I'm jumping into this conversation late, but I felt it was important 
enough for me to chime in late rather than never.

Ownership is important to consider, but if a 3rd party outside web 
service does not have a problematic ownership policy then using that 
service really should not be an issue.  If using a 3rd party outside web 
service to host or manage content for a U website is a blanket violation 
of the U's web policies in all cases, then frankly the policies need to 
be rewritten.

There are not internal tools nor open source installable options which 
can match 3rd party outside web services in many cases.  The university 
is not staffed or funded in such a way to allow us to reinvent every 
wheel, nor would it benefit us in most cases to do so.  Having our 
content available on other networks (Flickr and YouTube strike me as 
obvious examples) as well as pulled in from those networks onto our U 
sites exposes our content to additional audiences -- which is a good 
thing.  (The obvious exception to the rule is private content.)

Also, in regards to depending on the uptime of the 3rd party service, at 
SUA we cache Flickr content locally so that we do not depend on Flickr's 
uptime to display photos on our own website.  We only depend on Flickr 
for the management of those photos.  Flickr's management tools are far 
richer than Gallery's or any other open source PHP installable photo 
gallery app.

I really do think that for public content that you want to be consumed 
by as many people as possible that 3rd party networks are often superior 
choices.


Kristofer Layon wrote:
> I'm not sure that using Flickr conflicts with the U's terms --- I don't 
> think that's true at all.  We use outside web services all of the time 
> here at the U.  Like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as 3 examples.
> 
> And when an external site goes down, we do the same thing we do when an 
> internal U site goes down: we wait for it to go back online.  =)
> 
> Re. ownership, people should be cautious about content on web sites and 
> terms regarding that, just like you should be in any arena.  But I find 
> it kind of amusing that we are to be so overly cautious about ownership 
> and the web, yet university scholars work as hard as they can to get 
> their research articles into print journals --- and the journals own the 
> copyright to those articles.  
> 
> To answer Karoline's technical question, Flickr provides embed codes 
> that make it pretty easy to include photos and slideshows into any web 
> page.  Look under "share", I believe.  Here's one example:
> 
> http://blog.lib.umn.edu/layo0002/marathon/2009/10/october_surprise.html
> 
> Kris
> 
> 
> Kristofer D. Layon
> Director of Web Design & Online Collaboration
> 612.624.4545  :  [log in to unmask]  :  http://blog.lib.umn.edu/layo0002/work/
> - - - - - - 
> Office of the Senior Vice President for System Academic Administration
> University of Minnesota Twin Cities
> http://www.academic.umn.edu/system/
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 28, 2009, at 1:54 PM, Nate Sigrist wrote:
> 
>> I do believe that using an outside source like Flickr would conflict 
>> with the U's terms.  What do you do if their site goes down?  Also be 
>> cautious of who owns the content.  Some sites take ownership of 
>> whatever is uploaded.  Have you considered using a local PHP install 
>> of Gallery? http://gallery.menalto.com/  I'm sure there are other options.
>>
>> *Nathaniel Sigrist*
>> Web Developer
>> Direct: 612-625-4118
>> Mobile: 651-399-3486
>> Email: [log in to unmask] 
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Academic Health Center Office of Communications
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>>
>> Karoline Dehnhard wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> If anyone has linked to Flickr I would be curious to know how. My 
>>> understanding is that they require that you either link to them using 
>>> a Flickr photo or Flickr badge (correct me if I am wrong). I also 
>>> want to know if there are rules about using a Flickr badge on a U of 
>>> M site since it is advertisement-like. Also, what exactly does "for 
>>> personal use" mean with regard to Flickr?
>>>
>>> I have many questions about other social media too! This would be a 
>>> good topic for a presentation.
>>>
>>> Karoline
> 

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