The Mailowl Scrolls

I manage to get myself to a lot of parties and community events; and with me always goes my trusty camera. I’ve even earned the title of “He who hath no shame” on the NAG Forums for shooting everyone at a social, preferably in a compromising position.

My ability to share my photos with you is as important as it is to blog about these events and whatever else is on my mind, and so a gallery tool is high on my list or requirements for personal web space. Up steps Flickr with its myriad of ways to upload, manage and present any collection of photos you care to name.

But more than that, it’s a prime example what functionality you can expect from a Web 2.0 site.

Since I heard about Andrew McAfee’s talk where he coined the acronym SLATES (Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extensions & Signals), I’ve been using it as a guideline for identifying Web 2.0 sites and seeing how I can implement the functionality in existing products. So let’s have a quick look at what’s happening in Flickr:

Searching: Well yes, you can search my gallery (called Sets) and well as all the other galleries on Flicker for keywords and descriptions.

Links: Each member, set, group and photo has its own link plus I can define my own “easy to remember” URL to hand out to friends (instead of a whole bunch of numbers and letters which is the normal way of uniquely identifying something)

Authoring: Not only can I name my photos and add comments to them, but other members of Flickr can also leave comment on my photos. Authoring in Web 2.0 is a two-way street and provides a greater description of the content.

(Flickr allows you to highlight a specific area of a photo and apply a note/comment, which is really great if you want to point some out in a photo or draw attention to something in the background. A real first for commenting in photos)

Tags: Like authoring both I and other members can add tags to my photos, which increases the success rate of filtering by tags as not all minds think a-like. It’s also integrated with del.icio.us for that external tagging goodness.

Extension: Flickr has partnered with a variety of people to extend functionality in the photography world such as uploading tools, printing your photos and colour balancing; they’ve even made the API publicly available so that creative developers can get their hands dirty. Even the login is extended by them partnering with Yahoo to provide a single-on if you’re already a Yahoo member.

You can also join the Flickr blog and have a place to talk about what you’re doing and go into depth about your sets.

Signals: This is a personal favourite, because with Flickr I can give you an RSS feed and you’ll be updated every time I upload new photos! What more could I ask for (OK, accept for maybe making a RSS post per new set)?

What did I say? A prime explain of what to see in future sites where the empathise is on providing services and not treating the internet as a marketing tool.

So visit my website and click on the Flickr logo on the left-hand panel to visit my gallery (I’m still in the process of migrating my stack of photos) and get the RSS Feed to my gallery to keep updated in the future.