The fact that the website has been launched has brought with it the need to reconsider certain things that are not directly related to mushrooms. A publicly accessible, image-centric database should have some kind of ‘ars poetica’ regarding the conditions it sets for its visitors concerning the further use of its content. I have already started gathering these considerations under the ‘Information’ section, and they will likely be expanded later, but I would like the open approach to the use of images to remain one of the guiding principles of fungexpo.
Currently, this is what can be read in the menu in response to the question ‘Can I download images from fungexpo? Can I use them elsewhere?’: ‘We made the website public because we intend it for the public. If you like any image, feel free to save it! If you want to use it for educational purposes (e.g., school presentations, image illustrations for articles, etc.), we have no objections (we would appreciate proper attribution…). The only thing we ask is that you do not alter the images, keep the watermark, and use the species images with the species identification found on fungexpo! If you want to use an image for a non-educational purpose (e.g., for advertising) and/or wish to use it in print without the watermark, in higher resolution, please contact us, and we can arrange it separately: szerzok@fungexpo.eu!’
We see many examples in nature, and with mushrooms as well, that opening up is the fundamental condition for blossoming. As we can see in the picture with the splitting earthstar egg, or in the short video with Geastrum corollinum example.. It is good to experience. It is good to gather knowledge. But claiming the acquired experiences and knowledge as our own, and appropriating them, is something that separates us from our environment. So, all in all: fungexpo is public because we intend it for anyone who can benefit from it. We are not closing ourselves off from anything, especially modern endeavors – such as machine learning for AI systems, since we ourselves have used a lot of AI resources in the creation of the website, and in several cases, we have used artificial intelligence models developed for this purpose for mushroom identification. The key is openness and communication.
