Photo sharing with Flickr
I have been introduced to so much technology on the web since taking this class. What I find so amazing is the vast amount of information sharing that is out there. It has become apparent to me that the Web 2.0 has become a place of mass collaboration popularity. Two things come to mind in regards to my observations about previous readings and applying them to Flickr and our use of it. One is that of open-platforms and the other is intellectual property.
“Flickr provides the basic technology platform and free hosting for photos. Users do everything else. They create their own self-organizing classification system for the site (by tagging photos with descriptive labels.” (Wikinomics, pg. 38). Flickr is very similar to that of del.icio.us in that users tag web sites that are of interest to them and can be shared by anyone that has signed up as a member. Without the collaborative effort from the users, these sites would not exist. In fact, “The culture of generosity is the very backbone of the Internet.” (Wikinomics, pg. 206).
Intellectual property and copyright are topics that we have discussed in this class. It is not always simple to determine who the work belongs to. According to our reading in “Bound by Law”the laws have changed and all creative works are automatically copyrighted. With the growing popularity of sites that encourage group collaboration and information sharing, determining who to give credit for their work has become extremely difficult. Last weeks introduction to Creative Commons and how the Internet fits in with it was very interesting. There are many different types of licenses that can be used to protect creative work. I am particularly interested in that of Attribution (by) since it allows others to distribute, remix, and tweak and build upon work as long as you credit the individual for the original creation.
I found it to be very helpful when searching through Flickr photos that you are able to conduct an advanced search within cc-licensed photos. That way we already know that the images are properly licensed for our purposes and we do not need to modify them in any way.
In conclusion, when using Flickr I think of it’s mass collaboration abilities due to it’s openness to allow anyone to contribute to the site. Intellectual property is also important due to the fact that people are contributing their work and should be recognized for doing so. Overall I found Flickr to be a site that I will not only use for this class, but to share with my family and friends as well.
Comments
The concepts you mention—"open platforms" and mass collaboration--were just words when I first read them in Wikinomics. Using flickr illustrated both very clearly. Being able to create something and to do so collaboratively, is very appealing and explains why flickr is so popular. I wish there were ways to reinterpret some these concepts for applications in the 3D world -- to solve pressing issues like hunger, for example.
Posted by: sara | April 5, 2008 10:18 AM
Collaborative possibility does indeed seem to power Web 2.0, whether it's simply the public spaces for sharing information or the interactive elements like editing and tagging. The IP issues are an interesting but difficult side issue for the user community that add a certain "real-life" seriousness to some of what we do.
On Flickr, until this week I was unaware of the built-in Creative Commons search function. The fact that they have included CC tools as a part of the site's core functionality indicates how important the IP issue really is. At the same time the development of CC itself and promulgation through such a major site is a nice example of how the open, collaborative philosophy of Web 2.0 has matured and driven a solution to a challenging problem.
Posted by: Jim O. | April 6, 2008 09:42 PM