New views and an interview

Flickroom has been in active development for almost an year now. Flickroom’s first public beta was released on July 05, 2009 and there have been 6 updates released thus far.  The team has continuously been trying to improve the user experience by adding the most important features of Flickr as well as providing some innovative value-added functionality.

Being a heavy Flickr user, I was always looking for ways to improve the Flickr experience as it currently is on the website. Inspired by the proliferation of cool AIR applications like TweetDeck and many others, I got together with my friends and started working on an AIR application for Flickr users. Since Flickr is all about photographs, we really wanted the application UI to present the images in the most engaging manner. This is how Flickroom came into existence. Right now we are a small but enthusiastic team of experienced photographers and Flex developers who just keep coming up with new ideas and implementing them as best as we can.

Collaboration is a big focus area for Flickroom Team. We are witnessing the power of interaction and crowd-sourcing in every field. And even though Flickr website has a wealth of photographers and hence photography information, there are limited options for real-time collaboration.  Flickroom is trying to bridge this gap and Flickroom Chat is one such platform. We have seen a lot of interesting discussions already, ranging from sharing of techniques and set-ups for specific pictures to what lenses were used for what images. Consider the possibilities – you see a picture you really like and you can immediately ask the photographer what settings, lens, post-processing s/he used! Another big area where we see that photographers on Flickr are lacking is catching up with each other via numerous kind of events, like Photowalks, Trainings, Exhibits etc. Flickroom provides a seamless way to get to know about them. And of course, you can use Flickroom to Tweet about your photos.

I think I have been a photographer all my life, I’ve only discovered it now On a serious note, buying my first DSLR  about a couple of years back really made me serious about photography and the endless possibilities it unfolds. I started photography as a medium of creative expression and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it has become a way of life now. Things I would not have given a second look earlier, have magically transformed into ‘subjects’ for interesting photographs. You can find my work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashumittal/show/

Flickroom is the first full-fledged desktop application for Flickr and it has been extremely well received. We are proud to have crossed 10,000 authenticated users in just under 5 months of its release. We have also been featured on all the key technology sites like Lifehacker and Cnet which is an achievement in itself. You can find a whole lot of information about Flickroom’s features and its reviews here: http://flickroom.org/blog/. We are also on twitter @Flickroom and eager to hear what you have to say!