OEG Voices 081: Bea de los Arcos on We Like Sharing === Intro Music and Episode Quote --- [00:00:00] Bea de los Arcos: If you notice every entry that we have for each photograph, so you've got the title. But there is also a short description of the photograph, objective description of the photograph. And that then allowed me to talk about the importance of an alt description, if you're using the photograph online, how it is important to describe it for somebody, for example, with a visual impairment. Plus the fact that I would also-- it includes a message in how to attribute the photograph if you're reusing it. So see the wealth of opportunities I had in order to talk to people or let them explore by themselves, all about these things. It was about sharing, It was about Creative Commons licenses, it was about accessibility and it was about correct-- correctly attributing photographs. So in the one ,with one stone, I was killing, I dunno how many birds. Apologies for bird lovers! Welcome to OE Global Voices --- [00:01:05] Alan Levine: Good morning and welcome. This is the very first recording for the OE Global Voices Podcast in 2025. I'm your host, Alan Levine, and I have to admit, I have a backlog of ones to edit, but I'm gonna catch up. But this one's really important and I just wanna let you know that of course, I said my name. I'm Alan Levine, and I'm coming to you from a place on the map that has a funny name called "Moose Jaw". It's in the middle of Canada. This is also the traditional land of Treaty 4-- and just to recognize that, and the irony is that the name "Moose Jaw", as I understood, came from the settlers who "discovered it", misunderstanding the pronunciation of the Indigenous people they met of the river that's here. And so there's a little bit of irony there that, I like to share, but, enough about me. I'm so excited to have, with you for this podcast episode. someone I've known for a long time, and I've been eager to do this. Meet Bea de los Acros --- [00:02:02] Alan Levine: So we're, gonna be having a conversation with Bea de los Acros, and she's coming to us-- she'll tell you where she's coming to us. But we're gonna talk about, probably-- and she's gonna say, "oh, you say that to everybody" but it truly is one of the favorite things that-- that I like being part of every year. So first of good morning Bea. Hello. How are you in 2025? [00:02:25] Bea de los Arcos: Hello, Alan. Thanks for having me. I am very well, thank you. 2025 so far is good. It's been a bit cold, I must say. We had a bit big storm, not so long ago. But, I'm good. Bea's Journey from Spain to The Netherlands --- [00:02:41] Bea de los Arcos: So I'm coming to you since you said, . I'm coming to you from, Delft. So Delt is a small city or a big town in The Netherlands. We are right in between Rotterdam and The Hague. And it's a place very well known for its pottery, of course, Delft Blue, and also for being the birthplace of Vermeer. Do you know the painter? There's a fabulous painting. You need to check it out. Everybody. Check it out, please. It's one of my most favorite paints, by Vermeer. Everybody talks about the Girl with a Pearl Earring, but really you need to check out "View of Delft" which he painted from this particular spot in Delft, and it's just fabulous. Check it out. [00:03:24] Alan Levine: I am going to do that, and that's gonna be part of the show notes. And I, I'm so tempted now to go and search for that image, but I take that well. And I just love that you gave that description of your location. I also like to ask, because people will be listening to audio, I can see you-- can you just describe your surroundings and tell us where you're tuning in from? [00:03:48] Bea de los Arcos: Funny enough, this morning I was in the office. So I went to the office. I had meetings in the office. Our office is open plan, and I decided not to stay in the office and come back here to-- come back home for the-- for the recording of the podcast. Partly because if I stayed in the office, because it's open plan, we need to go into-- we've got this new, I call them the "Superman cabins". So you go into the cabin and it goes mmmmmm. So you're in your own space, isolated and you don't hear anything. But I find it really claustrophobic, especially if you need to be there for longer than 15 minutes. So that's why I decided to come home. So I'm now sitting very comfortably in my own sitting room and I've got my normal things. I like when I normally-- from my time when I was a student and I needed to write and study, I like sitting on the couch and I like sitting on the bed. Don't tell anybody. So, that's how I work. I work really well, so I am right now very comfortable sitting on my couch. [00:04:55] Alan Levine: And that's where I want you to be. Like, I already have so many thoughts because like I can think of a course, they want to have the soundproof facility to get the perfect sound, but it's not very human. And I know for online meetings, like I enjoy seeing people in their spaces. And I'm already looking to see what books are on your shelf. And sometimes people have art behind them. Yeah. So look at that. I see-- [00:05:22] Bea de los Arcos: This is my of dictionaries. They are-- they're very good for-- they're very thick. So if you need to use them for-- I don't use the dictionary, my Spanish dictionary these times-- these days very often, but they're very good for piling up and putting something on top in this cases, the wifi connector. Very functional, yes. Beyond reading. [00:05:46] Alan Levine: So I, I like to start at your very beginning. I ask people where in the world they grew up, where did you enter this globe? And then we'll get to the part about how you managed to get to