Contributing & Collaborating

With a growing asset library and an increasing number of requests for photos by partners and external users, Rhode Island struggled to control their library. Their internal system made it difficult to monitor user access to their Dropbox folder of shared images, and without complete control, photos could be viewed, downloaded, added or deleted without anyone being able to monitor or prevent these actions. Additionally, storage capacity was always increasing, and the demand was only getting higher with every passing day. That’s when they turned to Barberstock for help. Rhode Island could control access to the photo library, and ensure only the most relevant photos were added, viewed or downloaded by users. With proper management and regulation over their assets, they were able to grow their photo catalogue while also keeping it organized, in-tact and up-to-date.
 

About Rhode Island

Surrounded by stunning ocean views, and filled with an eclectic mix of history, charm and diversity, Rhode Island is The Ocean State that beckons millions of tourists to its beautiful shores year after year. From the glittering city lights of Providence, to the quiet and intimate Island community of Block Island, the number of places and attractions to experience are endless. Capturing the diversity of this destination’s essence requires a robust catalogue of photos, which is why they use Barberstock’s Contributor Upload Portal feature to gather, manage and distribute their assets.
 

The Challenge

Managing digital assets wasn’t a challenge for the Rhode Island team until their marketing team grew. They were able to manage the small collection of images and videos on their internal server. As the in-house marketing team expanded, so did their asset library. As soon as their library started increasing, the marketing team knew they needed a better solution to store, organize and share the files. Plus, they needed to start making their assets easily accessible to the internal team and external users. They primarily used email or Dropbox to share and send files, but with file sizes only getting larger and requests snowballing, this wasn’t going to work for much longer.
 

The Solution

In order to get ahead of their image and video requests and to better organize their growing library, they decided to use Barberstock. Not only did Barberstock deal with organization and streamlining requests, but it allowed the destination to further grow their asset library.

The Rhode Island marketing team heavily relied on Barberstock’s Contributor Upload Portal. This feature allows external users of the library to upload content to be reviewed and approved by the internal team. They invited local businesses, regional tourism partners, freelance photographers and agencies to become contributors of their library. Before the files appear in the main library for users to download, the Rhode Island team must approve them as well as apply any relevant metadata (descriptions, location, keywords, credit and use information).
 

The Results

Rhode Island now has over 20 contributors and have obtained over 2000 files from those users.

The Contributor Upload Portal is used as a way to expand their library as well as obtaining images for project-specific photography. In addition to collecting, it is also a way to deliver new assets right into Barberstock so they are accessible to all and easily shared.

The portal requires contributors to enter keyword information and credit so there is no confusion as to where the photos came from. It also saves the Rhode Island marketing team from the additional step of searching for the photographer credit once they decide to use the photo. Now, their library is robust, organized and completely in their control. They can give limited access to partners for complete efficiency and safety over their valuable content.