Tutorial: Flickr & Photos: Part 2 (Flickr Groups)

Now that you have your Flickr Account set up, lets go through adding and joining groups. To use as an example we have set up an Undergraduate Research Group for any and all students, faculty, whomever around the world who participates in undergraduate research.

Flickr groups can be used for lots of things. Say you have your Flickr account set up with a bunch of albums including school, family, friends, trips, events, etc. and you want to share your photos with your family but you don’t want to show them all of your photos, just family photos. Or you go on a trip with 10 of your friends and all of you take digital cameras with hundreds of photos, rather than emailing back and forth you can create a group for each of you to dump your Spring Break 2007 photos into and can view them all in one place. This is where Flickr Groups come in.

First, login to Flickr

Once logged in click on “Groups” in the menu bar

In the group page you’ll be able to view all of your groups. You can see our Summer ’07 UGR Group on our page

CREATE A NEW GROUP
Click on Create Your Own Group on the right to get started creating your own group

You will have the option to make a Public, Public with Invite or Private Group. A public group is open for anyone to view and join though the owner has some control over how many photos members can post and how discussion boards are handled. Public with invite makes the group visible to everyone but new members must be approved- our summer ’07 group is set up this way. Private groups need to be handled with care. A private group can never be made public so only use a private group if you only want those photos to be shared with its members and no one else. Family photos albums are good for those (to avoid those embarrassing baby in the bathtub photos from surfacing to the public)

You can then give your group a name and description (all can be changed later)

For your public groups you can control what non members see until they join. You can also give each level of status a personalized name (defaults are admin, moderator and member) read more about the differences in roles

Just like your Flickr personal account you can create a personalized web address for a group as well.

A key feature about Flickr groups is discussions. You can communicate on your group about your photo posts or whatever you like, replying to each other, commenting on the photos, etc.

JOINING GROUPS
Joining groups is EASY. If you’re a flickr member or even if you’re not, you can search for groups on whatever topic you can think of. If you like birds and what to see the photos have taken of birds, search in the search field for birds. Many professional photographers use Flickr so you’ll be amazed at the photos you can find. It is also a good way to find groups to join on topics that you are also interested in and have photos to share. To join the group Undergraduate Research just search for it. We looked for Columbia, MO and found quite a lot. Once you reach a page, if it is public, go ahead and join and you’re in.

It is as simple as joining a Facebook Group if you think in those terms. Have fun and look around, chances are there are photos out there of just about everything you can think of, if you can’t find it, take some and create your own group! In later posts you’ll see how you can download other people’s photos, including the ones you view on the MU undergraduate research Flickr feeds.