Stap isi

9 November 2008

Excellence is a useful reference point

From this week on it’s going to be a lot easier to argue for government being part of social networks.

When I saw Obama’s “beautiful behind the scenes images” from election night on his Flickr page and read the comments, I was struck by how this approach was smack-bang right in the middle of the mainstream now.

I know you know, but chances are most of your colleagues now have a notion too.

I liked Marina Hyde’s opinion piece in the Guardian on Saturday.

…this week people were reminded of what an inspiring politician sounds like, and how he carries himself. Excellence is a useful reference point. While that memory remains fresh in the public mind, people will be measuring their own leaders against it…

We know he didn’t take the photos himself, didn’t upload them to Flickr. But they are still real, authentic and human.

Not too many councillors, general managers or council workers are as eloquent as Obama. But most are in fact real, authentic and human.

Perhaps they should show it.

— b3rn   flickr, the persuader   Nov 9, 08:43 PM   #   Comment [1]

6 November 2008

Getting great images for local government websites

Here are a few resources that I use regularly:

• stock.xchng – good variety and quantity, with clear licence terms; just note that ‘premium results’ (commercial products) appear at the top of search results, so scroll down a bit
• Our Community Photo Bank – Australia and community-specific images free for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons licence; lots of great ‘real people’ and authentically Australian shots
• Flickr advanced search – this popular photo sharing site can help with more abstract concepts as well as images of your local area; tick the box Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
• Multicolr Search Lab – Idée Inc. – browse 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr by colour
• Wikimedia Commons – public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips); often has both contemporary and historic images on a place or subject
• Picture Australia – massive library, great for specialist images, but getting permission to publish can take some time

Image credit: Community members who contributed their time, effort and money to the building of their new Wemen hall. Oct. 08 by Sabina Savage for Wemen Progress Association

— b3rn   flickr, images, user generated content   Nov 6, 01:25 PM   #   Comment

12 October 2008

Flickr & Local Govrnment

If your Council and Library service are not on Flickr, they should be.

In the first 4 weeks […] we had more views of the photos than the same photos in the entirety of last year on our own website — Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum

He’s talking specifically about their Tyrell Collection – historic images from two of Sydney’s principal photographic studios in the late 1800s and early 1900s – in The Commons on Flickr. But the point still applies.

More people will see you and your content.

A challenge for Council websites is getting information across to the people who are not visiting us online. Many visits are motivated by a specific purpose — getting a resident parking form or the minutes of a Council meeting. But if we’re linked as a contact on Flickr (or any other social networking space) there’s always a chance we can grab some attention from their peripheral vision.

And what better way than with a photo?

That’s a good starting point to argue for US$25 a year (the cost of a Pro account) and the time required to set-up and administer your Flickr space.

Continued...

— b3rn   flickr, maps, user generated content   Oct 12, 10:50 PM   #   Comment [1]