Sunday, February 1, 2009

Thing #5: Flickr me, Flickr you

I've had a Flickr account in the past, but stopped using it because the amount of free space they offered was too limited for my photographic needs. My friends and family much prefer using other photo sharing/hosting websites such as Kodak Gallery or Photobucket because we take A LOT of pictures.



The first time I ever heard of Flickr the first thing that came to my mind (honestly) was a kid flicking the boogers out of his nose... or that paper game we used to play "flicker football" where we literally flicked a piece of paper between the thumb and forefinger across a two-thumb and two forefinger setup for a "field goal." ;-)



I did find it interesting to learn about how photo tagging on Flickr can help index photos much like catalogers catalog our books and media to allow for more photo sharing. I was especially interested to learn about "machine" tagging which is being used already by Last.fm Is this the "Jetson" technology they warned us about? Will the machines take over the world and will the humans just be the subjects in the camera lens?

Machine Tags, last.fm and Rock’n'Roll

I like that Flickr has geotagging capabilities too, which allows the tagger to place a location for where the picture was taken.

When I clicked on libraries I searched for something familiar or interesting to me, so I clicked on the ALA - The American Library Association's photostream page and found all kinds of conference and event pictures, so I can see how that could also apply to us locally for our programs and events. I think that Flickr offers the equivalent of their PRO account to nonprofit groups for free as long as they can provide proof of nonprofit status.

The Clemens and Alcuin libraries "add a note" features to highlight books in their collections are very creative and useful. I agree, it is a very cool use of Flickr in a library,though I think may be time-consuming to set up.
Burger King Lear??? NOW I'm hungry! Maybe I need some Lord of the Fries?! ;-)


Fortunately for me my cousin just happened to send me a link this week to his Flickr gallery of a photo "recipe" for Muddy Chicken Soup, so hopefully it will satisfy requirements for uploading pictures and my food cravings! Mmmmm, it does look tasty!