And Circus Boy Dances Like a Monkey on Barbed Wire
Have You Ever Lost Your Way?
Like the Rockin’ of the Ocean, Like the Rolling of the Sea
Zooomr Set to Launch Version 2.0 Later This Month
Good news blogosphere. Kristopher Tate, the 17 year old wunderkind blogged about previously here as the fastest developer of the photo trackback feature in the West, can now vote. Yes, that’s right, he’s 18 now and well what better way to ring in the celebrated 18th year than by releasing a new version of his software. Mike Arrington has the scoop, and Arington’s screenshots (yes of course it is ironic, mine and Arrington’s Zooomr screenshots on Flickr), and Tate is saying that he will roll out version 2.0 of Zooomr later this month.
Arrington previously dubbed Tate’s Zooomr as “Flickr on Steroids,” high praise coming from the Web 2.0 blogmeister himself.
So what’s new in version 2.0? I’ve had a chance to play around with the beta software for the past few days and some pretty cool stuff. One of the main new features is something called SmartSets. SmartSets really are best thought of as live dynamic photo search, but the application for photo sets and photo pools are huge.
One of the most requested features at Flickr has been something called sets of sets. The idea is this. Let’s say I go to Italy on vacation and want to create a set or album of photos to share called Italy 2006. But then I also want to create different sub sets within that set, say “Italy Florence 2006” “Italy Rome 2006” maybe “Italy kids 2006”. Right now with Flickr this is not easy to do.
What Zooomr 2.0 does with SmartSets is allows you to sort and dice your photos and also everyone else’s public photos in many different ways. So you could, for instance, have a set with all of your photos tagged Italy2006 and under that set a set called Italy2006Florence, etc.
What’s more SmartSets can be dynamic. Right now I have a set on my flickr stream called Flower. It basically includes all of the photos that I have of flowers. In order to include new flower shots that I want in this set I have to add them all individual or through the batch editor each time I upload a new shot. With Zooomr’s SmartSet function I can choose to create a set called flower that is dynamic and will automatically include any image I have in it with the tag flower. Auto set organization sort of.
Similarly I have a set called SuperFavs. These are shots that have been fav’d at Flickr at least 25 times. As it is now I manually add these shots to this set as they reach the 25 fav number. With Zooomr’s new SmartSets I could instead tell Zooomr to automatically build me a set that includes all of my shots that have been rated 5 star (Zooomr users rate photos on a 1 to 5 star basis instead of a simple fav or no fav) by 25 or more people. I could set this set up as dynamic to automatically include any qualifying shots going forward.
Where SmartSets start to get more interesting is when it comes to the potential for pooled photos. Right now I belong to a group at Flickr called the 100 Club. The idea behind the group is that it includes photos that people submit that have been fav’d at least 100 times. It’s got some really great images in it. And while it’s a great group as is for finding impressive images on Flickr, I’m certain that there are images with at least 100 favs that are not in this pool. At present there is no way to find these photos on Flickr. With Zooomr’s new SmartSets you will be able to do this automatically yourself. You can, for instance, say show me all public photos on Zooomr that have been ranked 5 Star over 100 times. Now, *that* is cool. It also enables you to slice and dice the library of Zooomr images in so many fun ways. Theoretically, for instance, someone could create a ranking of the top 200 images on Zooomr.
But don’t think about SmartSets just as another tool that would give people the resource to make the already popular photos more popular. Another group in Flickr that I belong to is a group called Fav>5%. The idea behind this group is to find photos that have at least a 5% fav/view ratio. The thing I like about the Fav>5% group is that it is an excellent place to find new people on Flickr producing quality images. The pool there is filled with very strong images. Images that have high fav to view ratios. In many cases a photo with 10 favs and 100 views will be much stronger than a photo with 20 favs and 2000 views. Fav>5% seeks to find those images from the popular and not so popular photographs from Flickr irrespective of views based on a more relational quality rating ratio rather than pure popularity.
There are two problems with Fav>5% though. The first is that it is limited to the images of the people who choose to join and then limited to only the images that they post to the pool. Secondly, photos oftentimes fall out of the 5% ratio even though they were greater than 5% when originally added. This dilutes the pool.
With Zooomr’s new SmartSets, you can overcome both of these problems. You could, for instance, create a SmartSet (or maybe I should call it a SmartPool) that showed you all photos with at least 5 favs (or again 5 people gave it a 5 star rating) that had less than 100 views. This then becomes a powerful tool for searching Zooomr for images that might not be by the most popular photographers (hence the lower view count) but that seemed to be liked by a high percentage of people. A great way to discover talented *new* photographers and then make them contacts.
