JPG Magazine: Brave New Photography

Posted on October 15, 2006
Filed Under Social Media |

Om told me about JPG Magazine a while back and I just haven’t found the right theme to fit it in with so I’m writing about it standalone because I think it is so cool.

The idea is simple, if everyone were an editor vis-a-vie wisdom of crowds would the final product, in this case a magazine, be a better product? Having not seen the actual printed magazine I cannot answer that question, but the concept is certainly one that I find appealing.

Photosharing sites like Flickr and Zooomr (my favorite) have done a fantastic job of collecting user generated images and adding metadata such as tags and geodata, thereby giving the images context. There are additional aspect to these services that touch on community, indeed in my Zooomr site I have added contacts and can see when they post images.

I like JPG Magazine because it does the above but with a sense of purpose, the creation of a print magazine (published 6 times a year) where the user community is the editor. Over the last year I have witnessed several attempts by print media to get into the “user generated content” game, none with convincing success if for no other reason than it was less than convincing they really had conviction in this idea but probably more so because they came across as looking to get something for nothing. JPG Magazine seems to neatly avoid this pitfall but first and foremost being entirely conceived in user generated content so there is certainly no confusion about what they believe in, and secondly because if your photo is used they will pay you.

In looking over the terms of use I don’t think anyone would suggest that they are overly generous, but hey if you are a professional photographer I really don’t think this is targeted at you. The audience and community is built around the prosumer, someone who is an amateur by nature but equipped like and capable of generating professional level quality. Finally, what I really like about the terms and conditions is that you have the right to revoke your grant by simply removing your images from the site. Nice.

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