Sharing is good, right?
At least that's what we all learned in kindergarten. It isn't always easy, though. And sometimes it's the logistics of doing sharing that get in our way.
One of the things the world of the web has brought is the ability to take down some of those barriers and make sharing easier for both work and fun.
Look at photos, for example. Used to be you'd have to herd your family or friends together and set up a bulky projector and screen and hard to organize carousels of slides in order to show off that trip to Tibet. But thanks to the power of many different online options, slide shows are just a click away.
Here is the most recent CCTC First Friday meeting:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/74319185@N00/AUJ0S2
We happen to be using a service called Flickr, but there are dozens of them. Picasa, Shutterfly, SmugMug, Snapfish, KodakGallery, Picturetrail, Photosite, Fotki, Webshots ... There are millions of digital camera users out there and they all have something in common: they want to show their photos to others.
Kodak, Nikon, HP, Agfa and pretty much every one from the world of photography and printing has an entry in the mix. Google, CNet, AOL, Yahoo and other community creators have entries too.
I'm not talking about navel-gazing user-generated content here. I'm talking about the current twist on the photo album and the slide show. Most of these folks with photos aren't trying to publish their work to the world; they just want a way to share with colleagues or friends or family.
Another group of users are professional photographers who want to let their clients see and select images. Wedding photographers now upload the happy day and the families can make their selections quickly and easily from the online "books." Instead of looking at negatives or proofs or any of the other old awkward methods, corporate clients can click through a set of images and select the ones they want to use. It's all sharing made easy.
We love visuals. We love photos. We are nation of snapshot wielding digital documentarians. From Brownie cameras and black and white film of yore to digital point-and-shoots, we just can't get enough! Just ask anyone with a new baby in the family - is there anything better than posting a dozen adorable photos for everyone to ooh and ahh over?
Online photo sites have also made it easy to get prints. It seems almost counter-intuitive, but it turns out we want prints as much as ever, except we don't' want the old junky outtakes we used to be stuck with from a roll of film. Instead, we want to self-edit and print only the best. For 29 cents ... or 49 cents a print, it's a click and snap and it's a glossy 4x6 in our hot little hands.
Pharmacy chains CVS and Brooks have long had photo processing as part of their mix. Over the past few years, they migrated to in store printer kiosks to, more recently, online photo order sites. You upload your files and pick them up at your local store. It's the same dynamic, just easier and faster. And, it is one more way to share our vision.
In tech, we're always looking for the "killer app." Wouldn't it be funny if the search led us right back to what we learned at the ripe old age of five, that sharing is what we really want to do.
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