Photowalking Tomorrow Morning at 7 am in Half Moon Bay
Ok, so for those of you that live in the Bay Area, tomorrow morning at 7:oo a.m. Robert Scoble and I are going to film another episode of Photowalking. We will be meeting at Sam’s Chowderhouse in Half Moon Bay at 7:00 a.m. for those of you who are brave enough to get up and going that early on a Sunday. If you get in a little late and we aren’t there feel free to either give Robert or me a call on our cell phones. Robert’s cell phone number is 425-205-1921 and mine is 415-205-3611.
I’ve talked to a bunch of photographers who are looking to make the trek. Dave Sifry from Technorati is coming down and Justin from justin.tv said he might make it.
Looking forward to hanging out with anyone who can make it tomorrow and getting some great beach pics.
To catch previous episodes of Photowalking click through here.
March 24th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
anyone fancy a photowalk in bristol, uk, sometime? i’ve noticed a few bristol photographers around on Zooomr.
March 24th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I’m up for something similar in Vancouver Canada if anyone’s listening.
Makes me think… :
Would be nice if we could form groups and ’sub-groups’ in Zooomr MkIII/IV, whatever. Would be neat to have a “Photowalking Master Group” - and then little ’splinter’ groups. Nothing but general talk in the main umbrella, and regional specifics can go in each of the specific groups. Would be neat to compare!
March 25th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Unrelated Sets query.
I noticed one of my sets was not working and have been trying to change it but it doesn’t seem to be working. I even set new tags on the photos I wanted but zooomr tells me it cannot find that tag.
Do tags now/while awaiting III take some time to update/not update?
For reference:
http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/tags/tylerp
http://beta.zooomr.com/smartsets/jlp/12079
Thanks
March 26th, 2007 at 12:09 am
nvm - it is now working fine :-S
March 26th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Thomas, (and others who do this) how can you be bothered to name each and every picture you have??
March 26th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
and as a side note, GIVE ME MARK III!!!
AAAAARRRGHHH!
March 26th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Any information on M3?
March 26th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
naming pictures often gives a clue to its origin and its purpose (if there is one), or what the photographer intends to illustrate or convey. It can be a lot of work, especially with tags and geo-tagging, but I usually find it is worth it.
naming also makes it easier for blogging and for finding again!
March 26th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
have you always named them?
(I have around 2000 photos and I’m wondering if naming them can even be accomplished :P)
March 26th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I’m horrible at thinking up names for my photos, so I started tagging ones that I haven’t titled with the tag titleme.
I was hoping if others found the tag they could think of names and leave them in the comments. Feel free to use the titleme tag. Might help you get some names.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Jon Ward, I’ll be up for a Bristol based photowalk. Can’t make it for a few weeks though.
March 27th, 2007 at 2:26 am
@Robby: fantastic idea. One of my favorite web comics (photography related, no less) WhatTheDuck does something similar with their comics: community-based naming. You get a lot of hilarity out of it:
March 27th, 2007 at 5:16 am
I personally have learned to be critical about my shots, I try to delete everything not worthy or just not upload them. This way I don’t have to think up a lot of names, in which, by the way, I suck too. I also try to name shots descriptively. So that my shot would be the one desired if searched for by the title.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Taavi - I usually do the exact opposite from you - if I don’t delete a photo right away, then I usually save it and don’t delete it.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:19 am
The lack of talk about MIII must either mean they’re so close that it isn’t worth to talk about or so far that it isn’t worth to talk about… I hope the former
March 27th, 2007 at 7:22 am
Ha, yeah did someone drop the ball on it? Another update please…
March 27th, 2007 at 7:37 am
I know that Kristopher and Thomas’s hearts are in the right place, but I’m starting to doubt whether or not this is ever going to come together. The aborted launch, combined with the complete lack of information (any information about a timeline, what the various issues holding up the launch are, what the benefit of purchasing a pro account will be, lack of API/documentation…) leaves me feeling like it’s a whole lot of smoke, and not much fire.
I really, really want Zooomr to succeed. I have a thing for underdogs…but it only goes so far.
Please, whats the story? Any information is good information.
March 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
steve - sure, that’s fine, probably two weeks after easter, i’ll try and get a few people together - any suggestions where in bristol?
Taavi - I feel the same, although perhaps my standards aren’t what I first had. Initially i only put 50 out of 3-4000 photos. since then about 30% of what i take goes on, and on camera and on pc i delete around a further 30% of all shots i take.
If if was truly critical, then I’d probably only have around 50-100 max of my current photos on here and would rarely update it, and if i was harsh, none!
March 27th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
As I understand it, Kristopher is off to Japan sometime soon so we are just going to have to be patient and itll come together when it does. Talking to Kristopher I got a sense its bugging him a lot more than it is us, after all , it is his baby. We’re hanging in here Kris, just excited!!
