What if Flickr fails?

#1

Post by bootload » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 12:28 AM UTC

What if Flickr fails?
blogs.law.harvard.edu

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#2

Post by ammmir » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 1:26 AM UTC

this reminds me of the geocities shutdown. you can't trust companies enough to keep data available and around forever. if you get too popular, controversial, or inactive, you should accept the fact that your data could be removed at any time.

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#3

Post by noahc » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:31 AM UTC

Is there a business opportunity here? Backup all your crap around the web and then allow you to reupload it to another service with one click?

EDIT: My point was more to pull in all data flickr, linkedin, facebook, twitter, myspace, hacker news, reddit, digg etc. Not just a single source, but all your web data and then upload it a new site if it is applicable. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to upload your hacker news data somewhere else, but it might make sense to go back and pull out something for use elsewhere.

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#4

Post by davi » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:34 AM UTC

Pro users want access to a social network that has gotten huge because it's free. The pro users are nervous because free=fragile.

This brings to mind Fred Wilson's recent call for content shifting tools (http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/01/content-shifting.html, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2085455).

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#5

Post by teilo » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:38 AM UTC

noahc wrote: post #3

Is there a business opportunity here? Backup all your crap around the web and then allow you to reupload it to another service with one click? EDIT: My point was more to pull in all data flickr, linkedin, facebook, twitter, myspace, hacker news, reddit, digg etc. Not just a single source, but all your web data and then upload it a new site if it is applicable. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to upload your hacker n…

Probably not. Smugmug will probably be the biggest beneficiary if the pros leave Flickr, and there are already tools for that. For example: http://www.smugglr.net/

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#6

Post by jedschmidt » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:40 AM UTC

noahc wrote: post #3

Is there a business opportunity here? Backup all your crap around the web and then allow you to reupload it to another service with one click? EDIT: My point was more to pull in all data flickr, linkedin, facebook, twitter, myspace, hacker news, reddit, digg etc. Not just a single source, but all your web data and then upload it a new site if it is applicable. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to upload your hacker n…

This is already possible with Flickr photos, thanks to flickrtouchr and Dropbox:

    git clone https://github.com/tominsam/flickrtouchr.git
    cd flickrtouchr
    python flickrtouchr.py ~/Dropbox/myphotos

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#7

Post by ghshephard » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:40 AM UTC

Just use Flickr with the presumption that the service is transitory, and will eventually go out out of business - hopefully with advance notice, but possibly not. Treat services like flickr, myspace, facebook as useful, but not guaranteed, CDNs for sharing your images with your social network. But transitory - their is every possibility they will decline and disappear.

All the Flickr Pro users I know have a pretty well defined image-workflow, typically with Aperture or Lightroom, and flickr is just one (albeit important) branch of that workflow.

In general:

  o Keep a local backup.  (Time Machine, etc..)
  o Every so often, mirror that backup and take it off 
    site. (Just sync your local backup to an external hard 
    drive)
  o Keep a real-time cloud backup (ala Backblaze and friends)

Keeping copies of your images is straightforward - the real challenge is managing that social network and backing it up - that's challenging.

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#8

Post by pyre » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:42 AM UTC

ammmir wrote: post #2

this reminds me of the geocities shutdown. you can't trust companies enough to keep data available and around forever. if you get too popular, controversial, or inactive, you should accept the fact that your data could be removed at any time.

Even when you're paying them for the service?

"Sorry. We know that you were paying us monthly/yearly for the service, but you've been inactive for too long. We're going to deactivate your account"

That doesn't seem right to me.

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#9

Post by smanek » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:53 AM UTC

noahc wrote: post #3

Is there a business opportunity here? Backup all your crap around the web and then allow you to reupload it to another service with one click? EDIT: My point was more to pull in all data flickr, linkedin, facebook, twitter, myspace, hacker news, reddit, digg etc. Not just a single source, but all your web data and then upload it a new site if it is applicable. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to upload your hacker n…

http://www.backupify.com/

Re: What if Flickr fails?

#10

Post by bootload » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 3:03 AM UTC

teilo wrote: post #5

noahc wrote: post #3

Is there a business opportunity here? Backup all your crap around the web and then allow you to reupload it to another service with one click? EDIT: My point was more to pull in all data flickr, linkedin, facebook, twitter, myspace, hacker news, reddit, digg etc. Not just a single source, but all your web data and then upload it a new site if it is applicable. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to upload your hacker n…

Probably not. Smugmug will probably be the biggest beneficiary if the pros leave Flickr, and there are already tools for that. For example: http://www.smugglr.net/

"... Smugmug will probably be the biggest beneficiary if the pros leave Flickr, and there are already tools for that. ..."

That is my strategy.

When I hit 10K images I mirrored at smugmug. But the transition is not smooth. There is a flickr/smugmug mismatch of how they store data. For instance smugmug has (to my knowledge) title but no body equivalent of flickr the result is you loose data. The transfer tools are also pretty basic.