Even if you’ve never used Flickr, I might guess that you’ve heard mention of it. Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took Flickr, a small startup site, to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full-blown online community. Within the past few years, Flickr has become one of the most-popular photo sharing sites on the web. It’s become so popular that even libraries are creating accounts, which emphasizes the online community aspect even more. Flickr is also known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site. (And if you’re not familiar with tagging, fret not! We’ll cover that even closer in Week 6!)
So, for this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Learn 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 about which you want to blog. 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. Another option you have for including images in your post is to use Blogger’s photo uploading tool.
– OR – - If you’re up to an easy challenge… create a Free account in Flickr and use your location’s digital camera to capture a few pictures of something in your branch. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images “L&P@CML” and mark it public. Then, create a post in your blog about your photo and your experience with Flickr. 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.
I’d like to point out that here with Thing #5 is when you will be entering the perma link, the URL that is unique to the individual blog post, into the Tracking Log on CMLsi. You will not enter your blog’s main URL from here on out. If you are still not sure how to find a post’s perma link, see the Track Your Progress Page here on the Learn & Play blog.
Have fun! I can tell you that Flickr can easily become addictive! 
P.S. 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.
P.P.S. And in case you’re wondering … the photo in this post is of a sculpture at the Inniswoods Metro Gardens. I used the “blog this” tool inside Flickr to add it to this post.
[...] and you either already have a Flickr account, or if you created one in the Discovery Exercise for Thing #5, use the tool and include a link to it in your post, or upload it for everyone to see! (For [...]
I’ll take this opportunity to spread the word/remind everyone that CML has a Flickr account we use for the teens site. Teens sharing their photos on our site = awesome.
OK… when I post from my flickr account, it posts in a different html layont on my blogspot. True for you, too?
[...] to do this week…I’ll post my experiences with them as I get them done! First, for thing #5, we’ll look at Flickr, find a cool picture, and post it to your blog. I created a Flickr [...]
Hi, medimary,
My layout did not change, but I don’t know if you’re referring to how you choose the alignment or something else. At any rate, were you eventually able to get it to work the way you wanted it to? I hope so!!
Has anyone else had a similar problem as mediamary did? If so, let us know!
[...] been a little busy since last week with getting my stepdaughter off to college. Conveniently, our task this week is to investigate and play with Flickr, which I was doing anyway in order to document the [...]
Hi Joy– I just wanted to let you know that the link this this sentence: “and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr!” does not work:
http://www.librarystuff.net/2006/06/libraries-that-flickr.html
The page that comes up reads, “Not Found. Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn’t here.”
Flickr seems like a lot of fun! I will have to take more time to play around with it. How do you add a picture to this blog?
[...] & Pieces’s favorite thing about Learn & Play is Flickr. Using Flickr has inspired her to share some amazing photos from her recent [...]
[...] when you get to the end of the program. Each “thing” gets a blog post, starting with Thing #5, Flickr. Things 3 and 4 are where where you enter the main URL for your blog in the Tracking Log. Each post [...]
Hey this is nice enuff.