I missed the post about flickr use by MoveOn on netsquared when I was in London earlier this month. Just tracked down the original article, The Best $24.95 MoveOn Ever Spent: Flickr via Jon Stahl.
The article describes how MoveOn is experimenting with flickr, believed to be the first political campaign to make use of flickr. The article points out that adhoc groups have formed on flickr to support photo sharing and organizing around political topics, but MoveOn's use of flickr is on a larger scale. They have been able to review, organize, and make available over 11,000 photos to members and flickr uses. They turned to flickr because their own internal system for sharing photos was not as robust or flexible. For example, being able to find sort through large amounts of photos to find the best ones. In March or April, they worked with Flickr to build their own system using Flickr's API.
The article describes the system and how it is working (very well). Also, some added benefits or outcomes for MoveOn, in particular,
Apart from being able to save server space and involve volunteers, MoveOn’s engagement with Flickr has had some unexpected benefits that come precisely from using a platform that is designed to push power to the users. Kane recalls, “One of our campaigners wanted a slideshow of photos from a recent action and was able to put it together himself, just by selecting the tags he was interested in and using the Flickr slideshow app.” He adds, “It's also made finding pictures for the MoveOn homepage and other materials a snap -- MoveOn staff can easily browse photos by campaign or time period.”
The article concludes with this thought:
The larger lesson for other organizations is this: As social networking sites like Flickr, del.icio.us (also just bought by Yahoo!), and MySpace attract millions of users, it may make sense to go where the people already are and start playing with the same tools, not only because those tools may offer all kinds of benefits to the organization, but also to see what unexpected benefits may engage people. What MoveOn is doing with Flickr is just a beginning.
MoveOn's flickr home page and flickr tags page
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