Flickr for UKOER resources

Most of the resources on Flickr are photographs and many of the features of the platform are tailored to this (e.g. the automatic extraction of EXIF metadata to show, for example, camera type, aperture setting and shutter speed), though it is also used for diagrams and other forms of still image. Flickr also supports short (<90s) videos and other types of moving image.

Flickr has comprehensive capabilities for metadata tagging, aggregation, syndication through RSS/ATOM. Many of Flickr's capabilities are available through its API and many tools and other services are available for using flickr, allowing, for example, remote upload from a desktop application, or the embedding images and "photo streams" from flickr into other web pages individually or as slide shows.

Formats and Standards
For still images Flickr supports JPEGs, non-animated GIFs, and PNGs. You can also upload TIFFs and some other file types, but they will be stored in JPEG format. Images must be smaller than 10MB (20MB for the pro account) and are made available in a range of sizes from thumbnail (75x75px) up to the 1024px for free members (or the original size, if larger, for pro accounts).

For moving images Flickr supports AVI (Proprietary codecs may not work), WMV, MOV (AVID or other proprietary codecs may not work), MPEG (1, 2, and 4), 3gp. The maximum size for videos is 150MB for free members (500MB for Pro members). If videos are longer than 90s only the first 90 seconds will play.

API
RESTful API, using OAuth, exposing data as RSS with links to images.

Many third party tools are available for upload using API, and for displaying RSS feeds as albums, slideshows etc.

Feeds
ATOM and RSS2.0(?) available for each of level aggregation but not for individual image page. Links to original images in feed (link rel=enclosure)

Other metadata
Flickr will extract EXIF metadata from photographs to display the date-time when it was taken, geolocation (generated from, e.g. GPS in a camera phone), the type of camera used and the camera settings. If required, some of this metadata, e.g. geo-location can be added manually when the image is uploaded.

Flickr supports machine tags which allow more information to be given about the meaning of a tag.

Flickr embeds metadata into HTML pages as microformats, for example a contributor's profile page will have hCard markup (provides the same information as a vCard).

Aggregation and Grouping

 * All the images from a user are aggregated as their photostream.
 * Images can be aggregated by a single tag, either per user or globally.
 * Users can group their own images in "sets".
 * Groups of users can contribute images to a "group pool".

One can imagine various uses for these in UK OER projects, for example, all partners in a subject consortium forming a Group Pool of their images; images from a course being placed into a single set; tags being used to indicate the subject of an image (e.g. crystal)

Content export & embedding
[in what formats can the resources be got from the service; what options are there for embedding a presentation of the resource from the host service into third-party web pages, e.g. copy and paste code snippets, Flash players etc]

Visibility on Search Engines
Not especially high on Google Image search or MSN/Bing; high on Yahoo. (based on number of images on first results page when searching for "bridge")

Usage stats for resources
[what's gathered about use of resources hosted on service and how it can be harvested]

UKOER

 * CORE Materials (planned)

Others

 * Many cultural heritage institution under The Commons initiative, including:
 * Library of Congress
 * Smithsonian Institution