Flickr Likes and Dislikes
Okay, another thing just made me say “wow” I just watched the Flickr geotagging demo and it makes me wish I had a digital camera for all of my trips when I was in my 20s…Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Wyoming, Texas, Washington (both state and DC), and other points west and south. I could have created an amazing record of my “traveling before I grow up” life. But instead, I have many photo albums with my own handwritten tags.
And now I’ve just spent the last 2 hours looking for photos in Flickr and my back hurts…bad posture tonight. But luckily, I’m finding some photos for the chronology and the political repercussions, including one with construction workers protesting for transportation funding and another that says, “Governor, we have a problem.” Happy I found those two.
Here’s what I like and dislike about Flickr so far:
Like:
• Some amazing shots of the bridge (and many other things non-bridge related). I wonder if some of these people were nearby with cameras before the surrounding area was shut down, or if they were working, or just had a great telephoto.
• People will take a picture of anything and everything.
• I can download different sizes of the photo.
• People can comment on the photos…good and bad comments.
• It’s anonymous…I may actually post some photos of my own and see what comments I get. In the meantime, I can lurk.
• Photo creators are generous enough to allow us to use their photos. I like the Creative Commons licensing.
• I can sort by most relevant, most recent, etc. and can use either thumbnails or details.
Dislike:
• Some blurry shots...why bother uploading them?
• People will take a picture of anything and everything.
• Tagging seems to be an inexact science, so it can be hard to find exactly what I want.
As for how it relates to our previous readings, it’s everything we’ve studied so far this semester—it is social, tagged, interactive, and wiki-like—all mixed together.
Social – I did some browsing through random photos. Skipped kid photos, Scientology protest photos, and a bike rally; focused more on landscapes and oddness. In Wikinomics, Tapscott is talking about del.icio.us, but his description works for Flickr too: “People who use similar tags are likely to have similar interests. Those shared interests provide an incentive to find out what other like-minded people are bookmarking” (42). In Connect!, Zalenka states, “Try social networking websites to show yourself as a three-dimensional human and to see other people in the same way” (270). Flickr could easily be used to build personal relationships.
Tagged – All photos are tagged, some better than others, but tagged nonetheless. I saw some photos of the bridge (without humans) that were tagged with Carol Molnau and Tim Pawlenty…huh?!? I think the photographer went overboard on Zalenka’s second tip for tagging (“Use lots of tags” [124]). I can only assume the tags make sense to him. Wikinomics says “…tagging…becomes the basis for learning new things and making connections to new people” (42). Sounds social to me.
Interactive – Flickr is also interactive and social. As a photographer, I can upload my photos to share them and see what comments are made. As a viewer, I can make positive or negative comments.
Wiki-like – In the wiki-world, the photographer would allow anyone to alter their work. I’m not sure I actually saw any that were altered, but there may have been one. One photo said something like Additional small branch upper right, but I’m not sure it was an altered photo because it didn’t say anything about an original source and it looked like something from a newspaper.
Tapscott says “The new art and science of wikinomics is based on four powerful new ideas: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally” (Wikinomics, 20). Flickr has all of these ideas.
Comments
I have to agree that Flickr has pros and cons to it. I do like the fact that you can sort by most relevent and recent photos pertaining to our areas of interest. It definitely makes choosing photos much easier. The fact that the photo creators are gererous to post their photos and share with us to use is so beneficial. There are so many great shots of the bridge and everything pertaining to that day that wouldn't be available without this site. The major problem that I experienced using this site was that with tagging. Some photos are tagged in such a way that would probably only make sense to the creator. Also some of the photos available aren't all that clear and a bit blurry. All in all though, I do have to say that Flickr is a great site and I will continue to use it even after taking this course.
Posted by: Tracy J | April 4, 2008 10:40 AM
I found a video interview with the co-founders of flickr in which they compared flickr to a photo album that's a stream of photos. And its global. Flickr is like a planetary (and maybe galactic) photo album. Seeing all the ways people use it, I am also impressed with how hyper social it is. In fact, I feel like I'm real hermit compared to the thousands or millions of flickr members, and members of all the other social networks. It seems like a great way to meet people but at the same time it can be isolating. One of my co-workers for example, complains that she lost her husband to flickr! I suppose it's all about maintaining a good balance between the online and off-line worlds.
Posted by: Sara | April 5, 2008 09:59 AM
No question the pros/cons to a resource like Flickr are going to be different by user, but I think that's certainly a useful approach to assessing all of these web 2.0 applications.
On tagging, to me it's an unlimited positive. Although some people can add tags that don't seem to make sense, I've noticed that such takes tags can force us to pay closer attention and perhaps see a connection or context of which we were previously unaware. Even when it really is unrelated, any tag is easy to ignore. The real problem for sharing with the community are those with only their title or extremely minimal tags. As long as a photo (or del.icio.us link, etc.) has a good core of tags, it's going to serve the purpose.
Posted by: Jim O. | April 6, 2008 08:10 PM