Analyzing messes via Flickr

" From your experience of working with Flickr or another web based photo archive for your second assignment, do you agree with Weinberger's statement "that the bigger the mess the more accurate is Flickr's analysis (p. 95)?"

Hmmmm.....I'm having trouble with this one, because I don't remember using Flickr or any other web-based photo archive for any assignment in this class. I went back and read the syllabus and looked over all of the modules, but I couldn't find any mention of this, except for the brief request to upload a photo onto our wiki introduction page. I will try and attend the Wimba classroom chat tonight, but I have a conflict with the time, so it may not happen. Have I missed something?

I can, however, answer the question. I've used Flickr, Photobucket, and Shutterfly for years, to organize, share, and document my kid's lives. Photos, photos, photos. There are hundreds of them on Shutterfly in my account. I tend to use Flickr and Photobucket less, mostly because I've had my Shutterfly account so long that I'm very efficient at what I want to do in it, and also because Shutterfly does archival-quality photo books. I scrapbook on-line, mostly, so that's fun.

As far as tagging goes, even iPhoto allows me to tag my photos. I both tag and make sure that they are labeled (a printed description will go on the back of the photo if I should order a copy), because I've spent too many years trying to identify old family photos, with no luck. Also, there was the infamous Christmas where my sister's mother-in-law gave all six of her adult sons a beautiful framed baby photo of themselves......supposedly of themselves......it was the same baby in every photo. Not good. People, please, I beg you, label your photos!! Especially babies - at a certain age, they do all look alike!

So, now you know why I love information organization; it's part of me. I do agree that within the tagging system, the bigger the pile, the more accurate the program can analyze the metadata. Because Flickr and these other sites work off of relationships, not hierarchy, the more tags and photos, the stronger the relationship metadata is going to become. As long as users DO tag!