# 5 Flickr and Photo sharing
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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.
Discovery Resources:
- Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)
- Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials
- Flickr: Popular tags
- Interesting- Last 7 days
- Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups)
and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr.
Discovery Exercise:
In this discovery exercise, you have two options…
- 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 to your post. To access the ‘blog this’ function click on the image you want. This will open it up with a series of icons along the top. Click the ‘blog this’ tab. You will be asked to configure a blog to post it to. Click on Wordpress from the dropdown menu.
You will be asked for an API Endpoint address. This will look like this: http://your.blog.address/xmlrpc.php and then you enter your username and password for your blog.
2 . Take a photo and post it to your blog. To upload a photo, first save your photo to your computer (or USB).
- Go to the flickr website at http://www.flickr.com/
- Create an account and sign in (remember your account details).
- Click on upload photos.
- Click on browse and locate where you have saved your photo (you can upload more than one photo at once).
- You can add tags describing your photo at the bottom of the page.
- Click upload to complete the process.
Something else to look at:
You might also like to take a look at the National Library Picture Australia website
- Click on the flickr icon on the front page and you will be led to a display of images the National Library have used from flickr.
This is part of the National Library’s 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. - Other photosharing and photography websites include www.fotolia.com, www. slide.com, and www.dumpr.net.
- Bubbleshare is a great alternative. Give it a go!
Another fascinating photo sharing site is VoiceThread. This site allows you to upload photos and videos but also add an audio narration or commentary. It is a moderated safe forum for schools and children’s projects. Check it out!
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.