March 28th, 2007 at 7:48 am
I found the news on bbc.co.uk about Zooomr and Kris. Check it out! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6502611.stm
March 28th, 2007 at 8:26 am
cool article!
March 28th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I’m hoping for a speedup… it’s still slow compared to the “other” site.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:08 am
@Jonathan Ward
I’m sure I could make it
Gimmie a shout sometime…
March 29th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I’m sorry to be offtopic…
I keep getting errors on pages of some of my photos.
for example: http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/indeyets/848702
I sent report to “feedback team” but never got any reply.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Aw man, I missed seeing this post.. by about five days. Of course, at 7am I’ve only been asleep for a few hours, and I’d probably want to stay home, but still. Photowalking with the zooomr-kind sounds like fun.
March 29th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Dear Kristopher and Thomas,
Please can you give us an update on the status and timeframe for Mark III? I think you’re in danger of squandering a lot of good will, but it needn’t be the case. Just a few paragraphs would keep us sated for now.
Don’t leave us in the dark please. I don’t mind if it’s going to be months away yet, as long as you communicate that fact. As far as we know, it could be any day now, but it’s been any day now for almost two weeks.
Regards,
Dave.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Kristopher is in Japan now. I know he can work from there, but I also know I wouldn’t…
I think we’re in for a bit of a wait on Mark III.
March 30th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Hillary,
In that case, why hasn’t there been something like “Kristopher has decided to take a well-earned break. He’s on holiday to clear his thoughts and so we definitely won’t be releasing anything new before he gets back in X weeks.” That’s not difficult, is it?
My concern is that if Kristopher and Thomas want Zooomr to be taken seriously as a player in the photo sharing/stock marketplace (as I do), they need to be more up-front with their communications. At the moment, the small tid-bits of information are scattered over several blogs, user’s comments and speculations on those blogs, and some random comments on twitter. It just doesn’t come across as very professional.
Take the reigns guys, and give us some authoritive information, rather than having to glean what scraps we can from across the web. Please.
Regards,
Dave
March 30th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Seriously, whats with the speed issues? Zooomr has been slow for me for the past few days, i’m a newbie though - maybe this is how it always is?
March 30th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Seriously, what’s up with the silent treatment? Please give us an update on M3!
March 30th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Sheesh, I guess this is where all the hype about the site being coded by just one 19 year old kid gets us, a single point of failure.
I’m really digging for zooomr, but I’m not sure if I want to leave my photos in the hands of just one person anymore. What happens if Kris gets ill, or burns out, or you know worse, gets a gf (j/k).
Normally I wouldn’t be so worried, but really what’s going on? All these posts before hand leading up to it, and what 2 weeks with nothing? Posts about photowalking, great, posts about video, fantastic. Just one small post about “Sorry guys, we hit a snag, can’t give you a date but we are working on it” would be all it takes. But why no comment at all? Suggests something is going wrong somewhere.
March 31st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I agree. I’m having doubts myself. The same thing happened with Zooomr v2 (DoS attack etc…)
Guys @ Zooomr, I suggest you not tell anyone regarding future releases until you are 99.999999999999999999% sure you’ve got it right.
Ever heard of the Osborne Effect
March 31st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
The osborne effect could have nothing to do with zooomr because:
1. They’re not selling anything (at least right now), so pre-announcing MIII would have no effect on sign-ups.
2. the osborne effect refers to companies announcing a product which will compete with the product they currently sell - which is not what happened here.
That aside, please! some info!
March 31st, 2007 at 6:15 pm
If I may interject something into the discussion, I believe MIII was thoroughly vetted before release. There were some issues which arose which were out of Zooomr’s hands. These issues precipitated some re-coding of the release. I know I’m being vague, but that’s all I can really say without betraying trust.
I guess I just want all zooomr’rs to know that MIII is not just a pie-in-the-sky, failed dream. It’s a real, professional product, and still very much alive.
Thomas, I know Kris is in Japan, and you probably feel uncomfortable making commitments on delivery, but could you please give an update.
Most who read this blog are supportive, but they’re also disappointed. Why not spread a little goodwill and give this community of friends some information.
Most here love Zooomr and want to see it grow and thrive, but they also want to know they are valued and that their concerns are important to you. They want to understand what is happening.
Please. Reward the dedication of your fans. Educate us.
p.s. I hope I haven’t stepped on any toes, I just wanted to give a voice to your user’s concerns.
March 31st, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I totally agree with tim.
March 31st, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Ditto @tim. A status update would be nice. I’ve been waiting patiently for one, and so have plenty of others. Thanks.
March 31st, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Well there is no contact or help email… So… For some reason, I can’t make sets. I’ve tried on multiple comps, but nothing ever comes down out of the add box…
April 1st, 2007 at 12:06 am
I spoke to Kris yesterday who is still in Japan.
