Years ago my introduction to Flickr was by ambush. Unknowingly, a colleague posted pix of me in a group from a workshop we were attending. I wasn't pleased. It felt like an intrusion. It led to some very interesting (and heated) discussions about public vs. private rights. It made me sensitive to what's being posted and getting permission and so on. (I still disagree with the colleague who still maintains "going out in public implies permission.")
What has won me over to the flickr camp is its 2.0-ness. I love the ability to share, to search, to find what you're looking for, to find what you never expected to find and if I'm honest, to snoop.
Would I post my pictures there? I guess my answer is a firm maybe.
I don't take pictures. My husband is the photographer in our family. He's the one who took the pictures of our yoga retreat in Peru that are featured in my slideshow. Years ago, he started storing pictures on the web when the web was 1.0 at a site where you shared your photos by invitation. It was revolutionary at the time. Easy to view, easy to control. Still, even knowing only our friends would see them and only by invitation, I was strict about wanting to okay which pictures of me were posted. I usually hate any picture of me and I usually okay only the bare minimium of pictures that proves that I, too, went on the vacation.
Lately I've been using flickr a lot. Not to post, but to view. Either directly at flickr or through facebook, I've enjoyed seeing pictures of friends' grandkids, pets, weddings, etc. I've used flickr to see strangers' pictures of foreign cities and sites we were planning on visiting to get an idea of how tourists dress there. I've used it at the reference desk to find pictures I couldn't find in google images. And I looked, sometimes with shock (no awe) at friends and colleagues photostreams and seen pictures of them half-clothed, half-drunk and totally silly. And I wonder. I wonder about their judgement, common sense, and willingness to share. And I wonder what might happen with the pictures and who might see them. Future employers? Potential spouses? Potential voters? Grandparents?
I feel less than enthused about sharing my own personal pictures. I chose the pictures for this week's assignment with care, keeping in mind I'm making them public. It's like setting them free to exist on their own on the internet and that makes me a little nervous. I wonder why everyone doesn't feel that way. And I guess I'm kinda of glad they don't.
As to avatars, it was fun creating one. At first I tried really hard to duplicate myself digitally and then had a huge laugh when I realized I could create an all new identity. I've done that before.
My facebook picture is this jaunty squirrel:
On the internet, you can be whoever you want to be.
And as I said above, I'm a bit camera shy.
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