Delft. But just tell us about where you spent your childhood. Bea's Educational Background and Early Career --- [00:06:02] Bea de los Arcos: That's very interesting because I always say-- so I am, from Galicia in Spain, so my childhood was spent in Galicia. I'm from a big fishing port, the port city called Vigo. And that's where, I grew up. And we grew up by-- by the sea. Not just any sea, but the wide Atlantic. And, so a wonderful childhood. But that's-- why do I, what the reason why I mentioned the sea is it then I went to study in Salamanca. So I've got my degree from the University of, Salamanca. So that meant that I have to go inland closer to what's kind of flat, long fields of the plains of Spain. And-- and that was beautiful in a sense. But again, is this sense like, where does the world end? Where does the land end? I need to go see the sea. So that was always very important, to me. So I grew up in-- in Galicia as a child. So my- my childhood was there. But I always say that I grew up as an adult in Ireland. So Ireland has a very special place in my heart. I spent there many years first as an Erasmus student and then working there at the University of Galway. Galway for me is my second home. And that, of course, is still the wild Atlantic, so that's why it's so phenomenal. [00:07:37] Alan Levine: There's so many things that-- that of course it says about you- the importance of seeing the sea and land and the visual, and we will get, to that in a moment. In as terms of like your first experiences in school, what kind of student were you and what do you remember from that school experience? What does school mean to you as a child? [00:07:58] Bea de los Arcos: School was okay. I was-- I was a good student, but I was, it is not-- I didn't love school and I didn't hate school either. For me, I think it was probably one of these things that you think, "okay, I need to do this to get somewhere". So since we'll get better after this. It was a great school in the sense that we had-- so because I'm from Galicia, we do speak Spanish, but we do have our own language, our own culture that is different from-- from the rest of Spain. So it was a good school in that sense that we very much used both Galacian and Spanish. We were taught, for example, I always studied-- I learned mathematics in primary school through Galacian and not through Spanish. So it was a very interesting school in the sense that at the time, I'm gonna get into kind of when Spain was a dark, place because of the-- of certain person that we had yeah, leading the country. Do you know, the certain things you couldn't do. You couldn't really celebrate your own culture if it was different from Spanish culture. But we still managed to do that and I remember that's what I-- that's why I learned to play the bagpipes. So when I was a child, I play the bagpipes. [00:09:19] Alan Levine: You played the bagpipes? [00:09:21] Bea de los Arcos: I can't believe I'm saying this to you, [00:09:24] Alan Levine: Is that hard? Is it hard to learn the bagpipes? [00:09:27] Bea de los Arcos: It is not hard to learn. It's-- it is not really, you cannot see maybe the most difficult thing is to control your breathing. So the fact that you need to blow to feel the bag and then control the sound. So it's a stable sound and it doesn't go up and down, no, it's great. It's a bit loud, so I wouldn't encourage every single child to actually pick it up. If you're only practicing at home, you might as well just go and practice. Take your bagpipes to the park and that's what you're gonna practice. [00:09:59] Alan Levine: I just, I love this 'cause every time we have a conversation, I learn more about you. But just thinking from like the coast of Spain to Salamanca, to Galway, with stops, I know in, Milton Keynes at the Open University Delft and I'm probably missing a few things, but I just think, it's so fortunate that you have these multiple experiences in terms of our interest in globally open education. So what was-- how did you end up in Delft? Can we get there? The Impact of Brexit on Bea's Career --- [00:10:31] Bea de los Arcos: I ended up in Delft-- the crude reality is I ended up in Delft because of Brexit. At the time I was-- I worked for the Open University as you know in the UK for, a long time. The minute they said-- because I am Spanish, because I lived, I lived in England, lived in the Uk. Now because I'm European, I didn't think-- I disagreed with this idea. I'm not going to-- it may-- I don't know. It may sound, you may disagree with me, but I did not want to be-- I did not want to be part of paying my tax in a country when they just didn't want to be part of the team. You're in Europe. I have a lot to be thankful for being European because I left Spain for the first time with, an Erasamus grant to study in Galway, and that's what kind of started probably the best part of my life. So I am not-- I see myself as a European and I think that everybody can learn so much from actually being part of a community of people with their different views and their different perspectives and different ways of doing things. But you-- it's-- you don't shut the door. You try and continue having that conversation. So that's why the minute they said yes to Brexit, I said, okay, I'm out of here. And so I tried to-- my initial idea was to go back to Ireland and-- but sadly I couldn't find a job in Ireland. And I was here in Delft, remember it was 2018 for Open Education Global. The conference happened here in Delft. I was here with the GO-GN crowd because we had organized, and I remember walking around the streets of Delft and thinking, "oh, this would be a lovely place to live for a while." And funny enough, Willem van Falkenburg, who at the time was, well