Week 3: Photos and Images

Thing #5: Discover Flickr

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. Within the past year, Flickr has become the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people and other libraries are using Flickr for.


Discovery Exercise:

In this discovery exercise, you have two options…

1. Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or, if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post. Another option you have for including images in your post is to use Blogger's photo upload tool. Netiquette alert: Even if the photo has a "blog this" icon above their photo, (See this photo to get an idea of what I mean) it is still a nice idea to tell the photo's owner that you are posting it in your blog post. Send the person a message (you can do this by clicking on the person's profile) or post a comment on the picture. It is also nice to provide the person with the link to your post, too.
   
   -- OR --
   
   
   
   
2. If you're up to an easy challenge ... create a Free account in Flickr and use a digital camera to capture a few pictures of something in your branch. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images “SPL2.0” and mark it public. Then create a post in your blog about your photo and experience. Be sure to include the image in your post. Once you have a Flickr account, you have two options for doing this: through Flickr's blogging tool or using Blogger's photo upload feature.

So go ahead, explore the site and have some Flickr photo fun and if you're interested in looking at some photo hosting sites, then check out this Wired story.

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.

P.P.S. The photo above is one that I took and have uploaded on Flickr. I used the Blogger Upload Feature to link to it from this post.

Thing #6: More Flickr Fun
Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images. Here are just a sampling of a few …

• Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map



• Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.



• Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.

Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.


Discovery Exercise:
Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to:
Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there.
Create a blog post about one that intrigues you. A really fun tool is FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker. And there’s a ton of librarians out there that have created their own Librarian Trading Card. So have some fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps. And if you're up to the challenge while you’re at it, why not create a trading card of your own. :)

*Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map).
In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com/).

Thing #7: Blog about Technology
For this thing, simply blog about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! You just need to share a few thoughts." PS: Also be sure add at least one comment to another participant's blog. That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication. :)

To Review, Week Three Activities are:

1. Explore Flickr and post a photo from Flickr on your blog.


2. Play with a Flickr Mashup and create a blog post about one that interests you.


3. Blog about anything technology related and comment on another participant's blog.

Questions? Please feel free to ask in the comments section or e-mail one of the 2.0 committee members.

Have fun!