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 Resources:
· Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)
· Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials
· Flickr: Popular tags and Interesting- Last 7 days
· Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups)
and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr, including Alameda County Library.
Discovery Exercise: In this discovery exercise, you have two options…
a. 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 the WordPress photo upload tool.
– OR –
b. If you’re up to an easy challenge … create a Free account in Flickr and use your location’s 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 “acl20” 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 to add a photo to your blog: through Flickr’s blogging tool or using the WordPress 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 why not check out Jamie’s recommendations & this Wired story.
PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette – When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it policy of ACL to get the person’s permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Do not upload pictures without consent by the photographer and give credit.
#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
· Mosaic Maker– 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:
1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there.
2. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you.
Personally one of my favorite tools 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).PS: Library 2.0 image created by Spell with Flickr. See more examples at here.
#7 Blog about Technology
Discovery Exercises (a & b):
(a) 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. A paragraph will do.
(b) Add at least one comment to another participant’s blog. That’s what online communities are all about – connecting and communication.
Okay, so I’m supposed to enter my blogline url to number 7. What is my blogline url and how is that different from my blog url?
Actually your Blogline account is part of Week 4, not Week 3. You will get a Blogline account and within your account you will have your url.
#7 url will be the link to your blog comments (usually the basic url + date +the title) about technology. Fox example: http://susan1000.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/sharing-photos/
Okay. I was a little confused because on the checklist #7 has a space to enter the blogline url and when I entered the link to my blog it told me that that the line was too long. So I thought it might be something else. I’ll try entering the link again.
Thanks
Rebecca–you were right. The two url spots (Week 3 and 4) are reversed. We will get it straightened out! Thank you for your questions.
The two address boxes for Week 3 and Week 4 have been fixed. Week 3 is a permalink to your post in your blog and Week 4 is your Bloglines url. Many apologizes for any confusion this may have caused. My bad.
Hello everyone. I am hoping I can get some help with Flickr- Ok I uploaded my two photos onto my Flickr acct_Now i am having trouble with adding the photos to my blog on Acl 2.0’s Blog on wordpress….Please help. I got stuck when I was ask to enter my APL?????
from the FAQ’s:
Posting Photos from Flickr
Flickr is a wonderful place where you can upload photos for free. They take care of resizing and you can even leave notes and comments on each photo. What’s even better is that with just a few clicks, you can post a photo from Flickr onto your WordPress blog. Here’s how:
Sign up for a Flickr account
Log on to flickr.com and go to Your Account
Under the Blogging heading, click Your Blogs
Click Set up a new blog
Select WordPress blog and click Next
Enter the API endpoint:
http://yourblogname.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php (example not a link)
Enter your WordPress.com login and password and click Next
Finish the form (it may have been changed)
When you want to blog a photo, look for the Blog This button right above it (you may have to click the photo first to make the buttons appear above it)
In the popup, click your blog’s name and finish the form that appears.
Give this a try and let me know if you have problems. I think maybe the explanation about the API above will help.
I’ve gotten this far and now I am wondering how to get my blog and the small picture I created of Lake Elizabeth (from another web page) over to the other URL page where the blogs are.
Save your photos to your computer, log on to your blog and upload the photos while in the Write section.
How do you save the spelling with Flckr?
Pat you should be able to right-click and save as to your computer
Also, you can copy and past the html into Write using the Code not Visual tab.
You must use [img XXX(html)]. So put the code of the spelling between the brackets and use the “img” with the first bracket as shown.Update: You don’t even need the [img]