he continues, is now director of the Extension School I work with. That's the job I do now. I remember it was on X or Twitter or that thing, but I remember seeing a message, I was back home two days after the conference and I saw a tweet from Willem saying, "Hey, we, have a new position. Come work with us." It was a matter of checking. Oh, this is interesting. Oh, yes. I can do this. Oh, yes, I can do this. Oh, I can do this. Oh, wait, no, I don't speak Dutch. So, I emailed Willem and I said, Hey, Willem, I don't-- I don't speak Dutch, but I'd love to-- go for the adventure. And he said, sure. We have a very international team, which is very true. We work with a whole lot of-- there's a lovely bunch of people from all parts of the world and we do speak English, which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. So that's how I ended up here. [00:13:38] Alan Levine: I love stories like that. They-- you couldn't predict that. An opportunity and the connection. And can you tell us about the work of the Extension School and the role-- how does Open Education factor into that organization? [00:13:55] Bea de los Arcos: That's a very good question. Working at the Extension School for Continuing Education --- [00:13:56] Bea de los Arcos: So I work for the Extension School for Continuing Education. So that's the whole title. And in a way we-- we are separate, like a separate department or a separate unit within the university. We work with everybody else and when I first started it was all about online education. So the vision, the mission of the Extension School from when I started here six years ago, it was "We educate the world." So it's the World. So the World is not on campus. That World is not on the one platform or the World is out there. So what are we gonna do in order to reach as many people as possible? So that's-- that was the openness, as part of what it is that-- that we do. Over the years it has evolved more into, because we don't just only do online education, we do-- so a big chunk of the work that-- that I used to do in the beginning was about, it was designing MOOCs, helping people in the different faculties, all the teachers, the professors, researchers in the different faculties, to create MOOCs or to create professional education courses, but it was all online. Now we move closer to-- it's more about lifelong learning. So it's that only online learning, probably not. But we still-- it's we still work on the basis of it's about the whole world. So it's not if, why-- if you are gonna teach a bunch of students that you see in your class every day, you share it. So how do we go from just your class on campus to actually making the story much bigger than that and try and reach as many people as possible. So we are still working on that premise. [00:15:57] Alan Levine: Oh, that-- that's inspirational. I hope other people pick up on that, like I do, and especially to come from the institution to say that's what they're there to do, which is even probably a bit more challenging. The-- the world is, it's rumbling out there, right? [00:16:16] Bea de los Arcos: It is challenging and I'm not gonna lie to you. it's not easy, even-- even coming from the institution and everybody knows at the university what we do or what we want to do, but we still need to have very serious conversations with even the different faculties. Faculty in a sense-- faculty of architecture, the faculty-- so all the professors, the researchers, the teachers, the people in admin, the heads of the department, for example. Especially when it comes to --these times when we get fundings, fund, the government cuts the funding into education as many other things. So everybody kinda has to tighten their belt. So the first thing that goes is-- so it's challenging. Keeping the conversation to say, look, this is-- it may represent a challenge, an effort, an extra effort now, but in the long term it's actually gonna be more beneficial hopefully to what it is that we are doing. But, it is challenging. Yeah. [00:17:27] Alan Levine: Let's get to talking about the thing that we love talking about. And so it-- it sounds like even when I say it, "it's oh, that's so wonderful." I get excited. And it- this is also timely because this has a relationship with Open Education Week that's coming up in early March and that's particularly why I wanted to have this-- well I miss you. But I wanted to have this conversation. Introduction to 'We Like Sharing' --- [00:17:53] Alan Levine: Describe, like-- now, can you give like the-- the short pitch, what is "We Like Sharing", because it sounds obvious, who wouldn't like sharing, but what is We Like Sharing? [00:18:03] Bea de los Arcos: We Like Sharing is really a flicker account. If you think about it, that's what it is. So We Like Sharing is a repository of photographs that have been taken by staff, students, alumni, friends and families of anyone who is related to TU Delft Technical University. So that's my university. And every single photograph is available under an open license. So that means that we've created a collection of photographs of many different subjects, colors, flavors, whatever you want to call it, all released under an open license. So all can be reused under different conditions, but all safe to use for the whole world to enjoy. That's what it is in a nutshell. [00:18:58] Alan Levine: But Flickr, that's-- it's, old and like all the cool people, they went to Instagram and now they're in PixelFed and they upload to Google Photos. like why stay with Flickr? it's like dusty. [00:19:13] Bea de los Arcos: Because I'm old too, old people stay with old people. No. Really, because it is-- it, it is an open community and it is about photographs. It is about