Other fun things coming in 2.0 include the release of a companion bulk uploader to bulk upload your images to Zooomr, speed and performance enhancements, something called “Awesomeness,” similar to Flickr’s “Interestingness,” new technology called TagAssist which will recommend tags for your photos based on what you tag them initially for better search and the addition of the above mentioned ratings feature which will allow you to rate any photo you view from 1 to 5 and you can also mark a photo as a reject ensuring that you won’t see it again. A lot of emphasis has also been put on geotagging.
So what is Zooomr still missing? Not a whole heck of a lot… except they still lack the sticky social aspect that Flickr has with the richness of their groups. Group social interaction is indeed the glue that binds at flickr for some of their most active users and certainly part of the addiction for me.
It’s exciting to see Zooomr developing these new features though even as Flickr recently enhanced their own. My view is that competition is good in the photo sharing space and that there is also room for lots of different places for a user to share their photos. I recently uploaded most of my photos also to Riya and Tabblo as well and am excited about the things t
hat they are up to too.
Watch for Zooomr to roll out their version 2.0 later this month and give it a spin.
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Blockbuster Unveils Blockbuster Online 0.5
By Davis Freeberg
Editor’s Note: Davis is both a shareholder and customer of Netflix
Blockbuster offered their first sneak peak at some of the changes to their site and I found the improvements to be a bit underwhelming. The upgrade from Blockbuster 1.0 will finally give customers access to rating and recommendation features that really should have been in place the entire time. The other major improvement is a review system where fans can connect and share films together. The beta also is much more ajaxy then the current site and offers better eye candy to the viewer.
Overall, I found little in the site that stood out from what Netflix has already created. In his review on the beta, Hacking Netflix aptly points out that “From viewing the demo it looks like Blockbuster has spent quite a bit of time on the Netflix Web site.”
While the changes are certainly an improvement for Blockbuster, the release of the beta reveals that Blockbuster Online might actually be taking a step back with this latest online initive. While Netflix is receiving praises in the New York Times for the breadth of their 60,000 DVD selection, in looking at Blockbuster’s beta site you can see that they will only offer 40,000 DVDs with the new service.
Currently, their main site still shows 55,000 DVDs avaialable, but if you do a Google search for Blockbuster the 40,000 DVD selection is disclosed.
Ultimately, I think that Blockbuster’s new service will do a good job of helping them to further shift demand to the long tail, but what good does this really do them, if there is not a long tail for consumers to explore. For everything that Blockbuster was able to accomplish with their upgrade, they lost in the 15,000 titles that were sold off in the fire sale.
Photographing Architecture is Still Not a Crime, Police Harrasment at 45 Fremont Street
So I know that I write a lot about being harassed for my photography on the streets of San Francisco and for some this story may be getting old. I shoot every day though and at least once or twice a month have a run in with a security guard or authority figure of some sort somewhere. Typically I can resolve these episodes on my own amicably with the individual involved, but sometimes things go over the line. In the past year I’ve blogged about three of these incidents that crossed the line. One was when a security guard at One Bush was following me around the sidewalk trying to put his hand in front of my camera and not allowing me to shoot the building. Another was when the Sheriff’s Department detained me and ran what I consider an illegal background check on me merely for shooting near the train tracks in Oakland. Another was when a particular nasty altercation took place between me and a security guard who came out of 45 Fremont middle finger a’blazin’ to insist that I not shoot that building.
But today’s episode was the worst I’ve encountered so far. Ironically enough, it occurred once again outside of 45 Fremont Street. This was even after I spoke with a PR person from the Shorenstein owned property who apologized to me for my treatment and assured me that I would find a more tolerant atmosphere at that property in the future.
Today, aqui-ali (another local Flickr photographer), helveticaneue (in from out of town) and I went out to do a bit of shooting. Since Aqui had a meeting down on 2nd Street later this afternoon we decided to head that way and shoot the Transbay Terminal. 45 Fremont was in our path and we were shooting some photos of it as we were walking by. It was then that the security guard there told us that we could not shoot the building. When I explained that we were in a public area and had a right to shoot the building he insisted and called another security guard over on his radio who also tried to get us to stop taking pictures of the building. I still refused as it is my right to shoot buildings in San Francisco from a public area.