He told me briefly what the problem with MIII was, and I can say, the delay surely isn’t his fault.
I’m pretty sure he’ll make an update on the blog soon.
April 1st, 2007 at 3:40 am
Here is a video message from Kristopher: http://www.vimeo.com/clip:162327
April 1st, 2007 at 5:46 am
That video explains a LOT. Thanks Thomas! Still I say it (or a short 1-2 paragraph message saying the same thing) should have been posted to the blog by Kris or Tom.
Given the problems outlined in the video, I’m more than willing to wait. And I’m also willing to help. Kris, Tom, just say the word and I’ll chip in.
April 1st, 2007 at 7:18 am
Cool, that’s all we wanted. Thank you. Now, quit working and go enjoy Japan. It’s a vacation, have fun, dammit.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Kris in Japan? Is this an april fool?
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:28 am
Thanks for the video Thomas.
At least, now we know a little bit what’s going on.
Kris, enjoy your vacation in Japan, recharge your batteries and come back at M3 with a vengeance!
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:49 am
I can’t believe all you guys.
Is it _really_ that important to know when MKIII is going to appear? Just wait! You’re like a bunch of kids on the run up to Christmas or something.
Sheesh what a way to say “Thanks loads for Zooomr Kris, I’m sure MKIII is going to be ace when it arrives”.
Is MKII so bad???
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Thanks for the update!
jonh;
For me, MII is quite bad because I have quite a lot (almost 2000) photos, and no way to organize them well without going through each one twice or three time - which would consume at least 50 hours my time (assuming n average a total of 90 seconds per photo) (not to mention the mental energy which would be needed for the process) - something which I can’t afford at the moment.
So while Kris owes me nothing, I think you can understand my eagerness and restlessness about MIII. And if you told me that MIII is coming in 6 months, I would leave and go somewhere else where I can organize my photos easily.
These are my reasons, and I can only imagine what others’ might be.
Have fun Kris!
Shwouchk.
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:21 am
well said jonh!
we having a great working photo site which we don’t pay for. if you didn’t know more was being offered, would you say you wanted or needed it?
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:28 am
Yes.
Please remember that much of MIII is based on user feedback and requests - meaning users DIDN’T know more was being offered, but still requested it.
I think your (jonh, jonathan) attitudes are highly destructive - assuming that because someone gives you something for free you should thanks them blindly and shut up.
The beta phase in products (of any kind) exists specifically to get more user input.
And as I said - Kris owes no one here anything - he could delete everyone’s photos, (as actually happened once, I understand) and I wouldn’t complain (o.k., I would a little :P). At the same time however, no one here owes him either, and has no need or obligation to stay if the site doesn’t satisfy his needs. While I think the unlimited upload and storage is very nice, there’s much more to a site then that, and I am sick of seeing (some) people prize Zooomr based on (what seems to be) the large (and lately unlimited) upload. I am also sure Kris knows this very well himself, which is why he devotes so much to the continued development of the site. So while I do appreciate his work, I also knows it isn’t personally for me (or anyone here) - it’s for IT - Zooomr.
Be happy you have this nice product - Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a gift.
Shwouchk.
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:44 am
Shwouck- you say “I think your (jonh, jonathan) attitudes are highly destructive - assuming that because someone gives you something for free you should thanks them blindly and shut up.”
i have to disagree with you, not on the philosophy (which is incidentally what happens in politics a great deal with revolutions as a comparison, and so i see too that there is always a need to question to mantain progress and standards after something good i.e. chavez).
why? because we have given feedback. we have contributed to what we think works and doesn’t work. many members have already expressed concerns about how the lack of communication of a delay is either deterring them, or how it may affect the image of zooomr globally, and thus its future in what will be a tight market.
my point being. kris and thomas have already been told what is wrong, what is right, what needs to be done. they have listened. they have already recieved comments on informing us more often. what good does it do to keep harping on about things already mentioned and noted?
i see your point that some of MIII is based upon what people requested. I don’t dispute that.
but to say our attitudes are highly destructive is far past the mark.
how exactly does posting repetitive statements (and i am not referring to any individual) without critical advice or assessment contribute towards the evolution of the site?
it doesn’t.
what i think jonh and myself were really getting at, was the sense that this difficult, and so far bumpy, transition to MIII is just a beta photo site upgrading itself, with one person doing the coding, which has been met with unrealistic demands from people. People want everything now. people talk about it like the delay is runing their lives and causing them distress. whilst we all love photos and a photo community, it is only virtual. It’s not like it’s actually impacting upon your lives is it? it’s a website. a good one one with the promise of being great. but still a website for photos.
a sense of perspective is needed, that’s all. in my opinion i’ll add.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
OK, that’s enough. Go to your respective corners. I’m calling a truce. If you want to fight, do it somewhere else.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:33 am
OK! sorry, got carried away:)
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Tim:
1. This is not a fight - it’s a discussion.
2. If not here - where? Remember we are not taking up space on your private back yard, but on an unlimited discussion space, and theres enough room for everyone.
