple of hours, the City staff met and had the wording changed.  Cool.