Tuesday, July 8, 2008

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Flickr Update

Early this morning I did my usual Flickr check from my work computer, and there was no connection (see below, July 7, 2008). But later in the morning someone on our School of Library and Information Studies list-serve made the general announcement that Flickr was now accessible through University of Alabama computers. Great! Later in the day, I got official notice from the UA College of Arts & Sciences, but no explanation. Am curious to know more, but for now I did learn the lesson not to put all my photos in one basket, so to speak. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice. Below is what all the hullabaloo is about:
http://www.panoramio.com/user/1835188
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27582502@N06/sets/72157605566040085/

Monday, July 7, 2008

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Posting in Panoramio

The University of Alabama has blocked access to Flickr.com from all its computers, plus any off-campus computers signed in to on-campus servers. As a result, I can not access my Flickr site to upload, edit, or view photos that I'm using in University of Alabama graduate research. (But you may be able to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27582502@N06/sets/72157605566040085/)

Therefore, I am resorting to Panoramio to post many of the same photos (http://www.panoramio.com/user/1835188O). Panoramio has several of the capabilities Flickr had, with a few organizational weaknesses - but they aren't blocked by my educational institution! I will be recreating the same or similar notes for these photos over the next couple of weeks. AND, I hope to have new ones to add after another research trip soon.

If I sound a little aggravated, it is because I feel that whoever planned this blocking of file-sharing didn't think about all of the ramifications for those of us doing legitimate UA work. Flickr is being used increasingly for educational purposes. Ironically, I just handed in a paper as part of this research on how to develop several Web 2.0 formats, including Flickr and blogs, to create local history research resources, aimed at library and archives users.

These Flickr sites - including one created by the Library of Congress, the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, and others, which I and others might use, also can't be viewed from any UA computer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/260942907/in/set-72157594313088839/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/textimagepoetry/sets/72157594560457004/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/xxno/map/.
I'm sure there are many others.