Flickr

The Ease of Use and Creative Tools of Flickr //Chris Mastrogiacomo//

Flickr is a photo-sharing site created by Yahoo! It is a site like many other photo sites, such as Snapfish. But Flickr is better than those sites in that you can add photos, add a blog, join groups, and follow other users. As a social tool, Flickr helps users stay connected in ways that other sites strive to do, but don't do well. For example, people from different parts of the world can join the same group based on an experience they've had. If two people go on the same cruise, or stay at the same hotel in Paris, they can find each other based on groups joined around those experiences. Likewise, people who share the same hobbies/interests can join groups, bringing them closer together around a commonality.

Flickr can be used in an educational setting as well. Students who need to learn about another country, a landmark, or a staple in culture can immediately log into Flickr and be brought to that place through the "Explore" option. They can then ask people who have experience with their lesson about what they are learning. Take the above example of people staying in Paris. If one of those people uploaded pictures of the Louvre, then students could log on, gain first-hand accounts of that landmark, and even chat with the people who uploaded the photos. This not only gives the student a frame of reference, but it also helps them expand the classroom and gain a primary source to their research.

Another way Flickr can be used in the classroom is by the students themselves. If students are involved in an on-campus project, they can take pictures and upload them to their Flickr accounts. If these projects all revolve around a bigger theme, then the projects could then be collaboratively gathered to create a larger-scale classroom project. Students, while doing so, could work with each other through the use of the blog and groups joined on Flickr, allowing them more ways to find information, share information, and put it all together to create a cohesive effect.

Since people can invite others from their contacts, there is also the potential for the comfort level. Parents of students can be invited to the group, other teachers can monitor what the students are doing, and administrators can join the group to see a showcase of student work. This leads to another great aspect of Flickr- the RSS feeds. Much like Twitter or your favorite news group, an RSS feed can be subscribed to, allowing updates to be sent when something changes to the account (new posts, comments, or new followers, for example). With RSS feeds, parents can always be informed and updated with what the class is specifically doing. By subscribing to the feed, they can then log on to their Flickr and see the changes very easily. It's a great way to keep open communication with parents in this regard.

For users outside the classroom setting (or inside, for that matter), organizing material is easy and helps others narrow their search when finding groups to join. Creating "sets" allows users to combine their photos based on theme. Take that previous example of two people being on the same cruise. They may meet, but realize that one lives in Spain and the other lives in California. They very well may never see each other again. But by creating a set on Flickr of their cruise, the two can find each other and continue the friendship that they began on the ship. Who knows- other passengers from the same ship may even join their group!

Another part about the location setting to find other users is that Flickr has a "maps" option. In this, users can drag their photos onto a spot on the map, showing exactly where they took the picture. This, again, opens more communication among users and gives something in common to begin chatting about.

I created a Flickr account for a few reasons. One: I have heard about how great it is by others and wanted to try it. Two: having a [relatively] newborn son, it is imperative that I upload photos for my family, who live around the country. Three: I have had a My Yahoo! account for two years; it is what I use daily as my source of news, hockey updates, mail, weather, and entertainment. I literally rely on My Yahoo! every day. It's what I open when I first get on the computer, and I don't close it until I log off the computer at the end of the day. The fact that Flickr is through Yahoo! and a widget could be made on My Yahoo! page made this a no-brainer. I use My Yahoo! more than anything else- this gives me one more thing I can add to it which I know I will keep up with if it is on the dashboard right in front of me. Four: the cell phone I got recently has Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr on it (weird, since the Droid is Google-owned). Since it's on my phone and I can get my RSS sent straight to it (like I do with Twitter and Facebook, as well as my email), I figured Flickr is well-worth setting up an account. I have to honestly say that I am excited to have this new tool. Flickr on My Yahoo!, RSS sent to my email, and updates sent to my phone will make this a very handy tool for me to continue using. As if those reasons weren't enough to continue with Flickr, the ease of use also blew me away. I usually stray away from programs/applications that are too invovled. Doing too much not only overwhelms me, but deters from the reason I began using them in the first place. Flickr is not like that. Everything is connected; nothing takes you to a page that will not link back to your account. This makes it easy and fool-proof, since you're always directed back to your "photostream", as they call it.

Lastly, through Snapfish, your photos from Flickr can be made into cool prints: calendars, posters, even canvas! And you know it will be done the way you like it since Flickr uses Picnic to allow users to edit their photos. Again- ease of use is critical and pays off.

To say the least, Flickr is an easy tool which allows people to access other people based on what they have in common- experience. It also allows for easy updates, since the updates are sent to the user through RSS. Lastly, the ease of use allows anyone to log on, start a profile, upload pictures, invite friends/family, and join groups all in a matter of minutes (literally, from start to finish with uploading pictures, it took 20 minutes). My only gripe with Flickr is the limit on photos/videos. Per monthly basis, users can only add 100MB of media. After that, you need to upgrade your account. So, on a day like today (May 8th), at the beginning of the month, I would now have to wait until June to upload the rest of my pictures, not including any new ones I take between now and then. However, $24.95 for a year of unlimited photo/video-sharing isn't expensive at all. So for those who want to upload all the thousands of pictures they have and hundreds of videos, upgrading to the "pro" account is for them.