Chapter 4: In which the Pirates rage against the machine!

For as long as I can remember, there's always been a group of computer users who hate Microsoft, usually for no real reason. They feel Microsoft is somehow an evil corporation, and while they can't explain that feeling, they make sure everyone knows how they feel. Most recently, this means having nothing to do with Internet Explorer, and instead joining one of the mobs that flock to replacements such as Firefox and Opera. Semi-adequate browsers whose popularity seems to be based mostly on the fact that they're not Internet Explorer.

How does this relate to Learning 2.0? Well for today's lesson, we were supposed to browse some of the Flickr mashups. Honestly, I found this hard to do, as most of the websites don't offer summaries of what each mashup does on the main list. Instead, you'd have to click each link individually, read the description, then go back to the main list. Luckily, I found the mashup I was most interested in pretty quickly. Its called Flock.

Flock is a Browser based on the Mozilla engine that makes it easier for Image Sharers, such as Flickr users, to manage and upload their photographs. Without being able to download it here at work, I can't say how good or bad the browser is, but I was quite impressed that someone took the time to recode a browser for Flickr users. This, to me, shows the power such a community can have on the Online community as a whole. These types of mashups and programs give bigger companies like Microsoft hints as to what its users want to see in a browser! Perhaps Flock contains features we may see in a future version of Internet Explorer, or Firefox!