Response to Harrod’s The World’s Photo Album

In “The World’s Photo Album,” Horatia Harrod discussed the implications of society’s entering “the age of Flickr.” People have joined social networking photo sharing sites like Flickr and have become members of groups in an effort to show everyone around the world photographs that would have been considered much more personal in older generations like the “Kodak era.”  I thought it was interesting that society’s tagging of photos has replaced the need for MIT graduates to figure out ways to make computers to recognize the contents of a photograph.  What began as a simple website to share photographs has led to a networking site where users sort photographs and create archives, perhaps better than some computers or professionals could.  I think the functionality of websites like Flickr is great because they can be used for many purposes.  A person can store their personal photos and at the same time share those photos with whoever they want, search through other photos and tags directed toward their own interests, and can write their own comments on the photos.  I think it is also interesting that the author included the statement that “…we overestimated the degree to which people wanted to keep…things private,” and how conversely, the idea of publicly sharing photos has brought up issues regarding copyright and the ownership of the photos that people publicly share.  I think another major concern with sites like Flickr is that you don’t always know the identity, age, education level or level of maturity of users who post, tag and comment on photos.  I agree with the author that we probably won’t be able to appreciate Flickr right away.  However, I don’t think it will take 100 years like Harrod suggested.  I would like to see in the future what affect sites like Flickr, which provide abundant access to information and culture, but are sometimes controlled by unidentified users, will have on the quality of the vast information available.