That's why it is so exciting to let people know about the launch of a brand-new pilot project the Library of Congress is undertaking with Flickr, the enormously popular photo-sharing site that has been a Web 2.0 innovator. If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity. In many senses, we are looking to enhance our metadata (one of those Web 2.0 buzzwords that 90 percent of our readers could probably explain better than me).

The project is beginning somewhat modestly, but we hope to learn a lot from it. Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.

The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

Research just out by Hitwise has indicated that although the number of people visiting web 2.0 inspired sites (think YouTube, Flickr etc) we're really a bunch of couch surfing voyeurs who are around to spy on what others are doing, rather than actively participating.

The data collected by Bill Tancer (analyst at Hitwise) showed that just 0.16 percent of visits to YouTube are from those creative people uploading their homegrown videos for the rest of the us to see. Which leaves a whole lot of us hanging around for the spectacle alone.

The research also identified the grand total sum of only "two-tenths of one percent" of visitors to Flickr that were actually uploading photos.

Flickr collections visually differentiate themselves from Flickr sets by using the mosaic-style icon you see in the screenshot above. Unfortunately it looks like collections are Flickr Pro-only, though any plain old Flickr account holder knows you don't get enough sets with you free account to have much of a need for collections anyway.

Photolurkers spent most of their time online flicking through photograph albums posted by strangers

Then there are photolog sites like Flickr. While most of us would rather die than be caught surreptitiously browsing through someone else's photos, there need be no such qualms about the private pics people put up on these sites. Haliyana Khalid and Alan Dix at Lancaster University in the UK have studied this new practice of "photolurking". Most people they interviewed who used Flickr and similar sites spent time each day browsing albums owned by people they had never met. They do this for emotional kicks, Khalid and Dix suggest: flicking through someone else's wedding photos, for example, allows people to daydream about their own nuptials.

Blog streaking: Revealing secrets or personal information online, which for everybody's sake would be best kept private.

Art teacher Tamara Hoover has resigned from her job at Austin High School, extinguishing a firestorm that began when nude pictures of her online were brought to the attention of school administrators.

Hoover submitted a resignation letter Wednesday and, pending expected school board approval Monday, will receive a $14,850 settlement from the Austin school district, several months' salary.

"The district believes strongly in an individual's right of free expression, but as we all know, such rights are not absolute," district officials said in a statement Thursday. "The district and Ms. Hoover disagreed as to the propriety of explicit nude photographs of her and others in sexually suggestive poses being placed on the Internet, and its impact on students and families, and thus, on Ms. Hoover's ability to be an appropriate role model and effective classroom teacher in AISD."

Hoover said she's sad about the outcome but will focus on moving forward. "I wasn't prepared to stop teaching. I never wanted to resign from teaching. I don't think this is the most ideal outcome. I was definitely impressed by (the district's) willingness to come to the table. I just wish they would have done that in the beginning."

Over the last year, we've been asked 15,381 times, "How about printing? When are we going to get printing!?" Today we are happy to answer: "Today!" For now it is U.S. only (we know! we're working hard on rolling it out everywhere!). You can order prints to be delivered by mail, or pick them up at your local Target store for one hour printing, even. In both cases, you get 10 free 4x6" prints to get started.

"Interestingness is a ranking algorithm based on user behavior around the photos taking into account some obvious things like how many users add the photo to their favorites and some subtle things like the relationship between the person who uploaded the photo and the people who are commenting (plus a whole bunch of secret sauce)."