Flickr Photo Archive

Give your photos a social life with Groups

DENISE BARRETT OLSON

Why Flickr Groups?

Flickr offers 1TB of free storage
for photos and video. Your
uploaded photos are stored at
their original size and resolution
and you control who can view
and/or download them.
Not only is Flickr an affordable
platform foroff-site storage of
your photo collection, it also
provides some impressive social
features. One of those is Flickr
Groups. A Flickr Group consists
of a Photo Pool and a Discussion
board. Groupsare created for
topics and/or events. For
example, you might create a
group to collect photos from a
family reunion. Anyone attending
the reunion can take pictures and
upload them to their Flickr
account, then choose to share
them to the reunion group.
If you are new to Flickr, you may
want to download the free
Getting Started guide first.

Groupsare created for topics and/or events. This example is a public group
sharing photos from Southern cemeteries. Anyone can join the group and
submit photos. A Flickr Group consists of a Photo Pool and a Discussion board.
The discussion board offers a venue to ask/answer questions, share information
and connect with others who have the same interests.

Before you create your own group, you may want to check out some existing
groups to see how they operate. From your personal Flickr page, click on the
Groups item in the menu. You are taken to the groups page where Flickr
displays several existing groups. You can browse through them or use Flickrs
search to find groups related to topics you find interesting.

In this example I entered genealogy in the search box and chose the
Search groups option. The result includes dozens of groups covering a
broad range of genealogy-related topics. On this page you can see
how many members, photos and discussions have been posted to each.
Click a group title and Flickr will take you to that groups main page.

A well-managed group includes an overview describing the groups purpose

and defining the guidelines that group members must follow. In this example,
the group leader has asked that each submitted letter and journal include a
transcription of the text in the images description or on the discussion board.
Doing this means the item is more searchable - and more likely to attract others
interested in that family or location.
Administrators and group members can use the discussion board to ask
questions and provide feedback to enhance the groups knowledge base. As
you browse interesting groups, take note of how the administrator manages
the group and keeps members interested.

When you are ready to create your own group, Flickr will help walk you through
the process. During group setup you will be asked to choose the kind of group
you want to create. Your options are:
Public - open to anyone
Public - by invitation only
Private - by invitation only
This screen provides details on how each group type operates.

This screen is where you give your group a name and describe its purpose.

Here is where you decide what non-members will see when they visit your
group page.

Next you choose what titles will be used within the group. You can use the
default titles or create your own titles for administrators, moderators and
members.

This screen presents a number of administrative settings that you can use to
customize your group. These can be changed by the administrator at any time.
You may want to look at some of the more popular groups to see how they
handle things like rules, icons and member roles.
Take advantage of the Name/URL/Description setting to link to your personal
site or blog. Theres also a link to a Flickr page along with ideas for running
your group.

Get Others Involved

How does Flickr know who your family and friends are? First, you can have
Flickr search its user base using your Yahoo! address book to see if any of your
contacts are already Flickr users. For those who aren't, you can send invitations
to share your photos, marking them as a friend or a family member as part of
the invitation process. The invitation will provide them with instructions for
creating their user account and connecting with you. They will also now have
their own free terabyte of photo storage for their photos.

Group Ideas
Here are some ideas to help you put groups to work to support your family
and your research.
Create a private family photo network and share photos to only invited
members. While no online network is totally safe, a private group on Flickr is a
much better place to share vacation photos or introduce the newest member
of the family than social networks like Facebook. The members posting photos
can assign them as private. Those photos dont appear in their personal
photostream. When a private photo is shared to a group, only group members
can view, comment and tag the photo.
Planning a wedding or family reunion? Consider creating a Flickr group to
collect photos from the attendees. You will need to send information about the
group and how to join it to participants ahead of time so they will be ready on
the big day. The Flickr app on a smart phone can take photos and
automatically upload them to the individuals Flickr account, making it easier to
review and select appropriate photos to share to the group at their leisure.
Genealogical and historical societies can put Flickr groups to many good
purposes. Use groups to document local cemeteries, collect photos of society
events or share the excitement of a national conference with members who
could not attend. A public group of orphan photographs could be a great
way to discover more information about people and places. Make sure to
advertise these groups on the societys website and social networks to attract
visitors.

For More Information

es on Flickr and other digital

Visit Moultrie Creek @Scribd for additional guid
r and other photo-related applications
storytelling topics. To learn more about Flick
and platforms, visit

Moultrie Creek Gazette

Tech support for the family historian

http://www.moultriecreek.us/gazette
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