Reflection (Xue Zhou 41137589)

Introduction：
Can you imagine your life without internet? Thinking about how many hours you spend on your computer for every day? For me, I spend at least five hours on my computer. The first thing I do is to turn on my computer in every morning. I need to check my school’s mail box, my hotmail, my gmail, my face book and my MSN Space. I need to reply my friends’ messages or leave comments on my friends’ blogs.
People can connect each other through websites or applications. Those websites or applications such as Flikr, face book and last F.M are belonging to web 2.0.

Background:
The first time I used internet was ten years ago. I used it to browse news, download music or read novels. After I created my first personal blog, I realized how interesting social interaction could be via internet. Until now, I have already had four personal blogs, and some other websites or application accounts. In this assignment I will focus on my favorite social networking websites:
Flickr: it is an online photo management and sharing application. It is a way to get your photos or videos to the people who matter to you.

Focus:
In this assignment, I will focus on how convenience the Flickr is for people to share pictures and connect with different people. And I will also talk about the disadvantage about Flicke.

Reflection:
Flickr is developed by Ludicorp, a Vancouver-based company that launched Flickr in February 2004. Flickr asks photo submitters to organize images using tags, which allow searchers to find images related to particular topics, such as subject matter. It also allows people to organize their photos into “sets”, or groups of photos that fall under the same heading.
The first time I used Flickr was last year when I was doing Graphic Design course. Our lecturer asked us to create a Flickr account for posting our homework and assignments. When I saw the words “CREAT YOUR ACCOUNT” and the sub-title under these words “only takes a moment with your Yahoo ID”. I thought, “Great! I am going to have one more internet mail box.” I just do not get it, why all of the internet applications need Yahoo ID, gmail or hotmail when you try to create an account?
You can find six main functions on the top of the interface when you login Flickr. But for me, based on my experience with using Flickr, it is formed of two main functions which are Group and Contact.
Users can create, join in or search a group by using “Group” function. Group can either be public or private. Every group has a pool for pictures or videos and a discussion board for talking. And for each group there is an administrator to manage their group. I think the most useful and convenient part of Flickr is that people can share their photos, and at the meantime, they can leave comments or ask suggestions from their friends, even public audiences. For example, last year, when I was doing Graphic Design course, I posted my graphic design works and description about my images to the Flickr website, my peers and lecturer gave me some really useful suggestions.
Flickr offers both public and private image storge. Users uploading images can set privacy controls that determine who can view the image. Private pictures are cisible by default only to the uploader, or they can be marked as viewable by friends. Privacy settings also can be added pictures from a user’s photostream to a “group pool”. If a group is private all the members of that group can see the pictures. If a group is public the pictures become publics as well.
Flickr also provides a "contact list" which can be used to control image access for a specific set of users. I can also use “people search” to search people with common interests. For example, a couple days ago, I used Flickr to do a research which was about how many people are interested in dogs. I typed “dog” in the “SEARCH” column, I ticked “interests”, after one second it was displayed that there are 11286 people are interested in dog. You also can add your friend to your contact list. It is really a good way to know what is going on with your friends, and it is very convenient to keep in touch with your friends.
The first time when I saw the interface of the Flickr, I though this kind of layout is very classical. It is simple and easy for users to find out what they need, how to use it and how to accomplish their tasks. But there are still some lacks for using Flikr. Firstly, before you upload pictures you need to download the Flickr Uploadr. You are only allowed to upload 100 MB per month, and the pictures can not be GIF format. I think if these above disadvantages can be improved, Flickr will be more popular and effective.
However, in my opinion, I still think Flickr is an outstanding social networking website. It not only allows people to store and share pictures, but also lets people to connect each other in an interesting way.

Conclusion:
To sum up, social networking websites enable interactions amount multi users, and it also has the potential to change the way people communicate, People can use them to share music, chat with friends or post photos or diary. A good social networking website does not need to have many features. But convenience and effectiveness are the most important aspects for users.


Reference:
1.
Thomas Vander, “Explaining and Showing Broad and Narrow Folksonomies”, February 21, 2005,
http://www.personalinfocloud.com/2005/02/explaining_and_.html
2.
“Flickr… 3 billion photos”, November 6th 2008,
http://www.doeswhat.com/2008/11/06/flickr-3-billion-photos/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
3.
“Flickr to require Yahoo usernames”,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6316761.stm