Flashes of Panic

I read a (private) blog of a guy in New York who does theater reviews. He’s concocted a rating system he calls the “Yes System” which is most easily summarized as the beginning of any sentence in response to the production’s argument: “Yes, And…”, “Yes, Or…”, “Yes, If…” or “Yes, But…”. It’s not just a good-and-bad rating; it engages the project.

I feel that way about a link my mother sent me yesterday. The link was the Flickr feed for “Preservation Nation”, the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The NTHP is using the photos for a photo mosaic project, and there are quite a few buildings and places which “matter” in the stream that are in my hometown, or the nearby small city. It’s pretty cool to be flicking through the list and see whole blocks of our downtown. It’s a great use of Flickr.

And here’s where I get to “Yes, If.” If you just see the Flickr stream, why hasn’t an effort been made to geo-tag these photos? It would’ve made a great connection to other parts of Flickr, bringing new people in to the photo stream who might not otherwise have found it. And those browsing the stream could have had more context for the other intriguing photos they found.

There’s a Google Maps chart of NTHP sites on the main site, but it’s not integrated with the Flickr stream. The NTHP is starting to use these tools to create an intriguing presentation of their projects and mission, but there’s another step to be taken. The next step would be tying those tools together to create a more seamless experience which can be entered from any of the components.