people who really love taking photographs and so it's not, I dunno, I don't have an Instagram account-- I have this idea of Instagram, you kinda have to post or sell something. Do this, do the other, Flickr, the community is there and I wanted to really join the community because it's-- if you're sharing a photograph, it wasn't necessarily about sharing with the university or a staff or students in the university, but sharing it with the whole world. So that means that you're gonna put your photograph in a place where somebody else is gonna find it. So what is the place where everybody can see this photograph and decide to download it? Use it as they like? What's the-- what's the most open place that I could find where people really were gonna be able to see that photograph, not because you have the link and I'll send you there, but because you discovered that photograph and you think, "Hey, I might, I might be, I might use this for whatever purpose that I want to, that, that I need." So that was the idea about-- about really opening a Flickr account. [00:20:34] Alan Levine: And, you don't have to convince me. This is for everybody listening, of course, because you know where I stand. So this was it 2021? And why did you start this? [00:20:46] Bea de los Arcos: It was indeed February of 2021. So we're coming up now to our anniversary, and it started as very simple idea. So it was-- so as I said, we create online courses. Our MOOCs, the content of our MOOCs, goes out under Creative Commons license. We normally move the content of our MOOCs to our Open Courseware website, but I still wanted on the one side, there are lots of photographs that we use in the courses. And remember, this is a technical university, so there could be lots of photographs that can be actually very reusable for the people. So I wanted to have a place to share the photographs that-- that, that our course teams are creating but then also gave me the opportunity to say to people, okay, so this is your photograph, because the copyright stays with the person who created the photograph. This has nothing to do with the university. The copyright is not with the university, it is with the person who took the photograph. So they decide what license they want to use for the photographs. So that allowed me immediately to have that conversation about Creative Common licenses and what happens when-- when you share under an open license. So the fact that you just, it's not about just putting something in there, but about saying, do you know, I, and also I will be able to tell you what happens with your photographs sometimes, but that it was an excuse to talk to people really and teach people. And when I say "people", it could start with my colleagues in the office to the-- all the educators I work with, to the students that we work with that help us create the courses to anyone. So it was the perfect excuse to talk about so many other things. If you notice every entry that we have for each photograph, so you've got the title. But there is also a short description of the photograph, objective description of the photograph. And that then allowed me to talk about the importance of an alt description, if you're using the photograph online, how it is important to describe it for somebody, for example, with a visual impairment. Plus the fact that I would also-- it includes a message in how to attribute the photograph if you're reusing it. So see the wealth of opportunities I had in order to talk to people or let them explore by themselves, all about these things. It was about sharing, It was about Creative Commons licenses, it was about accessibility and it was about correct-- correctly attributing photographs. So in the one ,with one stone, I was killing, I dunno how many birds. Apologies for bird lovers! [00:23:35] Alan Levine: The reason I like it, because instead of going to people to like just start with the merits of open licensing and explaining licenses, you start with something that they're interested in and, so it you, beautifully, I call it, people say backdoor people into that understanding. This was started in February 2021. It was-- it's become part of Open Education Week, 'cause you've done it every year since. What's happened over the time? Like, how has it different or grown from the start? [00:24:06] Bea de los Arcos: The first time, it was just a flash of inspiration because I said, okay, wow, that's perfect. Open education Week is coming up because remember we started February-- so it was the perfect opportunity. More so, yes, to start populating the repository with more photographs, but also the perfect opportunity to say to people, "Hey, these photographs are here." So maybe you don't want to take part in the photo competition, but-- it was a way of saying, yeah, this repository exists. So I think the first time, 2021, I think we had something like 50 photographs and I was all already blown over. I was thinking Wow. Because that's the thing. I think what we just said to people was send a photograph and I think the topic, we've gone with the same topic as in "What does open mean to you?" So try and represent that in-- in a photograph. So that is just so open itself that it's just beautiful to see how people interpret it. So we've moved from-- yeah, the number of entries, because every time-- so every year more and more people know about it. So in a way it's-- because we've connected to Open Education Week, anyone-- so this-- the discussion it's not, doesn't exactly start anymore. "So what are we going to do for open Education Week?" No, it's hey, we are doing the Open Photo Competition. Oh yeah. And then there is Open education week, so it then helps organizing all things around it as well. But-- So