Week Six — online photo sharing

The advantage I am seeing in many of these read/write web tools is that it is a matter of formed communities. What I mean by this is that there are utilities we can use in a self-hosted environment that produce the same results, for example, Gallery and Coppermine installs will provide similar infrastructures to flickr. What those installs can’t do is ensure a community or an audience for the content. flickr can do this. Flickr has succeeded in creating a space where users feel comfortable, either because of its ease of use, its features or its social position in their lives (all my friends are on it). Of course, the diversity represented at flickr also brings with it an incredible opportunity to explore. And, there are certainly some fantastic images on flickr. While many of my friends can waste away hours on FaceBook, I would rather be exploring what’s on flickr.

I think flickr and flickr-like-apps offer flexible functionality, like the “World Map” mash-up and the “Last 7 Days Interesting” explore features. Those can be really appealing and attractive, drawing people in. And, since the community is so large and diverse, more people can contribute these mash-ups, which ensures further, interesting development. One person cannot possibly keep up with 1,000’s.

The Library of Congress’ experiment with flickr is, I think, an outreach method as well as an experiment with social tagging and identification. So, the experiment is an invitation into the treasures held by the LOC, which are vast. I think generally this is a good idea. But the work is duplicated. All the photos currently hosted at flickr have been online on the LOC site for awhile. Now, besides the technical know-how and the time required to tweak the flickr API for easier batch uploading, there are LOC members monitoring the tags and comments and doing follow up, which I imagine is time consuming. How long will they operate like this, I wonder. At some point I would think a decision will have to be made. I cannot really imagine that the LOC will elect to host at flickr exclusively. What I hope they learn from this is that an energized desire to keep not only content fresh and inspiring, but also its delivery method, is an essential element to encourage engagement from their users. I know that I am a person who is interested in all these things because they offer something creative, and useful. Constant development continues to bring not only easier, more user-friendly interfaces, but also unbelievable functionality. I think places like flickr offer a way to truly engage with content.

We could say all these read/write tools are an experiment, a social and technical experiment. What I like so much, in many cases more than I like the product, is the fact that these things aren’t just used by users but they are developed by users. Flickr does not exactly fall into this same category since it is a Yahoo enterprise and has its team of developers, but I think it does embody the spirit of this movement. It might represent a hybrid between these worlds, because they do offer certain parts of the code for open source endeavors– see the developer site for more details. At the very least, the flickr team seems responsible, and dare I say it, excited to be contributing what they do. That makes a difference to me, in terms of what attracts me to these things.

In terms of our assignment, I don’t have a lot to say. I opened a flickr account. I uploaded some photos; I chose a Creative Commons license. I am still sorting through some account settings. Mainly, I am still trying to settle my identity issue. Starting this CE, I have become very conscious of a personal involvement vs. a professional involvement with these tools. My flickr account is right now, a hybrid, and I find that un-settling. I will most likely change this.

I won’t be using flickr in my professional life anytime soon. We are starting with a Drupal site with Gallery integration for photos and videos. We will see how we do there. At the rate we are going, it is very likely that we will re-visit this arrangement. Our needs might evolve. But, I don’t see this for the immediate future, therefore, my flickr participation will be of a strictly personal nature. As a comparison, I do think flickr is easier to use than Picasa. I did not like the client side install required for picasa. And, in general, I found picasa to be a bit clumsy.

For me, the best part about this week was all the reading. Because it was a pretty light week, as the instructors warned it would be, I did take advantage of that by reading the LOC info on their project and especially the Creative Commons. I love the passion and the capacity of the people behind these things. I have loved the LOC since college, during which I stumbled upon the FSA photos. In terms of my college work, I was most satisfied with the work I did on studying this collective. Compared with the accessibility of today, I was fumbling in the dark. I did not ever see the 77,000 images created for the core unit. I relied on books and the choice of the author for prints. Now, I can see them all for myself; anyone can. They are online. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the possibilities, really. But, even as most of these photos are said to be in the public domain, I’m still not clear on which ones, even with the information the LOC provides. That’s why I like Creative Commons so much. Its terms seem much clearer to me because it does not simply identify copyright but it defines use, which is incredibly helpful. The Creative Commons seems like the very best of collaboration to balance all this activity going on in this read/write world.

And, that’s week six…