Flikr and Frapper
One way to comprehend the Internet is as a vast universe of self-selected communities (any individual may reside in one or many of these communities simultaneously), each community formed for a specific purpose. Early communities revolved around chat on particular subjects or objectives (dating, for example). This was a natural carry-over from the prehistoric days of the BBS (bulletin board) crowd.
As time went on, and technology became more sophisticated, groups were "socially engineered" into being: I start a "group" by providing it a "place" (website) to be. I invite ten of my friends with the proviso that they invite ten each of their friends, and so on. Soon, a community has come into being with the shared value of being in some, however distant, relationship to me, or some other value I have designated, such as , job opportunities, music, movies, games, etc.
With the addition of blogs and podcasts to the mix, groups form around a more natural human tradition: we learn that someone shares an interest or talent, says something we find amusing or touching, we make contact, and we begin a long distance, often sight-unseen friendship.
Two somewhat recent entrants into the community landscape are Flickr (www.flickr.com) and Frapper (www.frapper.com).
Flickr is a community based around photos. The idea is to post your photos to this website for your friends, family and other contacts, to share. You can also post photo publicly. These photos can then be organized collaboratively. "In Flickr, you can give your friends, family, and other contacts permission to organize your photos - not just to add comments, but also notes and tags.
As a registered user (it's free, though there is a premium membership), you can join groups, such as "Landscape," "Wildlife," "Family," "Health," "Pets," "Language (pick one)," or even "Absurd." In each group area, you will find a collection of posted photos (usually related to the subject), along with comments and member profiles.
The site has a terrific practical purpose: let's say you had a family reunion, and you wanted a place to share everyone's photos of the event. Flickr is ideal. And it has a great serendipity purpose: if you simply like taking photos of gargoyles on old buildings, you're likely to find a group on Flickr interested in doing the same thing. If not, start your own group!
Frapper is more of a tool for communities than a community itself. Frapper is free, easy, and we're told, fun.
Frapper stands for FRiend mAPPER, and that is just what it is. If you have a web community - such as a blog, for example, or apodcast, or even a family - you can create an account, and set up your map (it's a real map layout). Link the Frapper map to your community website, and have members post locations and "shoutouts" if they wish (messages to the community). You can also tag your map, that is, add keywords that indicate what your shared community is all about. Browse existing maps, and you will find many are based on podcasts - podcast listeners can pinpoint their location, demonstrating the reach (usually international) of any given podcast. The Frapper Maps can also cue browsers into podcasts and other communities they didn't know existed, but might want to join.
And so it goes.
One way to comprehend the Internet is as a vast universe of self-selected communities (any individual may reside in one or many of these communities simultaneously), each community formed for a specific purpose. Early communities revolved around chat on particular subjects or objectives (dating, for example). This was a natural carry-over from the prehistoric days of the BBS (bulletin board) crowd.
As time went on, and technology became more sophisticated, groups were "socially engineered" into being: I start a "group" by providing it a "place" (website) to be. I invite ten of my friends with the proviso that they invite ten each of their friends, and so on. Soon, a community has come into being with the shared value of being in some, however distant, relationship to me, or some other value I have designated, such as , job opportunities, music, movies, games, etc.
With the addition of blogs and podcasts to the mix, groups form around a more natural human tradition: we learn that someone shares an interest or talent, says something we find amusing or touching, we make contact, and we begin a long distance, often sight-unseen friendship.
Two somewhat recent entrants into the community landscape are Flickr (www.flickr.com) and Frapper (www.frapper.com).
Flickr is a community based around photos. The idea is to post your photos to this website for your friends, family and other contacts, to share. You can also post photo publicly. These photos can then be organized collaboratively. "In Flickr, you can give your friends, family, and other contacts permission to organize your photos - not just to add comments, but also notes and tags.
As a registered user (it's free, though there is a premium membership), you can join groups, such as "Landscape," "Wildlife," "Family," "Health," "Pets," "Language (pick one)," or even "Absurd." In each group area, you will find a collection of posted photos (usually related to the subject), along with comments and member profiles.
The site has a terrific practical purpose: let's say you had a family reunion, and you wanted a place to share everyone's photos of the event. Flickr is ideal. And it has a great serendipity purpose: if you simply like taking photos of gargoyles on old buildings, you're likely to find a group on Flickr interested in doing the same thing. If not, start your own group!
Frapper is more of a tool for communities than a community itself. Frapper is free, easy, and we're told, fun.
Frapper stands for FRiend mAPPER, and that is just what it is. If you have a web community - such as a blog, for example, or apodcast, or even a family - you can create an account, and set up your map (it's a real map layout). Link the Frapper map to your community website, and have members post locations and "shoutouts" if they wish (messages to the community). You can also tag your map, that is, add keywords that indicate what your shared community is all about. Browse existing maps, and you will find many are based on podcasts - podcast listeners can pinpoint their location, demonstrating the reach (usually international) of any given podcast. The Frapper Maps can also cue browsers into podcasts and other communities they didn't know existed, but might want to join.
And so it goes.
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