Ethical Considerations - Ownership of Images

From looking at my previous blog I think it's safe to say that I use images in many aspects of my life, from sharing and posting on social networking sites to using them in my teaching. However I have to be honest when I say that the ownership of these images is something I had not really thought of and had little knowledge of. Perhaps an even fairer statement to make would be to say that I actually didn't realise the legality involved and hence hadn't given it much thought.

I witness everyday, as many of you will, people sharing and posting images of people, places and text on sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Considering the amount of photos that must be posted on these sites on a daily basis by such a wide variety of people, I think it very much becomes an online world of 'whats mine is yours' when it comes to images. Someone will see a photo of a destination they think is beautiful or a quote they find inspiring so they will save it and post in to their own page, as they want their own family and friends to see it and share their opinion on it.

However from my own research I have come to find this is very much not the case. The rights to a photo almost always remain with the person who takes the photo. The further use of the image must always be agreed by the owner and person who wishes to use it. It can be quite a complicated subject to try and understand but I found a good article that made the basics simple to understand.

          https://alpineinternet.com/2013/10/how-do-photo-rights-and-ownership-work/

The article shows that although you need rights to use photos these can be very easy to get using something called 'Stock Photography'. This is where agencies such as Getty images will license photos in large batches so that you have access to a wide variety of photos at once. I found this information very useful as I have been considering what images we will need on our website. I think looking further into using an agency like Getty images will be a good and safe way to go.

Setting up my Flickr account also furthered my understanding of the rights to images. The site has a very useful community guidelines page. This states that you can only post images that you have created.

                                      https://www.flickr.com/help/guidelines

I am taking this into account with my own new Flickr account. I am still planning to use it as a tool to share images related to my work within teaching and the new website creation I am involved in. But I will be far more careful at considering whether the images are rightfully mine. I've posted the link to my Flickr account below if you wish to follow and see my images.

                             https://www.flickr.com/photos/139806139@N04/

I want to further look into the ownership of images to fully understand what you are allowed to post and share because I think it is especially important within Web 2.0 sites. The power that Web 2.0 holds is the collective intelligence but I think that it means that users have a higher responsibility to educate themselves on the 'netiquette'. Something I now aim to do!

The Power of Imagery

In our day to day lives we are bombarded with imagery, in advertising, on social networking sites and television to name a few situations. Recent reading has got me thinking just how powerful that is.

Images create an emotional response in people, they have the power to trigger memories, experiences and aspirations. At first I thought about this from a business point of view, relating back to my previous blog and the website I am in the process of creating. I've thought about what reaction we want customers to have to our website. I would want people to think it looks professional but also warm, friendly and fun. Somewhere they would want to take their children and that attracts the children too! Like anything I think it will be a case of trial and error.I think a good place to start will be to see what reactions I personally have to images and will use websites such as Instagram and Flickr as my source.

I then went on to think about it personally. In previous conversations with people on the course we talked about the power of social media and the impressions people can form of other people without even meeting them. I had considered the argument of whether this is fair or not. Initially I would have sided with saying it was unfair to judge a person before meeting, speaking and really getting to know them. However further research into the emotional response to imagery has made me realise that although it is not fair to judge it is a natural human reaction. Of course the choice whether to act on that initial reaction is up to the individual but that does not change the fact that they WILL make an initial judgement based on their emotional response to what they see. For that reason I'm going to take time to look at my social media pages and really think 'Am I making the right impression?'. After all I do use sites such as Facebook to regularly look for and apply for jobs. So maybe the right think for me to do is not to look at them as me but as an employer looking at a possible future employee. What emotional response would I want to evoke in them?

Lastly I went on to relate it to my work and teaching. I was able to see the power of imagery for myself and what a positive thing that can be. This week I taught a group of very young children aged 2-4 a beginners dance class. They started off well but their attention started to wander. I sat the children down and showed them a picture of an everyday activity. We talked about the picture and they got to answer questions as well as ask their own about what they saw. I then asked them to re-create what they saw in the picture in a dance. The change in the children was remarkable. They were energetic, imaginative and responsive. It was great to see and really helped the children engage in the rest of the lesson. It is a tool I will be using again and look forward to developing further.

From considering all of these things I think it is fair to say that there are both positives and negatives to the power of imagery but one thing is clear, you cannot escape it.

