Flickr as platform: Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Variously described as "wonders of the cosmos" (Daily Mail) and "the best space porn of the year" (io9), Astronomy Photographer of the Year is an annual competition and exhibition organised by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. This paper will outline how we used the Flickr platform to reach new visitors, build a community of practice, develop an innovative standard for identifying and locating astronomy photographs( 'astrotagging'), shortlist and judge competition entries, develop an on-gallery interactive showcasing all contributed photographs, and repurpose user-generated content for exhibition labels. According to Flickr's developers, "the integration is so seamless... you might as well consider Flickr to be their 'backend' server."