What is Flickr

Flickr is much more than a place to store photos or make prints, however. Members can join and create groups and participate in discussions on literally any topic. Flickr also offers social networking features that connect people and can help widen your organisation's online connections through photo-sharing.

Yet what distinguishes Flickr from other photo-sharing sites is its community features, which allow members to network and extend their interests beyond their own photos. Like other photo-sharing sites, Flickr allows you to upload your photos, order prints, or make things, said Flickr's Director of Community Heather Champ, yet it also gives you the chance to connect with others through your photos. "Like other photo-sharing sites, you can also create a one-to-one experience where you upload your photos and share them with a known set of people," said Champ. "But the essence of Flickr is more elastic. Flickr creates an environment where people come together to share their interests around photos. If you look at the old adage 'A picture is a thousand words,' that's what groups are for in Flickr. Using the Group features, people can share their photos and their thousand words. For example, like other photo sites, you can organise your photos into sets — your trip to Hawaii. But on Flickr, you can find many different groups about Hawaii, the flora or fauna, and connect to other people through their photos."

Another way Flickr differs from other photo-sharing sites is its strong sense of immediacy, giving members updates on what photographs are being taken as they happen. Each account has a photo stream, which displays photos uploaded by members chronologically. When you log into Flickr, you can see photos from your contacts' photo streams; you can also subscribe to these via RSS. Flickr also allows you to search by a common tag, which can be very compelling.

According to Champ, there are more than 2 billion photos on Flickr, with 1 to 2 million new photos uploaded every day. Flickr is a global community: more than half of its members live outside the United States, and the site is available in eight languages. Flickr community members not only participate together online, but also meet each other offline through grassroots Flickr meetups taking place around the globe, from Russia to Iraq to Australia, and all over the United States. "Flickr is truly a global community focused on photography," said Champ.