Flickr is a utility for uploading and sharing photos with an online community. All photos can be indexed using tags, thereby developing an emergent folksonomy of keywords for searching and browsing all uploaded content.

Who uses Flickr

Anyone interested in sharing and downloading photos. Also used extensively as a photo repository for media storage for websites and blogs.

Advantages

• Can organize contacts to link a social network of friends that share photos
• Can join/make public/private groups to formulate a community based on similar interests (ie. Contemporary Architecture)
• Tagging allows for lateral hyperlinking of photos; can yield unexpected and interesting results
• Geo tagging indexes photos to specific locations, adding another layer of findability and browsing

Disadvantages

• More "uploaders" than "downloaders"; leeching can drain community
• Tagging folksonmy can be unreliable and inconsitent