Jim Regan - Site Reviews
PhotoQuilt 2000
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The common interest, not surprisingly, is photography. The purpose -- as people around the world are invited to submit a personally significant photograph -- is to create a composite image of the home planet as it approaches the Millennium. The gathering place is the PhotoQuilt 2000 Web site.
The population of this particular community is impressive. Since its launch, the PhotoQuilt has already gathered thousands of photographs, and there is little doubt that thousands more will be added before the year 2000. In order to keep abreast of this growth, the Quilt is updated daily, as new submissions are 'woven' into a single FlashPix image. (No plug-ins required.)
FlashPix itself is a relatively new image format, (like a JPEG or TIFF file) and vital to the smooth operation of the Quilt, since it saves each image in multiple resolutions.
Zoom in on a picture and FlashPix opens a new, higher resolution copy of the image to retain sharpness. Zoom out, and it will choose a lower resolution, and therefore, smaller file. For the Web site visitor, this means the most efficient combination of image sharpness and quick download is always available -- to make viewing the Quilt a pleasure rather than an ordeal.
The next factor in making the Quilt accessible is logical navigation, and Kodak provides several options for finding individual shots, or sets of pictures.
When first loaded, the site reveals an overall view of the Quilt, and several navigational aids which can be used in any combination desired to zero in on a specific image. Not surprisingly, in the full view, individual images are too small to interpret, being only a few pixels across. However, if you like surprises, you can click anywhere on the 'full view' Quilt and get straight to the individual image under your pointer, complete with a brief caption written by its owner.
There is also the option of zooming in to (or out of) on any area of the Quilt, magnifying the images by 2,4 or 8 times with each step. Finally, arrows in the Quilt's frame facilitate linear movements across its surface. To keep you oriented, a thumbnail image is visible at all times in the upper right of the browser window, displaying which portion of the Quilt is being viewed. (Users of such software as Photoshop and Illustrator will be familiar with this "Navigator" interface.)
Of course, if you're looking for something specific, the Quilt is also fully accessible through its own search engine, which not only tracks subject matter but caption content as well. (A search for "Bob" returned 20 images including Bob's Plane, Bob's Raft, Bob the Cat, Bob the Dog, and a pair of weddings - Bob as groom.)
If you choose to add a patch of your own to the Quilt, several methods are provided -- but be sure to read the contract. (You'll be surrendering almost all your rights to the photograph, and allowing Kodak to do pretty much whatever they want with, and to, it.)
Although at first, the PhotoQuilt might seem to be little more than a shared repository for all those family snaps only of interest to the family that took them (and many are), there are also images have an impact beyond the visual. Yes, there are photos of cats and cars (and even a shot of someone at a Kodak "Customer Experience area").
But there are also new citizens holding their documents, the last photograph a mother took of her daughter before being killed by a drunk driver, and a young man diagnosed by doctors with a fatal illness who's hope is to, "...live to see the year 2000."
Beyond whatever public relations value the project has for its sponsor, the PhotoQuilt also reveals sometimes surprising examples of intimacy and sharing -- which is more than can be said for many 'real' communities.
PhotoQuilt 2000 can be found at http://alts1.kodak.com/US/en/corp/further/photoQuilt/.
(Under the heading of "same but different," another photo project for the faux Millennium is...the Millennium Photo Project. This experiment in "community enterprise" is in the process of gathering 25,000 volunteers from around the world to photograph events on December 31, 1999. After the event, the 300 best photos will be selected and published in a coffee-table book for Christmas 2000 - probably something along the lines of the "Day in the Life" books. You can find all the details at http://www.millenniumphoto.com/.)
Jim Regan provides 'Today's Links' to the e-Monitor. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.