Flickr - photos, fun, and Creative Commons

This was a much more enjoyable 'Thing'. Flickr seems very intuitive, and it is interesting to see others photographic attempts. Trying a few quick searches was interesting. I chose my daughter's hobby of re-enactment for a search, and it was no surprise that this brought up a plethora of images. More surprising was the quantity of images of Saorge (this photo was taken by Kapri http://www.flickr.com/photos/kapri/2471796476/  ) - a small village on the French/Italy border. Finally doing a quick search for my library retrieved the usual architecturally interesting views of course - but quite why one of the students wanted to take a picture of one of our notices advertising jigsaw puzzles for stress relief is a mystery. (As for the pictures taken of his friends, eyes closed with a red bar over their eyes from the barcode reader - well that was just bizarre!!)

Regarding the use of Flickr for one's own photos - I can see the advantages of using images for virtual library tours, publicity etc. However I am less convinced that it necessarily needs an online storage system to keep them in. I can however see how it can be useful when a diverse group of people are all contributing to an album (for example participants in an event). Being able to use other people's photos under creative commons licenses seems to be where Flickr comes into its own (although one is taking the photographer on trust that they have the relevant permission). Hence the photo I am including is not one of the inside my workplace, although these can be found even when the search is limited to only Creative Commons-licensed content.

Regarding the taking of photos in restricted circumstances -  my workplace states that all photos for commercial purposes must be cleared by the relevant person. One of the photographers who has taken pictures of my workplace appears to be a professional, and states that permission must be given before his photos are used - what it does not state is whether he has been given permission to take and 'publish' these photos.