Flickr, a terrific photo-sharing website that has become a major photographic force on line, is one of my favorite examples of social software.
Recently Nicholas Carlson of xSP news reported
“By August, (2006) Yahoo’s photo-sharing/social-network hybrid, Flickr, had over 4 million users and 200 million uploaded photos. And in September of 2006, one in 20 U.S. Internet visits went to social-networking sites, or double the number from the year-ago period, according to HitWise.”
An account with Flickr is free, at least for the first 90 photos posted. Unlimited photos can be posted for a nominal $25 per year. When asked what is the essential power that it offers its users , Caterina Fake, the co-founder of Flickr, said in a recent National Geographic Traveler Magazine interview with Editor Keith Bellows, that by providing an opportunity for people to share their photos with friends, family, or the world, Flickr engenders a “culture of generosity”. To my mind, this phrase, “culture of generosity” is what Web 2.0 is all about: building a sense of global community by sharing and collaborating, trading resources, jokes, art, photos, information, all for free, no price attached.