Flickr, task 5

I created a Flickr account and here is a slide show that I created there:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88917988@N00/sets/72157594574238117/show/

As I explored this site, I was amazed at the photos that people have taken. It was very inspiring and made me want to run out and start taking more photos! One of the features I really liked was call "interestingness" where photos are chosen based on certain things such as comments, tags, or how often it's marked as a favorite. I was mesmerized by the range of photos there, people are so creative and talented! Check it out (click the "reload" button to get more):

http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/

Tagging is important for finding photos in Flickr that have a certain element you may be looking for. If people tag their photo with certain words that describe the photo, then when you search for something in Flickr, it will find those photos that are tagged. For instance, I searched for "tiger", which is a broad term and found photos of butterflies, sharks, a baseball park, and of course, tigers! The more terms you put in, the less photos you'll get. Another search I tried was "tiger water play" which resulted in a more focused photo set.
Metadata like tags have been used for a long time in libraryland so it's interesting to see it being used by "civilians" now.

I looked at the user group page and searched for groups based on birds. I found some fun ones. One was called "Bird Identification Help Group" where you could post your photo of a "mystery" bird and others could help you identify it. I thought that was pretty cool! Online communities like this one are useful for sharing ideas, etc. on the internet. The great thing about them is that there are no geographic limits and it is basically free.