Adding Metadata to Flickr

I've looked into Flickr, and it looks like a promising source for metadata.

It turns out they do a pretty good job to start. They expose feeds for photos tagged for "animal". They also expose a feed for each user.

Here's where Flick need to go next:


  • Add <link> to feed for tagged photos in the HTML. For instance, in http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/animal/.

  • Add FOAF output when viewing a user's page as a <link> in the HTML

  • Add RDF <link> for each picture. Expose EXIF and tags for each picture. Add metadata for author, and even who has marked it as a Favorite.

  • Stop using that awful Creative Commons RDF inside comments inside HTML. We've grown up, it's time to use <link> to bind CC licenses to pictures. (Kudos for using CC in the first place!)

  • Expose the CC license used in the picture RDF.



Flickr has a great opportunity for publishing a tremendous amount of metadata, generated quite easily. I've posted to their FlickrIdeas forum about Adding FOAF Export and Explicit URI to Image in Feed Entry. Post some comments there and let them know we want more metadata!

I mostly want to be able to browse to a picture, say, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gauviroo/1501146/, and be able to <link> to the RDF for that picture, including its tags, exif, and link to author's FOAF.

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