Geotagging Photos on Flickr

Although technically extra credit, I decided to complete this assignment for two reasons: in case I missed something else or didn’t finish another assignment, and because I actually love taking pictures and wanted to explore Flickr’s geotag feature.

The above image was taken in Homossassa Springs State Park in Florida, and is one of the photos I added to the map on Flickr.

As for the geotag feature on Flickr, it took a bit of poking around to find the instructions and the actual map, as some of the links were outdated and there was no link on the first page anymore. However, it is found under “organize” on the “more” options, and from that screen you can choose “map”. I actually did several photos per location, all photos were taken by me, with the lone exception of the Iraq photo which was taken by my husband while he was working over there. I did do more than 5 locations, and a total of over 20 photos. All photos have the tag asuweb20 as required. I did a search and my photos came up as well as many others I am guessing from previous classes. I really enjoyed looking through everyone’s pictures. You can view my Flickr here.

This video and topic are incredible. I was blown away by the technology and what can be done with the collective photographs from social networks. This is definitely worth watching. I did a search for Microsoft’s Photosynth and the page is here.

As for EXIF data, I found a great article here. EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. EXIF data is comprised of a range of settings such as ISO speed, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, camera model and make, date and time, lens type, focal length and much more. One drawback however is that the only web-friendly (in terms of size) file format that can handle EXIF is JPEG, which means that you wouldn’t be able to read the data from other image formats such as GIF/PNG or from websites that use Adobe Flash or other similar products. Additionally, many photographers deliberately strip EXIF data from their images to protect their images, while others do it to save website traffic as EXIF adds to the file size of the image. Most modern phones are capable of adding geotags in the EXIF data of a picture, but virtually none do so by default. If your digital camera has built-in GPS it can add geotag information to your EXIF files. Flickr and other online photo sharing sites have methods by which you can map or add geotag information to your photos as another option.

Objectives Revisted

Today we are going to revisit the course objectives that I blogged about towards the beginning of this class here.

Learn about the dominant social media tools
- benefits & drawbacks of each
- what is appropriate for each
- how to optimize each
So far we have learned about a wide variety of social media tools, many of which I had never used, or even considered as social media such as the Wikimedia sites. However, to this point our usage has been pretty limited, dipping our toes in, and I do not think we’ve learned much on optimizing the dominant social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I also wish we had spent some time learning how to use them for business purposes, such as if you were handling a client’s social media.
Explore and learn to utilize various social media platforms
Again, we have explored a wide variety of platforms and I have learned quite a bit about those.
Learn how to best optimize pictures/videos for social media
The media sharing exercise and some of the videos we watched an responded too were beneficial in this area. I think that YouTube looks completely different to me than it did before this class.
Learn how to optimize use of hardware for social media
This one is probably a bit of a personal goal, and the one thing I think I found during this course that I will use to this end is the various commons sites for photographs. I want to work on submitting and improving my photos.
Learn about creating and maintaining an effective web presence
I think I am a bit farther along here than I was, but I am hoping to get further along in the last several weeks.
Learn how to market myself and/or others through social media
This one I think needs attention still.
Create effective and interesting content for social media
The media sharing assignment touched on this and also just the regular blogging. The social bookmarking assignment opened my eyes to something I already do and did regularly having a name I was unaware of.

Overall, I think I have learned quite a bit about a wide variety of social media tools, terms, and platforms. Exploring Web 2.0 was intriguing because even though I am a “web” student I had not previously looked at what that actually means.

The gap for me is between what there is out there, and how best to use it. Not just for myself, but for any potential clients. Many of the web job postings I have looked at want their web person or people to also handle their social media. Also I am hoping to learn more about optimization for the web, search engines, etc.

Course Feedback/ Self Reflection

Today I will reflect upon this course, Web214 Social Media, and my thoughts and experiences so far this semester.

After a somewhat sputtering beginning, the course was up with a flurry of assignments. I previously admitted to working on these assignments first purely because they were so enjoyable. Not that my other classes are miserable, but this course is truly different from my others, and that uniqueness sets it apart.

I have learned and dabbled in many areas I would not have even thought to explore in this course, such as Wikipedia, Stumbleupon, and Second Life. Of the many new things I have tried during this course, Second Life is the one I seem to have the least aptitude for; my 12-year-old daughter had to help me to change my clothes! Other things I had used, or at least had created accounts in previously, but have made efforts to utilize more regularly, such as Evernote .

The videos from Mike Wesch, especially The Machine is Us/ing Us were extraordinarily thought-provoking. A Vision of Students demonstrated a multitude of changes and challenges facing students and the higher education system in this ever-changing technological landscape.

Defining Web 2.0, in the collaborative forum assignment and then further in the “explain to your grandmother” assignment helped me distinguish in my mind what really makes Web 2.0 different. As a person who remembers before the internet (and cell phones and personal computers!) working on this assignment really emphasized how far the Web has come in what is not really a huge amount of time.

One thing I am working on still, even though I posted the assignment is the Social Bookmarking. I have decided I prefer Stumbleupon and it is my most active profile, but I am also using diigo. I am trying to make it a habit to use one, or both, when I am coming across things I want to share. I have been sharing for years via Facebook and Twitter but these are new to me.

I set up a page for our class on Facebook here and have been posting things I think are related or of interest to the class participants. I have been a bit disappointed as it seems we only have a small percentage of students even looking at it and just a couple who have posted at all. I will keep it updated in any case.

Overall, through this class, I think I am learning things and exploring social media far beyond the typical things one immediately thinks of. I am hoping going forward there will be more participation from my classmates both on Moodle and our other sites. I also hope we learn a bit about how to utilize social media not only for our own personal and professional use, but also for any future employers.