Life in the Network

This is one of my favorite pictures. It is the dock in Seward Alaska. This summer we took a family vacation and went halibut fishing in Seward. Even though it was mid-June, the weather was misty and very cold - lots of long underwear. After reaching our fishing destination (2 ½ hours out to sea) on a small boat, we were able to fish. That is, those who weren’t too sick could fish. I am proud to say that I was the only one in my family who was able to cast a rod (and I don’t fish). Yes, I did catch a halibut (albeit a small one)! As my teenagers said, we paid a lot of money to get sick. Aahhh but the memories are priceless! When I use this image as a screen saver, it always puts a smile on my face. Too bad I didn't have the camera with me on the boat....

I haven’t heard of Flickr or del.icio.us before this assignment but what an incredibly easy way to circulate photos! The process was entirely simple although I opted for cutting & pasting the code. The folksonomy concept really ties in with Laura Gurak’s discussion on the Internet and it’s uses & understandability by the users. It’s not just understanding how the tool (software) works, but what are the users doing with it, is it being used, and will it require upgrades? Being a light Internet user, I’ve used Google in the past to find images for reports and projects. If I had known about Flickr, my options for digital photos would have increased. This would have been a benefit if the images were tagged with common captions though. For example, I was looking for a photo of an Amaranthus flower. The tag of flower would not have worked for me (too time consuming).

I believe tools such as Flickr are new opportunities for new users to gain confidence and experience on the net. Most people I know that spend time on their computers do so for photo projects. A majority of them do not use computers heavily at work either. I think the internet is a great resource for storage. The choice for public and personal are there. As with everything, discretion and common sense must be used as well.

As Sturtz remarks, “the social aspects and implications of these community-created systems are also of great significance and deserve exploration.� Communication is truly fast and has reachability as Gurak states. We can impact the world faster than ever before. Family and friends are informed immediately of events.