Wow, after a slew of posts from other people, it’s back to just me.
I’ve documented my affection for Flickr in the past. Recently, Rich put me on to another reason to love Flickr.
Groups.
While I was at OpenWorld, I was chatting with Rich about a little iPhone hobby I have. I like to take pictures of signs that interest me.
Interesting is a pretty broad category; some I find funny, others dumb. Some have good UI, i.e. they use the relatively constraining stick person on yellow palate to convey a pretty difficult meaning.
Rich suggested I create a Flickr group for them. So, I did. Check out my collection and feel free to join and add your own shots or comment on mine.
Yesterday, Paul blogged his own personal passion for documenting bad design. This is great stuff, and I actually find myself evaluating the design of everyday objects too. Incidentally, I’m still puzzled with the coffee cup design. It’s like a lawsuit creator. I wonder if that was an irregular lot that fell off a truck or something.
Anyway, I suggested Paul create a Flickr group for his bad design Hall of Shame, and he promptly did. It’s also public, so join up and contribute your thoughts and samples.
So, what’s the big deal?
Well, beyond offering another way for people to coalesce around a subject they find interesting, they can discuss and contribute their own content, e.g. the FAIL Blog, I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER, or even something small like my geek-speak slides.
I’ll bet a lot of people use their camera phones or digital cameras to take snapshots of things they find interesting, so why not create a hobby around this activity? My wife walks around town a lot, walking dogs, and during the Spring, she collected a bunch of shots of the flowers of Portland. I’m willing to bet this would be a popular group.
Flickr offers a quick and easy way to build up an ad hoc community through groups. They even list “Groups we’ve noticed” if you’re interested in browsing new, cool, or popular groups.
The huge plus that sites like Flickr and SlideShare offer is a way to expose content you’ve created to a wider audience and license it under Creative Commons. So, you can promote your work and ensure you get credit for it all in one package.
I doubt my group or Paul’s will become a huge group, but I’m sure they will attract seemingly random interest, very similar to what I noticed with my geek-speak slides. I enjoy watching these random effects.
So, check out our groups and contribute if you like. And share your groups if you have any.
So, another +1 for Flickr. What do you think? Find the comments.
Cool group! I won a coffee-table book from this contest last year: http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/garage… (I had sent in the wrong link on that last one, it was supposed to be http://www.flickr.com/photos/joel_garry/1425406… and he properly ignored this famous one http://www.flickr.com/photos/joel_garry/1425406… ) The one I wish I had gotten was http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/26/local/m… don't know if it is still up since I'm taking the train. (for the record, I think the minutemen are jerks)
Thanks. Feel free to join the group and post your signs. I love those giant highway billboards along the coast way south of LA. I've always wanted to get a picture of the southbound ones right that are right by the ocean, near Oceanside I think. Apparently, I need to be cautious because people run out of the water and into the highway. Maybe they're flying through a wormhole from Hawaii or something. Or maybe they're mer-people.