Thing #9: Photo Sharing

What is photo sharing?

You'll be using a website called Flickr to share photos with your friends, or the whole world!Photo sharing is just like swapping snapshots with your friends, only online, and possible easier!

First, check out this fun video which demonstrates how sites like Flickr work.

Why should you know about photo sharing?

Photos are powerful. They communicate feelings, thoughts, concepts, and ideas. Libraries can use this powerful medium to advertise and enhance library services. Look at some things libraries are doing with photos they've shared on sites like Flickr:

Embedded slideshows:

A Walk to the Library - Pima County Public Library
Artists' View - Denver Public Library

Flickr Badge:

Nashville Public Library

Cool Sets:

Albertsons Library - Library in winter, summer and fall sets

History and Special Collections:

Redwood City Public Library

Discovery Exercise

Get a free account at Flickr.com. Flickr is owned by Yahoo!, so if your email is "@yahoo.com," it's even easier!
If you don't have a Yahoo! account already you'll be prompted to create one. Once you do, you'll be directed back to Flickr where you'll see something like this:
(of course you'll want to choose your own screen name!)
Take the Tour! Since this is about sharing photos we recommend uploading a photo as your first activity. Set permissions to "public" (everyone can see them).
Add some things to your profile.

Upload your buddy icon image! This can be a portrait of yourself, or a cartoon image. Flickr members often choose a buddy icon that says something about their personality, often in a fun or witty manner.
Tell us a little about yourself. Share some information about yourself with the world. Remember, "the world" isn't just your friends--it's really the whole world, so nothing too personal! For instance, in your profile you may want to click on "Contact" and keep your personal email address hidden to the public.

Explore Flickr. Add a few photos to your "Favorites."

But what if I don't own a digital camera?

No problem! This exercise is about sharing photos, not honing your photography skills.

You can use someone else's photo, found here: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net (each photo comes in three choices of size; choose the one that says "Price: Free Download").

More information for the curious

Albums

Many photo sharing sites let you create albums. Some sites allow you to chose decorative themes for your covers, like birthday motifs.

Sharing and searching

There are many ways to search and share photos on Flickr. GeekSugar has a great slide show on how to. (Click on the pink "Next" to see the next slide.)

Tagging

Almost all sites allow you to tag the photos you upload. Tags are simply keywords that describe the photos. They are powerful little words, however. They allows people to search across the photos for specific words. (To test this out, try searching for the word haircut in Flickr.)

Friends and Contacts

It wouldn't be 2.0 without people! Yes, you can create friends and contacts inside your photo sharing network. By friending people, you can get notified when they upload new photos.

Private vs. Public

Many sites allow you to keep some photos private, and others public (or all private or all public). You can share even the private ones by sending an invitation to someone to view the photos.

Photo Printing

Some sites offer photo printing services (for a fee).

Other Services

Flickr is but one of many photo sharing sites. Some popular ones include:

Google's Picasa

Since you have a Google account, you might want to explore Google's Picasa. It's a bit different from Flickr.

It's software, so you have to download and install it
It automatically recognizes photos and images on your computer and organizes them by folder
You can create web albums by selecting photos and clicking on a Web Albums button - your photos aren't automatically posted to the web

Good Article about Flickr and how they police it: Nasty as they wanna be? Policing Flickr.com

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