Thing #11 - Photosharing with Flickr

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Above images created by Spell with Flickr, using Flickr One Letter photo pool. Click any letter to see original image with attribution and CC license.

Introduction

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 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.

You may have noticed that nearly every lesson in this course includes a photograph or image that relates visually to the content. Most images used in MISD 23 Things come from the Flickr Creative Commons collection. In Thing 10, you learned how Creative Commons allows users to publish their original work on the web, and give legal permission to others to use, adapt and remix the work. "Flickr CC" currently includes over 60 million photos, from users all over the world.

This video from our friends at Common Craft explains what photosharing is all about.


Online Photosharing in Plain English



In fact, the social power of Flickr comes from tagging, which is the process of adding meaningful keywords to photos (or any type of content). If you’ve ever used a subject heading in a library catalog or written names or places on the back of a photograph, you’re already familiar with tagging! Flickr's public photo tags are visible to the whole community, so the entire collection becomes organized and categorized, searchable and browsable. Flickr users can also comment on each others' photos and create Groups to develop photo pools (shared photo collections) and have discussions about any topic or interest.


IMPORTANT! Tagging and Folksonomies - Two Defining Attributes of Web 2.0
Photo tagging is an example of a folksonomy, an important Web 2.0 concept that refers to the collaborative organizing of content by everyday users. Unlike a highly structured, professionally developed and controlled taxonomy (such as library subject headings), a folksonomy evolves over time, as more users add more tags to more content. Tagging is a bit messy, can be very individualized, and is non-heirarchical (i.e. there are no "sub-tags"); For example, a photo of your dog may be tagged as dog, beagle, rover and even cute if that means something to you. (Also, tags cannot have spaces, e.g. chocolate chip cookie is actually three tags, whereas chocolate_chip_cookie (or chocolatechipcookie) is one tag.

The concept of tagging is not unique to Flickr. Many Web 2.0 services incorporate tagging to add user-defined value and organization. Bloggers often tag their posts, and clicking on their tags may take you to a listing of all of their own posts tagged as such, or possibly a listing of ALL KNOWN blog entries tagged as such.

You may recall that in the Thing 2 video, The Machine is Us/ing Us, in reaction to the explosion of digital content on the Web, Michael Wesch asks the question: "Who will organize all this data?" His answer (the answer): We will - using TAGS!

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, schools, and libraries are using Flickr for. The Library of Congress even has a Flickr account with more than 3,000 photos that you are invited to tag!

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Discovery Exercise:

NOTE: The discovery exercises and task do not require you to JOIN Flickr, but you are certainly welcome/encouraged to do so -- a good place to start if you want to join Flickr is the official Flickr Tour.


IMPORTANT! Please be mindful as you explore Flickr that not all images are free to use! Just because you can view it and you know how to capture it doesn't mean you have permission to use it. The good news is, Flickr currently has over 60 million images licensed under Creative Commons, and also, many Flickr photographers will graciously give permission for educational and classroom use of their photos. Incidentally, this same concept holds true for Google or other image searches. We are responsible for honoring copyright, seeking permission, citing sources and teaching these essential ethics to our students. Don't forget to check out that WONDERFUL Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Education.

Expect to spend at least an hour "roaming" in Flickr -- the time should fly by, as you are exploring an amazing resource and this should be FUN!

Part 1: Explore Flickr (~15 min)
Spend a few minutes just getting to know Flickr. One of the best ways to do that is visit the Explore page, where you can check out: Most Interesting Photos, Most Popular Tags, Places & Maps, Groups, and general Search. (Try browsing and sample searching in each of these modes). Flickr treats each search word as a separate tag, so you may have better results using phrases, e.g. "long island" or compound tags, e.g. long_island or longisland. You just have to experiment.

Part 2: Find some photos in the CC (~15-30min, depending on your personality and chosen search task!)
Pick a concept, topic or theme of your choice (preferably something you could use in your teaching or professional learning) and search the Flickr Creative Commons to find 3-5 (or more if you choose) photos matching the theme (or telling the story, or supporting the idea or topic).Download the LARGE (unless it's really big) size of each photo (easiest to save them all to a single folder), being sure to save the photo page URL and photographer's username (try pasting them into a Word document or bookmarking them on your computer) so that you can give credit.

You will be invited to use these images to create an embeddable slideshow in Thing 12.

An easy way to search all CC photos is to use Flickr Advanced Search and check the box that says "Only search within CC licensed photos." (If you click the regular Search without entering a keyword, you will return a search box that allows you to select Advanced Search).

Part 3: Explore some Educational Possibilities for Flickr (~15-30 min)
You can't help it, you are teachers, and you want to know about the educational possibilities of Flickr. For a mere start, take a look at some of these resources and examples:

Collections of Ideas

Individual Lessons/Examples

Further Resources (provided for your reference)


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 (and a link) when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog, wiki, slide presentation or digital story.

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Learning Activity:

 Select one of the themed/topical photos you downloaded in Part 2 above. Insert the photo via link or by upload, so that it appears WITHIN a blog post (see this page for help) in which you reflect on your Flickr experience. Please share some things you learned about Flickr, the topic/theme you selected for your search, and any ideas you have for using Flickr (or other photo sharing tool) to support your own teaching and learning. Be sure to post an attribution -- or, credit -- to the photographer, in the form of his or her username and a link to the photo page). Be sure to include "Thing 11" in your post title.

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Stretch Activity

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 are a few examples of mashups that use Flickr:
  • 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.
  • Mosaic Maker – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.
  • Clockr - uses random photos to display the time.
  • Big Huge Labs offers a round-up of Flickr tools.
  • Spell with Flickr - spells out your word or phrase with photos from Flickr.
  • Splashr lets you present your Flickr photos in a different view.
  • Create puzzles from your Flickr photos.
Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.

Your stretch activity for this “thing” is to:
  1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are listed here.
  2. Use the mashups to create something then upload one or more of your creations to your blog (most will give easy to follow instructions somewhere on the site about how to copy the code needed and where to place it on your blog).
  3. In your post, talk about some ways Flickr and/or Flickr mashups could be used in your classroom, library or personal life. What are your feelings about sharing photos online?
Have some fun discovering and exploring some of these neat little apps, but be careful. Playing with these tools can be habit-forming. You may discover that you have a new hobby!

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