Tag: flickr

Chrome extension to locate CC images

Richard Byrne recently described a chrome extension allowing users to locate images available with creative commons (CC) licenses. I have authored several posts over the years on using CC licensed photos so I thought I would give the extension a try. Here is the download site for the extension.

The extension works in a strange way. Typically, an extension is applied to what you happen to have active in your Browser, but this extension operates independently of your existing activity and is very much like opening a new site.

Opening the extension (see red box around item in menubar) opens a display that contains a text box allowing a search.

Your search can be filtered to designate the sources you want to investigate. I was curious to see if the search would locate elephant images from Flickr I had assigned a CC designation so this example is based on a search of Flickr.

Even searching a single source, I located many images in response to my request. I got tired of searching and did not find any of my images. I realized that many great images were taken in zoo settings so I guess this was to be expected.

Double-clicking an image brings more information about the image, a way to embed the image, and download buttons for the image and an attribution statement.

Quickly, here is a contrasting approach from Flickr. Visiting the site allows a search (see search box) and a drop-down menu specifies the various CC licenses you can use to filter your search.

Here is the upload side of CC designation within Flickr. Once the image has been uploaded a dropdown menu will appear associated with that image (use the Some rights reserve link). As a content provider, you then select the license combinations you want to apply.

Loading

Import EXIF Location Data (cooler than it sounds)

I have solved a problem and want to share. It is likely a problem for very few others. YET.

Here is the problem. We have a digital camera with an interesting feature. It has a built-in GPS and stores the exact location from which each picture was taken. These data are stored as part of EXIF (exchangeable image file format) in the same file as the image. If you are a Flickr user you may know that some images are accompanied by information such as the camera used to take the picture, aperture, shutter speed, etc. This is EXIF data. The longitude and latitude (I can never remember which is which) can also be stored as EXIF data.

The location data are very exact and allow images to be connected to a map (e.g., the map available within Flickr). I have been unable to get this to happen automatically (based on the EXIF data) and have had to display the data in iPhoto and then manually associate these coordinates with images once in Flickr. Some Google searches finally led to me the problem and solution.

Evidently, geo-locating images is possibly a security/privacy issue and the default setting in Flickr must be to not import location data. To allow these data to be uploaded with the image, you must locate “privacy and permissions” under the “your account” settings. There is a setting for “Import EXIF location data”.

googlegpsmap

The results are impressive. Here the position of the image (the pink dot) is positioned on the “hybrid” view of the map within Flickr.

It does make sense that you would not want the location of every image you upload to Flickr to be available to the public. Here is the technique I discovered for entering the same precise information for individual images.

I keep my images in iPhoto. You can connect images to a map location within iPhoto, but it is a little difficult to find the actual coordinates. Under the “photos” menubar heading, there is a feature “Show extended photo info”. This opens an information window that contains location information.

locationinfo

You then use the “add to your map” from the appropriate image in Flickr and enter 47.938236,-97.499985. The image will be added to your flickr map.

Loading

Exploring An Event In Flickr

I get a lot of ideas for educational applications from my own learning needs. We have been in the midst of a serious flood threat in the Red River (Fargo, Grand Forks, and surrounding communities). This is not the first time for us. We were here for the flooding of Grand Forks in 1997. I am writing this as the flood approaches the crest and how this will turn out has yet to be determined. Fargo is experiencing record river levels, but so far the dikes are holding.

I take pictures in situations like this. This is a serious situation and being obnoxious about taking pictures can get you in trouble. However, these are events that shape our lives and so I collect images when I can. I put a few of these images on Flickr and in doing so I notice that my Flickr account has received considerable attention in the past few days.

grabeflickrgraph

When I examined the images that were being viewed, it turned out they were from the flood (most actually from a less serious flood in 2006). This became the starting point for my exploration of the images that were presently being collected.

I explored in a couple of ways and I am certain there are several more. You can simply search by tag and then use recent.

flickrflood

I geotagged most of my contributions so I also tried searching for images by location. The best strategy seemed to be Explore a place (Grand Forks) and then search this map using a specific term (flood, redriver).

flickrfloodsearch

Most of the geotagged images I located were associated with bridges. This is where I have taken most of the pictures I have collected because access is not prohibited.

