13. Explore 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 becoming 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 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 (list also here) are using Flickr for. Don't forget MRRL has a flickr account, take some time to explore it.

Resources:
Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)
Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials
Flickr: Popular tags Interesting- Last 7 days
Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups) and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries the Flickr

Exercise:
In this 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 an 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.

2. Of if you're up to an easy challenge... If You have a digital camera or can borrow one... OR if you have pictures on a CD - Create a Free account in Flickr, and take few pictures. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images 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 why not check out this blog for recommendations & this Wired story.

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) it is 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.