an essay
What Is? - An Introduction
A fotola is a visual web journal
Also known as an imageblog or photoblog. Fotola.com is a site where you can create your own image-centric weblog.
Are you swimming in photos?
If you own a digital camera, you may have noticed how easy it is to take pictures all the time. In fact, you've probably started amassing quite a collection.
I created Fotola.com to make it trivially easy to keep an online journal of your photos-- a great shot you took recently or a favorite from your collection. Or maybe just a photo that somehow fits your mood today.
Of course, you don't need to stick to digital photographs, or even photographs at all. Scans, doodles, original artwork, and even public-domain images you find elsewhere on the internet are great material for a fotola.
Fotola is not alone
This is one of many online journaling services, such as Blogger or Live Journal, that make it easy for you to constantly update a website.
It's also one of a growing number of photoblogging services which create image-oriented web journals. Another excellent example, and one of the primary inspirations for this site, is Fotolog.net. I hope Fotola will be at least as much fun to use as Fotolog.net is.
Fotola is different
Here are some of the features that set Fotola apart:
- Visual links: add links from your entries to any other fotola entry, or to any image on the internet
- Creative Commons integration: up-front declaration of how others may (or may not) use the images you post
- Import from the Internet: you're not limited to images on your harddrive
- Publish to your own weblog: your images can become entries on any online journal that knows the Blogger or LiveJournal API.
- Newsfeed support: your latest images can be syndicated using the popular RSS format.
- Spellcheck is built in
- Advanced text formatting: Fotola understands the rapidly growing list of Berylium commands for creating just the right look in your entries
- Stylesheet control: use the power of CSS to give your fotola just the right look.
Fotola is evolving
Fotola is Open Source Software, released under the Gnu GPL. Anyone with an internet server and some knowhow can install, customize, and run their own copy. Any programmer can help make the code better, faster, and more secure. When code is shared, we all benefit.
Fotola is quaintly-named
My friend Tod first suggested the name in 1999. I thought it sounded like some sort of old-fashioned machine for distributing photographs, so I bought the domain. Fotola.com is anything but old-fashioned.
What now?
Create your own fotola, take a look at the user overview, or page through our extensive online help.
Or just go look at pretty pictures, that's fine with us!
By csnyder on March 20, 2003 at 12:01am