Okay, I admit that I use Flickr as a repository for my photos. Like, say, Photobucket. But there is a much deeper culture at Flickr. There is the business angle. In fact, my friend BethAnn is starting to use the business end of it. It's a tool for advertising in that way, and serves as a reciprocity forum for individuals in like fields, in this case, cake art.

Then there are the artsy photos... and here's where we start to see the true "culture" of Flickr emerging. There is an etiquette in viewing, and commenting. There are "groups", and, photo collections, and moderators for such collections. There are competitions within categories. There is the expectation of reciprocity in commenting. People gain popularity, and can see it in the sheer number of comments, even if the comments just say "hey, nice".

Then it gets stranger... there is a subset of people who just really like to take and post pictures of themselves....

The psychology major in me wonders about personal validation gained via the comments received for such photos. Or maybe they just really like how they look. Security is a good thing.

Beh, I don't have to understand it, do I?

Nope, the entire University of California system is lacking in six of my reference articles. No inter-library loan for me. The system will track them down, but it's $15 per article to have them do so.

So I'll hoof it over to Stanford and see if they have them.

Bugger.