I'm going to develop my ideas on the power of imagery by creating a Flickr account to collect images relating to my website and teaching to share with you all.

Watch this space for a link! 

 

Professional Communication Technologies - A thought about website creation

I have found it very interesting considering the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, in particular the differences that have made Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Amazon so popular. Now Facebook and Amazon are both very different in what they deliver, Facebook being a site where as a user you can create a personal profile to reflect your life and Amazon being a site where as a user you can choose to buy many different things. It is what they hold in common that I want to focus on and what has really got me thinking on how I can use Web 2.0 in my own career.

What Facebook and Amazon both have in common is that they rely on user activity to strengthen the sites and as a result gain more users. It was reading about the different ways they do this in the O'Reilly article suggested in Reader 1 that really got me thinking. This week I have had involvement in the creation of a new website for a business I hope to be involved in very soon. I am the first to admit that technology is not my friend and therefore when initially setting up the site the aim was to create something simple that got across the basic information we needed to readers. Without realising we created a site that would fall under the criteria of Web 1.0. We as creators made a site with information  to be consumed by the readers.

By looking at sites that fall under the Web 2.0 category, such as Amazon, I have noted ways in which we can improve our site and put the suggestions to my fellow creator and reasons for my suggestions. It was Amazon that really got my attention as, pointed out in the O'Reilly article, there are many other sites that provide the same services as Amazon but it is user involvement that has made it so successful. Therefore I wish to now incorporate sections to our website where users can leave reviews and suggestions so they can be personally involved in the services we wish to provide. It is my hope that in return they will feel more involved in the business as they see their ideas being taken on board and will be happier with the service they receive and as a result will attract more customers. I also wish to include (providing I learn how to do so!) a user navigation through the site created through the history of previous users. For instance when you click on a page other pages to visit will be suggested based on what other customers have chosen to look at. I think this will make the website easier to use and also make more sense to the people that use it.

I am excited that reading for the course has made a direct impact on decisions I am making on my own web use and look forward to what other new directions it may take me in. 

Article mentioned:

O'Reilly T. (2006) 'What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns And Business Models For The Next Generation Of Software'

Getting Started

Hello there and welcome to my first blog post. After experiencing my first ever Skype chat last week I have been pondering about what to write in my first ever blog. Technology does not tend to be my friend so this was a scary prospect! I decided the best thing to do was to read the course material and to see if inspiration would strike. I had a busy week planned filled with teaching, travelling, auditions and taking class. I downloaded the materials and they proved perfect train reading.

Let me back track slightly and introduce myself. I began dancing at the age of 4, following in the footsteps of my older sister. Dance and performance were a major part of my childhood. One event that stands out to me was a school trip to watch a Matthew Bourne production of 'Edward Scissorhands'. I had never been so captivated by a story told solely through dance. It was this performance that cemented my decision to attend vocational college. I undertook a foundation course at The Urdang Academy and then went on to complete a three year Musical Theatre course at Cambridge Performing Arts, graduating in 2013.

Since graduating I have performed in various jobs in the UK and abroad. I am very grateful for the opportunities given to me, I have not only been able to dance in shows that I enjoy but I have found a love for travel. In between contracts I have taken on many different teaching roles and this is something I would like to develop in my future career.

A life of relatively short contracts of work and auditioning can lead to a fairly unusual lifestyle. It is something that I have done continuously since graduating and have, up until now, not really considered what else might be available to me.

It was thinking about my future that made me decide to complete this degree course. I really want to further my learning and understanding of my career and to see what new directions this learning can take me. And if this week is anything to go by it is going to be an exciting journey!

On the train down to London I settled down to read the module handbook and am surprised at the effect it had on my week. Reading points put forward about what we are going to cover on the course made me think about what I was achieving in my week. I found myself really thinking about all the different ways I networked, from making new friends in an audition line to applying to work with a company online. I also took some time to think about my CV and considered the last time I received feedback on it, I realised it was when I was at college! So I sat down with a friend and asked them to take a look. It was really useful to gain the perspective of a fresh pair of eyes and I can't wait to develop this further on in the module with my fellow BAPP students.

I am really hopeful that by taking on this course it will develop my thinking as a performer and teacher and, if this week is anything to go by, its going to be an exciting journey!