#10 Discover Flickr

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.

Flickr is one of the fastest growing
photo sharing site on the web. Keyword tags, as discussed in last week's exercises were first used by Flickr 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. Explore tags further, see what groups are, and examples of how people and other libraries are using Flickr.

Discovery Resources:

Browse the following resources about Flickr.

• Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)

• Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials


• Flickr: Popular tags
  Interesting- Last 7 days


• Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups)
  
• Look at the National Library Picture Australia website. Click on the flickr icon on the front page and you will be lead to a display of images the National Library have used from Flickr
  This is part of the National Library vision of building a comprehensive pictorial record of Australian history . You may also like to view the media release from the National Library about this collaborative project

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about.
   
2. Add an image to your blog a)You can create your own account for Flickr then use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post OR b) Login to Flickr using the SLV Flickr account (slvlearning@yahoo.com.au Password is library) to upload a photo to your blog saving to your PC first.
   

To upload a photo to your blog:

• Save the photo you want to upload to your computer (either by a right mouse click for the image or click on the file and save as from the menu bar)
• Log into your blog and go to a new post.
• Click on the Add image icon along the top of the post editing page.
• This will open a window where you can browse your computer for the image you have saved
• Click on upload image and it should appear on your blog.
• After you have uploaded the image to your blog you will be able to move it around the page.
• Click publish post to make the post live on your blog.

Optional Exercise:
If you have access to a digital camera you might like to upload a picture to flickr.

1. To upload a photo first save your photo to your computer (or USB)
2. Go to the flickr website at http://www.flickr.com/
3. Sign in (using the SLV login and password
   
4. Click on upload photos
5. Click on browse and locate where you have saved your photo (you can upload more than one photo at once
6. You can add tags describing your photo at the bottom of the page
7. Click upload to complete the process.

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.