it has increased the number of-- so every time there's, there is more photographs and the difference I think has been in terms of-- So we started from-- in, in year one, you were already part of the jury. So I try to get an international jury, because again it helps expose more people who know about the-- the repository, the better. So we moved from getting the jury members to pick all the winners, to actually get in-- last year we did-- so yes, the jury members will pick a certain, three of the winners, but then we open it up to everybody. People's Choice Award and New Category --- [00:26:33] Bea de los Arcos: So there would be one winner, which would be the people's choice. So that means that everybody can actually vote, for-- yeah to the stage. So the people's choice in a way. This year, what we gonna do, because it is increasingly more and more difficult to actually-- because we have so many photographs coming in and they're all so fabulous that picking-- we've got, we only have a budget of 100 Euro, so that means that-- it's not. So whether we have four winners or five winners, it's very difficult to just select four or five entries. So I think this year what I'm going to do is, I'm gonna flip it slightly, so I'm gonna get the members of the jury to do a selection. So say I don't know, 20 photographs. And then those 20 photographs would be presented to the public and the whole of-- so that all the winners will be actually the people's choice. I'll see, whether it works or not. Every, it is about trying to do something different every year. We've also-- I thought this year it would be interesting to add an another category. So the idea of " What does open mean to you" stays because it is such a great-- it's so simple and at the same time, it gives us so many different perspectives of what people see as-- as open. Encouraging Student Participation --- [00:28:07] Bea de los Arcos: But what I did this year is I wanted to encourage students in the university to send in more photographs. So I came up with this idea of photographing-- becoming curious about the spaces that you see inside the university. So you know outside, this university has very iconic buildings. We have a fabulous library. It's the only library where you can actually sit on the on the roof to have your sandwich. And there's-- there's the-- it's iconic places and then you've got daffodils and tulips. but I'm not interested on the outside. I'm interested to see what happens inside. So I want people to become curious about the fabulous spaces that we have inside, whether it is the faculty of architecture, to become even curious about the machines that they use every day and the research that they're doing and try to represent that in a photograph. So that is going to be the new category. So we'll see what happens. The Power of Photography --- [00:29:12] Alan Levine: I, I really love that because-- a few things like being able, like being part of the jury or for anybody who can like, look at the pictures come in, it's just so intriguing to see how people see their world. And a lot of it is in the Netherlands, but a lot of people share pictures of their travels. And so I think this idea of seeing the world through other people's eyes is really powerful. And then what you're describing is, and I used to try to do this when I taught some media classes. It's yeah, you see a beautiful-- I take, I see a great sunrise or beautiful mountains, or like you say, the tulips, iconic landscape scenes, but being able to notice the beauty and details like the texture of wood or the way light is coming in through a window. There's really something powerful about noticing the small and I'm really like, I love that and I love that you are each year you refine or you change. And that says it's not like just this fixed thing that you turn out every year. Personal Reflections on Photography --- [00:30:21] Bea de los Arcos: Don't know anything about photographs, honestly. Every year I say, oh, I love to take a course and learn how to use a camera properly, but I never find a time. And so I don't, I only have my phone and I think for me, it's the only positive things that mobile phones have brought to the world. I honestly hate mobile phones and everybody's there with phone and apps. No, I only use my phone. I only have my phone with me because I like to take photographs. I like to become-- it's not that-- it's inviting people in a way to look at their normal day just that tiny little bit different. So even if you get closer or if you get a bit further away, or you look up or you look down, just to be curious about what it is that you-- that is around you and then you-- yeah, everybody has their phone with them. So it's not about perspective or this-- okay, some people know a lot. For me, i would love to find out and to learn all about that, but I don't. And I- but I still enjoy, yeah all these visuals. I dunno if I am a visual person, but I love exactly seeing how, what other people find curious and what it is that they've been or what it is that they're doing. [00:31:42] Alan Levine: And I totally like-- my brain lapsed. I forgot to mention in the beginning that We Like Sharing was recognized in 2023 with an OE Award for Excellence in the Wildcard category. And, it's perfect for that. Oh, I wanna ask, because you've seen all the-- you've looked at every picture, and you've seen what's come in. Memorable Photographs and Reuse --- [00:32:05] Alan Levine: Are there ones that like really stand out in your memory that like, like maybe surprised you and then any stories of ones that got reused out of that collection? [00:32:17] Bea de los Arcos: I've got, yeah, I have actually, yes, there is the one. I love the photograph, it was one