Week 3 More Flickr

#6 More Flickr fun
Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site.Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images.Here is just a sampling of a few …

• Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map
• Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
• Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.

Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools. An interesting site showcasing mashups is the Mash Up Awards .

Discovery Exercise:

Your discovery exercises for this “thing” are to:

1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there.
2. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you.

• Suggested tools to use are FD Toys’ Trading Card Maker.
• And there’s a ton of librarians out there that have created their own Librarian Trading Card.
• So have some fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps.And if you're up to the challenge while you’re at it, why not create a trading card of your own. :)

* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map). In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com/).

Continue on to Week 3, Thing 7

The image above was created by txt2pics

Week 3 Flickr

#5 Discovering Flckr

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 couple of years, Flickr has become 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 good 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 are using Flickr for.

So go ahead, explore the site and have some Flickr photo fun. If you want to learn more you can check out the Wikipedia entry on Flickr & and if you're interested in looking at some photo hosting sites, see this Wired story (note, some links in the Wired article do not work anymore).

Discovery Resources:

• Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)



• Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials



• Flickr: Popular tags



• Flickr: Interesting- Last 7 days



• Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups).

Discovery Exercise:

In this discovery 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 a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post.

OR

2. If you have access to a digital camera you might like to upload a picture to Flickr.
i) To upload a photo, first save your photo to your computer (or USB).
ii) Go to the flickr website at http://www.flickr.com/
iii) Sign in
iv) Click on upload photos.
v) Click on browse and locate where you have saved your photo (you can upload more than one photo at once).
vi) You can add tags describing your photo at the bottom of the page. Tag at least one of the images “Owhatageek” and mark it public.
vii) Click upload to complete the process.
viii) 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.

For more exploration:

• You might also try searching Flickr for “Omaha Public Library” and see what comes up! Other things to explore include the Nebraska Library Commission and Nebraska Memories.
  
• Other photosharing and photography websites include http://www.snap.com/, http://www.fotolia.com/, http://www.slide.com/, and http://www.dumpr.net/

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

Don't forget to label this post on your blog #5 Flickr and talk about what you have learned doing this activity.

Continue on to Week 3, thing 6

The web 2.0 button at the top comes from txt2pics