This can be found at my Flickr site:
Hello everyone!
This photo is one I took of my nephew. Though it seems like yesterday, he is now 18! He was the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so you can imagine how spoiled he could have become. However, he's a gentle giant (about 6'3") and very witty, though you have to warm up to him sometimes to find that out. I wanted a photo of the pepper from the plant I grew from seed (new for me) this winter--but it was not to be. Maybe later.
Flickr was a new discovery for me. I forage for images at Yahoo and Google from time to time to create interest in flyers and posters for work. I try to keep a backlog of interesting images, but sometimes have to search for subject matter. A subject search on Flickr for 'babies' brought up some interesting choices, many of them not babies--but that is what I am guessing the inexactness of the folksonomy Sturtz addressed.
I have to confess using the photos of other people I have harvested from the Internet has sometimes given me pause. I even asked University Relations about this matter--using Internet photos for posters. They did not seem to have a problem with it, though, which surprised me.
What I liked about Flickr was the opportunity users had to create a point of view without having to create their own blog. I sometimes worry about all the lonely blogs out there--open diaries without readers--or too many readers demanding updates. There were topical photos, such as the Devon oil spill, and the chance to add commentary. It would have been an interesting site to see when Katrina hit the deep South--both photos and commentary. I think that is the power of some of this technology, as we have been hearing lately--finding news even the news doesn't know is news. This also goes along with Gurak's point (Cyberliteracy, Chapt. 1) that the Internet creates opportunities whose "centers are everywhere, and margins are nowhere."
I also thought that Gurak's assertion that most Internet sites are U.S-centric, and if you want to go deeper, white male centric was interesting. I'm not in the habit of surfing sites in languages I don't understand, so I had no way of knowing it that was the case. I have to differ with her opinion that cable is a wasteland (I think she meant in the community service sense though). We cut our cable recently to the basic basic, and I am mourning the loss of several shows deeply--almost to the point of wearing a black armband. I think if community access production values were better, more people would watch it. It is like the Internet. You can have the most interesting IDEA for a show/website in the world, but if you have poor sound/poor visuals, bad direction/bad flow, monotone talent/uninteresting text, who will want to stay tuned? I think design is so underrated in just about everything.
That's why built-in design, like Movable Type and Flickr is so exiting for techno-plebes like me. If you simply plug in some information, you get this personal richness. People are understandably careful these days about images and identity. But there is something incredibly personal about an image you experienced (if you took the photo, you had to be there, right?) and value. I think sharing them, and being able to share them is a gift.