of the winners from last year. And it is, I dunno if you remember, it's a white wall and there are lots of hearts painted in different colors on the door. It's a wall and a door and lots of photographs or lots of hearts. So for some reason I love that photograph and Because there's so much love in just the one wall. It's actually called "Love on a Wall", I think. And that was picked up in Flickr by the algorithm In Explore. So it got-- it attracted lots of views. so that kind of allows me to go back to the, in this case, that person wants to remain anonymous, So it's using just a nickname. But it allows me to go to this person and say, "Hey, this is what's happening to this for your photograph." And of course they get super excited. "Wow". But the interesting thing also about this photograph, and that's partly why I love it. I loved it anyway before this happened, but then that was used just as a perfect example, we always think about reuse, as in okay lots of photographs I know have been reused because I see them on presentations by colleagues. So you just pick the photograph and then you put it on your slide, and that's beautiful. That's a beautiful example of reuse. But in this case, it was just so much more interesting because one of those little hearts on the wall, so not the whole photograph, they picked a little heart, they took it outta the photograph, and they used the heart on the cover of a little booklet from the University of Leeds. This is Chrissi Nerantzi, so kudos to her and her colleagues. And it's a little booklet, I think it's called, "With Love from Your Supervisor", and it's about giving advice to research students, to PhD students about how to go about the research. And the cover, it's like a little person holding the book and all these hearts. So that's the love from your supervisor and that heart is the heart that is, one of the hearts in "Love on a Wall". So I thought it was just amazing. Amazing. We have all the photographs that I know. Do you know if I had a bit more time, I would, I, would be able to get it. The Flickr themselves make it difficult to to find out exactly, so you know that the photograph is being reused, but you don't know exactly where. But, I know every now and then I know that there's been some other photographs have been used in news sites, for example, or yeah, websites about tourist websites and stuff like that. But I see the example of the heart is definitely my favorite. [00:35:12] Alan Levine: That's beautiful. And if you think of them later, you can send me and I'll put in our show notes. I will say as a Flickr, if you're, if you have a paid account, I don't know if you have a free or a -- [00:35:24] Bea de los Arcos: It's a, paid account. yeah. You get access to the service called Pixsy, P-I-X-S-Y. [00:35:30] Alan Levine: And the way that is used is not the greatest way. People use it to find when their pictures have been reused and then they can like issue like copyright claims against them. But, what I use it for is it does a magnificent job of finding places that your picture is used that you would've never come across [00:35:50] Bea de los Arcos: I didn't know about this. [00:35:52] Alan Levine: if you look it up at P-I-X-S-Y dot, it's probably .com, and you log in through your Flickr account and it basically continually monitors your Flickr account and does reverse image search and so you're able to discover a lot more of that reuse. [00:36:10] Bea de los Arcos: Oh, that's great because then I can go back to the person and say, it's-- you just, I love making people happy and it's sometimes, it's just so simple. As a colleague here at the office and you used one of our photographs at some event and something in for OE Global, and I told her, and then she was super happy. Wow. it's just, yay. Brainstorming for We Like Sharing --- [00:36:34] Alan Levine: Okay, so I need you're help brainstorming because. [00:36:37] Bea de los Arcos: Yeah. [00:36:38] Alan Levine: I know we've talked before. And to me, like what you've done is so replicable. Like anybody can set this up. It's not complex. You don't need fancy technology. It's very doable and I was-- I've been hoping to inspire someone else to do their own version of, We Like Sharing. And, I did a little experiment last year for OE Global. and so I'm gonna do it again because, I'm not gonna give up on this. And so I've just been starting to think about how to frame it, whether the topic, of Open, and now I'm thinking about your idea of looking at the small detail and, I like that. And maybe I'll just mimic what you did and I'm thinking as well as just "Where do you see open in the world?" And, that's the question that you asked, but it could be a metaphor or it could be like something that is a product. So that's what I'm thinking. But can, you think of any other ideas that might help my little version, my wee little version of the big We Like Sharing. [00:37:42] Bea de los Arcos: It has to be something that is simple enough for people to do. There was the one year, the second year of the competition, I think we decided to go with a topic of energy transition, pretty much only to follow what was happening in the university. And funny enough, that was the year that we got the least amount of photographs because it was "energy transition". It's a very interesting topic, but very difficult to represent. So it has to be something that-- it's easy for me to-- I can see it, I can see, often it's something that if I'm walking from the house to work, where am I-- where, am I seeing "open" from here to the office. Or where I see "open" outside the window? Or where am I seeing "open" inside my home? it can be something, you could even-- I'm just thinking-- I opened an orange this