45 Fremont Security Guard and “Police Officer” who refused to provide identification after physically asaulting me.
It was at this point that things went from bad to worse. At this point an individual came over who identified himself as a police officer and told us to get out of the plaza, off the sidewalk and to physically stand on the asphalt in the street where the cars were driving by. When I tried to object this individual (who was significantly larger than me) assaulted me and forcibly grabbed my arm quite hard and pulled me towards the street. When I freed myself from his grip I told him that I was going to take his photograph. He told me that I could not take his photograph and that if I did that I could “watch what would happen to my camera.”
I took his photograph anyways and that is him up there at the top of the story. Once he had us physically on the asphalt in the traffic off the sidewalk I once again asked him for his identification and asked to see his badge. He refused to provide me his identification and refused to show me his badge. It is my understanding that when someone identifies themselves as a police officer that I have a right to see their identification proving this fact. This prevents anyone from falsely impersonating police officers and abusing a false authority. I asked him at least five times to see his badge and he refused. He continued to confer with the security guards at the building though.
I believe that this individual either committed an illegal act by illegally impersonating a police officer or by acting in the capacity of a police officer while refusing to provide me proof or his badge when asked. Worse, he physically assaulted me and threatened me. I’ve even got a bruise and a pretty sore arm where he grabbed me.
This should not happen just because a hobbyist decides to take photographs of a building from a public area on the streets of San Francisco. This was abuse. I do not know in what capacity this individual was working with security at 45 Fremont but they were complicit and also forced us to stand off the sidewalk on the street asphalt. helveticaneue and aqui-ali were both present and witnessed this happening as well.
Update: I just received an email back from my contact from my previous run in with 45 Fremont with The Shorenstein Company who told me that while his security guards witnessed the incident that it was actually the security guards at 50 Beale Street and *not* the Shorenstein guards that I had this problem with today. He also told me that he thinks this “policeman” is a security officer working for a tenant in that building. If anyone knows which tenant that this might be at 50 Beale I’d appreciate that information. I am also going to try and contact management of 50 Beale to hopefully work this situation out.
Update #2: Today I:
1. Filed a police report. The case has been assigned to an Officer O’Reily. I have his phone number and will be checking in with him on the progress. I also confirmed with the desk officer at the Tenderloin Police Station (the closest to my work) that if a citizen requests ID from a police officer that an officer is required to provide it. This officer also told me that it is department policy not to touch someone without first showing your badge. He told me that he did not think that this individual was a police officer and that he did not recognize him.
2. I stopped by the building and spoke with Brad Meyers, the property manager. According to Brad, the individual in the photograph as well as the security guard assisting the individual in the photograph do not work for the building. Brad told me that he believed that the individual who assaulted me worked for Bechtel but did not know his name. Brad also appologized to me for the incident and told me that photography in fact is allowed in the public park area next to 50 Beale St. He said that occasionally protocol will be to have a photographer sign a waiver to release the building from any liability should they injure themselves but that it was not protocol to force photographers into the street as had been done to me. He has put a call in with Bechtel’s security and is going to follow up with me later.
Brad also told me that Bechtel does not own the building but is a tenant.
3. I spoke today with Mike Meehan who is Vice President and Assistant General Council for Allied Barton Security Services, the company that employed the gentleman who originally requested that I not take photographs. Mike is on the East Coast and has put a call in to his West Coast office to try and determine what happened from their perspective. He is going to be in contact with me and will follow up with me on this. I asked him if he would provide me the name of the individual for my police report if he is an employee of their company and he said that he would need to take that under adviseme
nt.
Will continue to update with details as available.
Update #3:
In response to my run in with an unidentified individual who identified himself as a police officer, assaulted me and refused to show me identification as a police officer, I received this letter from Bechtel Corporation yesterday.
I have again asked for the name of the individual who identified himself as a police officer and requested Bechtel tell me what if any disciplinary action was taken against this individual.
While Bechtel still refuses to confirm whether or not the individual who harrassed and assaulted me is an employee of theirs, it is probably fair to assume that they would not be sending an apology letter were he not. I will continue to pursue this though and am confident that I will be able to get more information with regards to this case.
Steve Bloom Has Some of the Best Photographs of Monkeys I’ve Ever Seen
Steve Bloom – slide_primates photographic presentation Check out the 18 shots of Monkey’s that Steve Bloom has up on his site. Pretty great stuff.
Photographer’s Assistant
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