This is an image by Erik K. Veland. I can not figure out how to add a link to the photograph on flickr. This is how flickr explains the process, but I can't find the url address once I've clicked on the size photo I want to use. But the flickr page I found it on can be accessed here and provides lots of information about koalas - including some Wikipedia information (how's that for 16 things overlap). It would have been even cooler if Mr. Veland had just included a link within his description of the photograph to the Wiki page or to some spectacular Google Doc or Tweet!!

I think flickr has some very useful features for archiving and sharing photographs. My father has been the family photographer for decades and now has thousands of slides of every possible family event. For the past several years he has been scanning the slides as a form of archiving and storing on hard drives and CDRs. He often sends CDs to extended family. It would be easier and less time consuming to set up a flickr account and provide access to family members.

Personally, I don't have much use for flickr for my images. I shoot large format film and don't make all that many exposures. The resulting files from scans of my film are huge (1.4GB) so flickr couldn't really function as an archive. Also, my website holds smaller versions of all of my work for the public to see (and also includes important contact information, resume, publications, etc.).

I wasn't entirely impressed with how flickr was set up. The search function seemed a bit arbitrary - when I type in "Bob" a picture of a sunset appears, when I type in "Sunset" a sunset-less picture of Niagara falls shows up (when I type in "Niagara falls" the same image that appeared for "Sunset" showed up). The advanced search is more useful, but I feel like these options should be part of the standard search function. I would also like to see a slide show function for an individual's photographs. There is the ability to slide through one person's thumbnails, but what if you want to see larger images in a slide show? (I admit I am far from a flickr expert so I may be missing something here).

Finally, who decides what images are considered interesting under the explore function (what flickr calls "interestingness")? Does it have something to do with how many people look at a particular image or is there someone behind the curtain making all of these decisions? I did like the slide show function I found once I clicked on the link for "more interesting bits from the last 7 days."