Jon:
I think you mistaken the demands of people (again, I can only speak for myself, but) - At least from what I’ve read until now. People simply wanted to updated about what’s going on.
As for the highly destructive comment, I meant it in general, in life - not specifically to zooomr - and if I offended you, I apologize.
Anyway, if you already mentioned politics, I think repeating requests by many and different users is GOOD, because it:
1. Emphasizes what users care about and what is important - Imagine what would be if everyone expressed a request only if it wasn’t already done (here or in life - to politicians) - There would be no way to prioritize…
2. Puts some pressure on the person who gets the requests to get them done (Think petitions in politics for instance). Again, here I do not mean pressure to finish MIII, but rather shed some light on what’s going on with it and when it will be done…
Shwouchk.
April 4th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Shwouchk -
i see your point….however.
Whilst it is a bugbear of mine in politics, especially on the left (and i count myself as left and liberal) that new governmentrs, if opposing the ‘right’ etc are left unaccounted for, for the first few years, and there ceases to be critical examination of them. It happened too in Africa after many countries gained independence. you do need continual examination and the same standards applied to all.
but that is in politics, to elected (and sometimes not, but ruling class anyway) persons and bodies.
my point, however laboured it eventually turned out(!), was that this is not a key part of our lives, that they are not someone to serve us. and that people should keep some persepective. it was more a reference to comments that just slag off, which have appeared here and elsewhere.
anyway, that’s my twopence and i’ll shut up now you’ll be pleased to here.
April 4th, 2007 at 1:31 am
I see your point…
Anyway, I was actually quite pleased with the discussion :). I’m glad we came to some agreement.
Shwouchk.
April 4th, 2007 at 3:03 am
It seems that none of my sets with multiple tags work any more. They are all empty. The sets with single tags still seem to work. Does anyone else notice this? Maybe Kris forgot to configure something when restoring MkII?
April 4th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Jon and Schwouchk -
Your discussion is a good one. I think that when you do lots of research and ultimately select a particular photo site and then commit a lot of your own time and resources uploading your photos and personalizing your photos on that web site (you could have been doing that on an older more established site), you have committed to that photo site because that photo site convinced you, for one reason or another, that it was the right place to go, perhaps, because, for example, it promised a whole bunch of new functionality that you were eagerly anticipating. By choosing a newer unproven site, you are taking a risk by foregoing another more proven and stable site and that should be appreciated by the new site.
In that sense, I do believe the photo site, if it wants to engage in real business, does have a responsibility to its “clients”/”customers”/”users” to keep them informed of what is going on (it that is the expectation the web site started out with, by, for example, using a blog to reach out to its users). Users are key to the success of a web site and in that sense, I think a web site does have some responsibility to the users IF it wants to keep the users. All users are different and some have more patience than others. A web site needs to try to keep all its users happy, and not just the most patient ones. This is indeed a challenge.
Zooomr is great - I hope the momentum continues, but I also have noticed a lack of communication recently since MIII failed to launch as anticipated and I could imagine some more silent users may be losing their patience.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
dj-
You’re right there’s been a down turn in communications from Kris as he’s (obviously) been really busy and is now on Holiday.
But I can’t help but think that if Kris hadn’t been so loquacious at the start we wouldn’t have all these people whining about the lack of info at the moment.
Which is sad in a way as it seems to encourage being less open about what’s going on.
As I’ve said before I’m more than happy with MKII. I don’t have this mass photo editing issue as I’ve edited them as I uploaded them (at the moment I use juploadr, which makes batch tagging really easy). But I understand why some other people aren’t - I’d especially like a batch licensing tool rather than doing each image alone.
Anyways I seem to have meandered off course slightly….but I think I’ve made some kind of point…somewhere…hmm well in conclusion then:
MII is great, MKIII will be even better, if you _need_ MKIII then you’ll have to wait. No other site can offer what MKIII promises so there is no “greener grass” to run to. Get over it, go play pokemons for a bit or something…..
April 7th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Jon,
It’s simple: ‘whining’ customers are bad for business. If all it takes to keep your customers satisfied is a two paragraph post every week or so, then why not do it, if even only to keep the whiners happy? Remember, if the whiners are vocal here, they’ll probably be vocal elsewhere too. With an information vacuum, they’ll start speculating, and perhaps spreading misinformation.
It’s all just good business practice to keep people informed.
Cheers,
Dave.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Auto Loans…
Businesses should assist workers in Washington apply for an auto loan for guests….