Notre Dame, 15 April 2019

Why are you making this particular Data Lifeboat?
This collection preserves a moment of collective witnessing. The structural fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France broke out on 15th April 2019. This collection, compiled by the Flickr Foundation, showcases the value of citizen-driven photography for documenting historic events and the importance of preserving these images for decades to come.

What's important to you about these photos?
These images document the event from the perspective of ordinary Parisians and visitors, creating a composite, democratic portrait of the event. These are the images not broadcast by traditional news media. Their significance also lies in the social metadata - the comments, tags, galleries - attached to these images as they reverberated through the Flickr community in the days and months that followed the event.

What is it for?
This Data Lifeboat was built for educational and archiving use.

Additional Questions

Imagine your Data Lifeboat is unearthed in 60 years from now. What would you want the person looking at it to know?
At the time of its burning, Notre Dame cathedral had survived eight centuries of French history. It functioned as a symbol of Paris, sitting at the centre of Île de la Cité, but also a symbol of France and Europe at large. It should be noted that the Gothic cathedral had undergone countless restoration phases, particularly following the French Revolution and two World Wars. The burning in 2019 entered the long history of the iconic building. It was successfully rebuilt and reopened on 7th December 2024. Also of note for future viewers of the Data Lifeboat ought to be the mode of witnessing events, through the variety of technical lenses, tools and platforms, of the late 2010s.

And what would you want them to know about you?
This collection was compiled by the Flickr Foundation to showcase and illustrate the digital cultural heritage that lives on Flickr.com, as part of the Foundation's broader mission to safeguard Flickr images for the next century. This particular Data Lifeboat was compiled to be shared at the XVI International Conference of the Image, taking place at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sept 11th-12th 2025.

How would you feel if someone made this Data Lifeboat public after that length of time?
The images contained in this Data Lifeboat are certainly of public value. Given, however, the personal nature of these photographs - both the photo subjects and the photographer's own perspective - precautions should be taken to ensure that rights are maintained and that photo owners' consent is sought.

Can you think of anything you wouldn't want that person to use this Data Lifeboat for?
The Data Lifeboat should not be used for commercial purposes, nor should it be used as training data for artificial intelligence systems.

What do you know about the people in these pictures?
I do not know the people in these pictures.

Are you a member of the community or communities depicted in this Data Lifeboat?
I am not a member of the community depicted in this Data Lifeboat. Though I am European and I am an advocate for cultural heritage, so I do share many of the sentiments of the groups pictured.

How do you imagine those people would feel about you including pictures of them?
The photo subjects may be wary of these images being preserved for posterity, particularly the close-ups. In many cases they have not been identified (in the photo's metadata), they may not even know they are featured in these photos.

Can you think of any potential privacy issues people in the images may have concerns about—or be compromised by? Even a long time from now?
No answer given

Who would you like to share this Data Lifeboat with?
This Data Lifeboat will be shared with conference attendees and will be used to showcase the potential for the Data Lifeboat digital preservation tool.

Where are you planning to keep it?
It will be kept on the Flickr Foundation Google Drive.

Do you think this archive contains any sensitive information future viewers should know about, even in comments or descriptions?
No answer given

What unintended consequences or potential harms can you envision?
No answer given

If you think about this Data Lifeboat coming from a moment in time, what else could you say about the collection? What contemporary information or trends or contexts might be interesting to note?
No answer given

What kind of harmful material is lurking in this Data Lifeboat, or what convinced you there isn't any?
No answer given

If you could donate this Data Lifeboat to any archive in the world, which one would you choose, and why?
Archives de Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris. These archives may be interested in this historic event pictured through the people's lens.