morning. I opened it up and I said, wow, it was such a beautiful orange. So that would have counted already. I think I would put the emphasis on-- don't make it complicated for yourself. You don't have to hop on a flight and then take a picture. Well, if you happen to be on a flight and take a picture of the clouds, but, it's closer to you. There's something that you could actually represent in a photograph. [00:39:05] Alan Levine: And I think the best ones are, like, when you describe opening the orange, like in the moment you're not even thinking about it. And something-- it almost calls to you. And rather than saying okay, today's the day I'm gonna go out and get my perfect metaphor of "open". And then you're thinking too much about it. It's like you should stumble across it, right? [00:39:26] Bea de los Arcos: Exactly. It comes to you. It comes to you. One of the photographs that I took, is when I was waiting for the tram and I just looked down. And somebody had-- there was a campaign in Delft at the time around violence against women. So it was just-- they had this stamped on the pavement this hand and "stop violence against women." So, I was thinking, wow, this is-- this is so powerful already. Become a bit more curious about what it is that is happening around you. Rather, don't look at your phone with your apps or your messages. No, just look. Look away from your phone, what it is. Maybe that's what it is. Look away from your phone. What can you see? [00:40:13] Alan Levine: That's good. very helpful. I am excited to do it again. And I know, of course, the flagship We like Sharing will be available for everybody to participate in. And we, it's always early because they-- the activities come in through February and leading up to March. But again, just to remind folks that we're looking for any event or activity that-- that you're doing. And it doesn't, sometimes people get stuck on "I can't do it that first week in March." Like in other parts of the world, that's the beginning of the semester. Open Education Week is just the time where we make a lot of noise about it. It's anything that's going on between now and say the end of March. [00:40:58] Bea de los Arcos: Exactly. See for us, it's right before the week is a week of holidays for the school. So a lot of people pretty much disappear, which is why we start early. [00:41:10] Alan Levine: right? [00:41:14] Bea de los Arcos: That's why we tell them before they go on holidays and they can still submit a photograph after they come from their holidays. Just in case they were a bit more relaxed and they found something there. No, I wish it was that easy. Let's face it, Alan. Come on. We'll always, this is Open Education, so we'll be at it all the time. Challenges and Rewards of Organizing --- [00:41:44] Bea de los Arcos: It is true that more and more people know about it. It helps a lot. For example, it was, I think, so every year we organize an education day or there's an education day at the university. And if one of the big guys saw the President or the Vice President, Rector, whoever-- if they actually happen to use one of those photographs in in their presentation, then you just go, "wow, I made it". But, even then, no, you still need to keep at people. And this I continue. At some point I was thinking-- am I-- so we have now over 1,300 photographs in the repository, in the photo bank. And, so I accept submissions all year long. And this-- I use this, some of them are my photographs as well, but I'm still constantly having to remind people. Somebody says, "Hey, look at this one." We have say, "Oh, do you know? That would be lovely. Do you know where that could go?" just share it. I think that is- I saw that some mistakes. Yes, there are certain colleagues who would send regularly photographs, but most of the time I still need to do a lot of pestering. But you know what? The energy is there and the fact that I've got also my colleagues in Communication who help me a lot with the communication channels of the university. I think that's important. So it goes to the alumni, it goes to the whole of the university, it goes to the post grads, it goes -- so then that kinda helps a little by little. It is not something that is gonna, it is woah, I won the lottery, instant success. No, it's a lot of hard work and you have to keep going at it .And so you really need to, if you lo-- you know, if that's a good thing. I love this and it just brings me so much. So that's why I cannot quit doing it, but it is a lot of hard work. [00:43:41] Alan Levine: I can tell and I ask podcast listeners, does-- is that voice you're hearing from, Bea, like pestering, like how could you resist? [00:43:51] Bea de los Arcos: Exactly. How could you choose? It's my charm, my Spanish charm. Yeah. No, it is actually very-- but you know what helps? What helped as well-- look at it. So put it-- make it as simple as possible for people. Get from them the things that you need. So what permissions are they giving for their photograph to be used? So that needs-- that needs to come from them. But also say to them, I will come back to you. I will help your photograph have a life of its own. I will come back to you and tell you what happened to your photograph. But also because it is a competition, there has to be an award. You'll be amazed, even if it is-- so with the little awards that, as I said, we only have a budget of a hundred euro. we divide it into either 20 or 25 euros. And I wanted to support local businesses with that. So that means that one of the-- one of the awards, so they-- so the winners can choose what they want their 20 euros, to be spent on. There's a local cafe, there's the local pizza place, there's books and cinema are always a good