21st October 2006

Photo sharing options

posted in digitalstorytelling, intellectualproperty, socialnetworking |

Flickr is my favorite photo sharing website and has been for over a year– I especially like the free Creative Commons Flickr Search site for finding images for my presentations. In my workshops about digital storytelling for teachers, Flickr Creative Commons is always the #1 website I recommend for finding story images. Not only can images be used legally for republished presentations, but the fact that images are “tagged” by the photographers who upload them helps increase the chances that a search for a particular keyword will actually yield relevant results.

The recently published “Wired Test” magazine (reviewing over 300 different electronic gadgets and gizmos just in time for pre-holiday shopping) includes on page 50 a list of popular photo-sharing sites. The three it mentions I have heard of before are Flickr, Buzznet (popular with MySpace users because of integration with the site) and WebShots. The two I have not heard of or explored much before are:

Tabblo: A browser-based environment for photo-based storytelling using different templates and textual annotation options. Tabblo integrates with Flickr, has privacy controls, supports visitor commenting, and integrates with blogs and other DSN sites.

Zoomr: A photo-sharing service focusing on geo-tagging and connections empowered by geographically linked images, using Google Maps.

I am not an advocate for teachers and students using DSN sites like MySpace at school for instructional purposes, but I DO think there is tremendous power in socially networked photo sharing sites that should be leveraged constructively and appropriately in schools. Digital storytelling projects provide a natural venue for novice and expert learners alike to learn about ways to effectively utilize sites like Flickr Creative Commons, discuss copyright / intellectual property issues, as well as Internet safety and appropriate use.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 at 9:34 pm and is filed under digitalstorytelling, intellectualproperty, socialnetworking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. 1 On October 22nd, 2006, David Stone said:

    Flickr is a great photosharing site! I do like the geo-tagging with Zoomr though. Also, Zoomr is currently giving away free Pro Accounts to bloggers (you must host a picture at Zoomr). The account apparently is free for a year. They have VERY similar attributes as Flickr, and they are “Beta” as of now. The free account stuff is nice if you need to back up several thousand pictures or so for free. Here is info on blogger accounts…
    http://blog.zooomr.com/2006/07/20/more-love-for-bloggers-25gb-free-pro-accounts/
    As for Zoomr Creative Coomons, I am sure one will emerge eventually.