There are many ways that being on Active Rain helps, teaches or surprises. A small, half forgotten event might grow into something wild and wonderful, and you might find your creative efforts end up in New York City.
Last November Kathy McGraw had an idea. She decided to open a Group where everyone could share pictures with each other, and "not have to worry about all the Copyright stuff" as she put it. She established a Flickr AR group: Foto Share Shop for Bloggers. Any Active Rain member or other blogger was welcome to join, and use the photos in the group because they all would be uploaded under the Creative Commons license. She established some guidelines and her post spells them out.
I uploaded a few photos and used one or two from the site on a blog, and then mostly forgot about the group.Tonight I was reminded of the group and the creative commons concept.
I received an email from an Emma Williams, Managing Editor, Schmap Guides which said in part:
Hi Alex,
I am delighted to let you know that one of your photos with a Creative Commons license has been selected for inclusion in the newly released sixth edition of our Schmap New York Guide:
If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide.
On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of our guide at: Empire Diner
WOW! That was unexpected!
I clicked on the first link and after a bit of a search I found the photo, along with several others of the Empire Diner. So okay, I'm not unique. I tried the 2nd link and got faster results! It took me right to a screen shot of what the Guide and photo look like on an iPhone. Schmap Place Saver is a free ap for the iPhone and includes the Schmap City Guides.
Yes. the ap has been downloaded to my personal iPhone. It's a very useful ap with Guides of several cities including New York, San Francisco and Portland. And my Empire Diner photo is really, really there on my iPhone!
As amazing as it was to get the email, I'm even more astounded to have a photo included in a New York City Guide. I love that! But the wonderfully delightful part is that if it weren't for Active Rain, Kathy's idea and the Creative Commons licensing it wouldn't have happened at all.
Unanticipated, unexpected, an AR surprise - a journey I didn't know my work would take. Results I couldn't have planned: recognition for a photo; a great little map badge for my blogs and website; and I can get a small piece of invisible code for my website. A code that Schmap says will detect visitors with iPhones, Blackberries and other smart phones and give them an easy way to find my location on a map, call me, or send me an email.
For those who don't know about Schmap - I didn't - the next posts demonstrate a few things you can do with their technology.
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