P.S. – Presently the rise in the river has slowed because of very cold weather (single digits at night). This has delayed the crest, but has allowed some of the water to move through with less risk.

Loading

FlickrFan

After listening to an interview with Dave Winer on a TWiT (this week in tech #134) podcast, I became interested in a “service” Winer was hacking together called FlickrFan. You may not recognize the name, but Winer was involved in the development of RSS. Anyway, Winer was describing FlickrFan and it was my impression he was describing a method for acquiring high quality images from “services” for display on HDTVs using a device such as Apple TV. The description of the quality of the images caught my attention.

I don’t own an AppleTV or have a HDTV, but it turns out you can use this service on a Mac and if you want use the images it downloads as your screen server. I have found the ever changing display of great images quite captivating. Default image feeds include AP wire photos and Agence France-Presse wire photos. You can add whatever additional feeds you want.

I took this picture of my office workspace to give you a feel for what appears on the screen(s).

Flickrfan in my office

A one or two sentence description of each image is also provided.

flickrfan.jpg

I am a news channel (mostly CNN) junkie. This feed of images adds a new dimension to this hobby. You can use this software in other ways, but just using it as a way to access news images has been worth the effort.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Loading

TiltViewer

Here is another Cindy suggestion. If you do Flickr projects, you might want to experiment with TiltViewer (from Airtight Interactive). The viewer allows you to browse and manipulate flickr images within a type of 3-D environment.

You can create a URL that allows others to view public images within this environment.

http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/tiltviewer/app/?user_id=86785198@N00 – the resources to be offered are made available by attaching flickr identification codes to the end of the TiltViewer URL.

TiltViewer

Loading

1001

Saturday at the office. Cindy is out of town. Time for a “project”.

This morning while browsing LifeHacker, I read a description of a flickr tool called 1001. 1001 is a Mac only application that performs several tasks in conjunction with flickr. The one task that seemed kind of interesting was the monitoring of flickr to identify new uploads fitting user defined characteristics. This capability seemed like it might have possible classroom implications so I thought I would give it a try.

I created three streams – democrats (today is primary day in S. Carolina), North Dakota (just to see if anything is happening), and trld (Cindy is presently attending a conference titled Teaching, Reading and Learning Difficulties). I then entered tags associated with each stream (e.g., democrats – obama, clinton, edwards). Every 15 minutes (the setting I am using), 1001 scans flickr for new images relevant to my streams. See image below for the images/links from the democrats stream located in a little over an hour.

dems101.jpg

There must be some interesting things you could do with this tool in a classroom setting. Wouldn’t it be cool to leave the 1001 tool open on an interactive whote board. The most obvious application would be to set up streams associated with topics being discussed (especially if the topic is associated with an active issue) and see what pops up. I wonder if frequency of flickr images predicts election outcomes?

BTW – I know you are curious about the North Dakota stream. Did the 12 people in North Dakota with digital cameras take any pictures today? Absolutely – there were several very nice images. 😉

Loading

Beware the Flock browser

It has been one of those days when I had plenty of time, but ended up getting little done. For some reason, I decided I should update my Flock browser. Bad mistake. I like(d) Flock because it allows easy access to my Flickr account and to this blog. I have had some difficulty with Flock and Firefox on my home Mac, but not on my laptop or office machine. My office machine runs an older version of the Mac OS – the U has a way of ignoring software updates that cost money.

The newer version of Flock does not launch with 10.3.9. I tried the standard routine – throw away all files associated with Flock, but nothing worked. I don’t blame myself for this one – I didn’t download a program my outdated operating system could not run. The online documentation claims Flock works with 10.3.9 and beyond, but the many complaints on the web indicate this is not the case. I believed the company.

I have been searching for older versions of Flock, but they do not appear to be available from Flock and when I think I have located a previous version the download defaults to 1.0 or 1.0.1. Anyway, if anyone knows how to return to an earlier version, I would appreciate an email or comment.

Loading