win. So even if it is something, I think people especially when you're talking about students, they do want to, "Hey, I won and this is what I got for it. So even if it is something and remember in the UK what we used to do a lot is, because it's actually, if, we make it international and you accept submissions from everywhere, I'm not gonna send you a voucher to come to Delft have a coffee. I would love to but that's a bit difficult, right? But then one of the things we used to do in the UK a lot is the fact, okay, so you know what? It's 20 euro, 25 euro. I will give that money to a charity of your choice. So that kind of-- it's about helping others as well. [00:45:51] Alan Levine: I, I have been thinking about that. I'm also exploring maybe we can set up something where people can get a credit to using an online store to order like a-- an OE Global t-shirt. And so, I'm with you on thinking that's that, or I really like the idea of a contribution made in your name. I think that's almost better than swag. [00:46:14] Bea de los Arcos: I think so. I think we all have care-- our heart always beats for a little something somewhere, so it's so easy. [00:46:23] Alan Levine: It's always so energetic to talk to you. I have one last question. Personal Joys and Hobbies --- [00:46:28] Alan Levine: Outside of the work at the university and taking pictures, like what is something that you really-- that brings you joy to do away from all this? What's an activity or a hobby that is really special to you? [00:46:45] Bea de los Arcos: I am a walker. So I'm a hiker. I just love walking. So I live in the land of bicycles and I'm probably the only one who goes to work by foot. And I love hiking and I love-- I just go up a mountain and go by the coast, just walk walk walk walk walk and walk. walk. If I can have a route years ago with some friends. Actually, it was a good friend from Canada and another-- a group of international women from Ireland, from Spain, from Sweden and from Canada. We did part of the Camino de Santiago, but coming through Portugal. So that's the kind of-- I enjoy that an awful lot. The fact that, it's you and your little ruck sack and your feet. And you need to go from here to there because that's where you're gonna sleep tonight. And then from there you're gonna keep going to the following. And it's the chats as you go along the way, or is the silences or is the-- so that's what I love very much. This country's a bit flat, so it's not the most-- it's not the most exciting, I'm sorry to say. But yeah, so that means that you can go far farther because you know it's flat. So yeah, that's me. [00:48:06] Alan Levine: Oh, it's so wonderful to talk to you, Bea. And I, I always say we love we Like Sharing. And so we're gonna, we're gonna do it again. And-- and thank you so much for being an inspiration to us. [00:48:20] Bea de los Arcos: Thank you, Alan. I, I love chatting to you. I love chatting to everybody, but this is always so enjoyable, so thank you. Conclusion and Call to Action --- [00:48:27] Alan Levine: Okay, folks, and, get ready. Start looking around your world for things of "open", and you'll be able to share that with, enter that into our contest, and we look forward to what comes out of We Like Sharing, from the original, the root We Like Sharing. [00:48:44] Bea de los Arcos: Go for it! Well, hello listener. You may be the special listener that actually listened all the way to the end of the podcast. I should say something really special here and I will. Wasn't that a fabulous conversation? I hope you're inspired to go take one of those walks, spend time, a lot of time outside, observing the world, taking pictures, sharing pictures, and we hope that you can say, "we like sharing" too. This conversation, this podcast episode was actually recorded back in January, January 29th, 2025, and we had the full intention of being able to publish this to inspire you before Open Education Week. I don't know what happened. I don't have any excuses, but here we are now quite a few weeks later after Open Education Week. And I really, really encourage you to look in the show notes for the link to We Like Sharing and to really soak in not, just the winners of the competition, but all the ones that have been shared and enjoy the pictures, the whole concept of what it means to encourage that culture of sharing that Bay has spoke so well of. This is another episode of OE Global Voices, the podcast that we do at Open Education Global. Each episode we like to pick a different musical track that somehow connects to the show's topic or theme. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy, but they always come from the Free Music Archive. For today's show, I found a track called "Photo Album" that's very, very appropriate, um from an artist named Crow Is it Crow Wander Crow Ander I don't know Maybe the band has to tell me But this music and this is why we always select the Free music Archive This music is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution which I'm doing here non-commercial license and you'll find this episode on our site Do you know where it is It's Voices dot OE global.org It's on the web and we hope you engage in follow up conversations with our guests in the OEJ community Please please we could really use more conversations there You heard me say please Right and that's at connect dot oe global.org And, if you're listening and you wanna share your open education story, work experience, interest, anything, or suggest a future guest, please let us know. You can visit our website. You can send an email to voices@oeglobal.org. You can take a picture and share it on Flickr. Just let us know and stay tuned for our next episode. We have more coming up very soon.