The scoop:

The idea is simply that I didn’t want to prescribe what went into the book completely. I tried getting 50 photographers to join the project, and almost everyone agreed. Only one photographer that I contacted declined to be a part of it. Unfortunately, a few had not responded at all, though.

That left me with a problem. I could go back to Flickr and ask another bunch of people to be a part of the project. But, most likely I’d end up asking people for months. Plus, it would be completely based on what I thought was a good photo. And, even though I plan on purchasing a book for myself, I think we’d all agree that we’re not too fond of dictatorships.

So, I decided to create a voting application where you can submit and vote on photos for the book.

How’s it work?

Well, there were a few things I had to do to make it easy on myself and everyone else, so here’s the list of stuff you probably might not know about this unique website.

1. To log in, we are exclusively using Open ID instead of usernames and passwords. You don’t really want to remember another username and passwords do you? I don’t, and I created the thing.
2. To submit photos, we just need the url on Flickr. When I asked for just the Flickr urls in the comments of this page, I didn’t realize how awesome that is. You don’t have to download, upload, or any kind of loading. Just submit the photo’s url from flickr and you’re done.
3. Vote on other photos. Once you’ve logged in, you can run around and vote on all the other photos in the system. The first page only shows 9 random photos, but you can feel free to vote on all of them.

Now, a few things this site doesn’t quite do yet, but that have been noted:

• Once you vote yes or no on a photo, you can’t go back and change your vote.
• You can’t see how many votes a particular photo has on it
• You can’t change your Open ID provider or add new ones
• You can only submit one photo at a time

Now, before you get all grumpy on me for the things you can’t do yet, please understand that I haven’t made a dime off this project yet, and I don’t expect to make anywhere near what it cost me in time to create this. This is a labor of love and although I do expect to add those features in the future, they’re just not there yet.

I thought it would be better to have the capabilities that are in the site right now, rather than wait and try to do everything all at once but never get the project off the ground.

The only two things I ask is (1) you submit your own photos, not someone else’s and (2) the photos you submit are Creative Commons licensed (particularly Share-Alike 3.0 with Attribution). In fact, those two things are requirements. Any photo not fitting those, regardless of how many votes they get, will not be considered for the book.

OK, what now?

First, get all your friends to submit photos which are worthy to be in the book titled “Old”.

Second, login and vote on photos. Come back often because I expect new photos to be added daily.

Third, if you’re interested in purchasing the book when it’s completed, fill out this form and let me know, or fill in your email address under “My info” after you log in.

• Price: about $80 or so.
• Photos/Photographers: There’s a list of them on the photographers page
• The Beauty: Each photo was chosen specifically for this issue’s theme, “Old”. These photographers are outstanding, and typically charge nothing to use their photos.
• The Cause: Each photographer will, for probably the first time, receive $1 per photo per book. The limited-run of printing only 50 books guarantees a rarity. The idea behind this project is to simply give credit and validation to these brilliant photographers.
• Sharing (The Story): These books will hopefully be a talking point around your coffee tables. Share the story of how these books were created and behind each photograph.

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Apparently there are 5 principles of Social Objects. Also, I think I’m going to stop capitalizing it because otherwise it might become a buzzword which will sit next to “Web 3.0″ on a flashy sticker thingy in the upper right corner of every micro-blog in existence.

Anyway, the principles. I was thinking of how we might relate the 50 photos project to it. Here’s my thoughts:

1. You should be able to define the social object your service is built around. This one is pretty easy, it’s the limited-run book(s). This blog and the writing surrounding it isn’t much of a concern, although I do like the fact that it’s a somewhat new movement of collective engagement. However, that’s not so much the social object, I don’t think. Hmm.
2. Define your verbs that your users perform on the objects. For instance, eBay has buy and sell buttons. It’s clear what the site is for. “Buy” would probably be the verb of choice. It is our intention (the photographers and I) to sell these. From the photographer’s point of view it would be a resounding “sell”. Perhaps there’s something cooking here that’s scalable, organizational, and systematic which could turn into a different social object than just selling/buying the books. Interesting. But, back on point, the purpose for this first project is for people to first “buy” and then “share” them.
3. How can people share the objects? Well, you have to purchase them first. Then, give them as gifts, set them on your tables and let people flip through them. Tell the story of how they came to be. It’s a good story. No, it’s a great story.
4. Turn invitations into gifts. This one I’m not sure about yet. Perhaps, if this becomes a regular thing, the invitation would be to be a selected photographer for a book, but that seems focused on the wrong end. For the person buying the book, the greater value is the fact there’s a limited number of them in the world. There will probably never be another collection like it. An invitation to purchase is definitely a gift. However, for some reason that sounds very “corporate sales guy”-ish. Any ideas on this one?
5. Charge the publishers, not the spectators. If people are buying the books to share them, either giving them as gifts or simply sharing them in their home, the charge is to the person who gave the money to publish. Nope, that doesn’t sound right. The true publishers are all making money, so I’m stumped on this one too. The person buying it, well, is buying it. I’m at a loss.

I’d love your feedback, especially on the last two. Please, join in the discussion and help make this project better. If we need a new social object, then great. If we need a new method, I’m all for it. If we’re doing fine and we just don’t fit the bill the same way, great. Let’s hear that too.

Thanks, in advance, for your input.

Many of you have asked outstanding questions regarding this project. Let me assure you, I do have a plan, and I’m very flexible in how to fulfill it for the benefit of everyone involved. However, at the same time, this plan was hatched at about 2:30am, so it’s not bulletproof yet. In the spirit of the internet, though, I’d love to move as fast as you all are comfortable with. I think we have a great project here, and I would love to use this first attempt as a groundbreaking and successful collaboration.

Goals
My goals are simple. I want to make money for everyone who take such outstanding photographs. You are my heros. I wholeheartedly admire your talents and I want to do something to give back. I want people to appreciate your work as much as I do.

You’ve shown your community spirit by licensing your photos with a Creative Commons license. I respect that. It adds to your credibility and willingness to help others too.

In the end, I believe your photos are worth something. I might be miscalculating the value on this first run, but I still think it’s worthwhile to try it out. There’s nothing to lose.

In the following lines, I’m going to try to answer most of your questions as I can today (November 30, 2007). I will update this Q&A page if this project is successful and we sell out of books because I’d love to do another run using a different theme if it works out.

So, here we go.

Q&A

• Where will these photo books be sold?: I will be promoting them from this website as well as my own personal blog. I will be asking my network to post articles about them as well, bringing in some more publicity. They will be published and sold and shipped by Lulu.com, allowing for international orders.
• How can I (the photographer) control the number of books being sold?: Because of the licensing of your photos you can allow me, by written permission, to produce a limited number of books for profit. Your acceptance via email is enough to both allow the publishing of the book as well as legally limit the production run. Basically, you have full control, and if more are produced without your permission, you have the rights to legally make a claim against the person or company which produces your work for a profit.
• Will I be able to get a copy of this book?: Absolutely. Anyone will be able to order the book. However, we can’t give it away for free to anyone, including the photographers. The license for each photographer is separate. Now, perhaps after the limited-run is sold out, or perhaps in a different agreement with the rest of the photographers, we could do a private run in which all the photographers agree to a non-profit publish of the book.
• What type of formal agreement can be made?: If necessary, I’d be happy to get a formal document together which everyone can sign. In fact, I believe there is a new web service which will help us formalize everything with digital signatures. Writing the agreement will take a little time to get right with 50 contributors. However, if anyone is concerned, I’d be happy to make a formal agreement which we can all sign.
• What is the payment procedure?: I will make payments at the end of each month in which the run has not sold out or until we decide to end the run. If the run sells out before a month, I’ll make payments to photographers as fast as possible. Payments will be made via Paypal.
• Would the photo be published with credit rights?: There’s a few ways we can work this out. To keep emphasis on the photographs, I would personally prefer to add a “credits” page to the end of the book which would number the photos and give appropriate credit there. I was thinking names and urls to the photo on flickr would be appropriate.
• Who retains the rights to my photo: You do. No questions asked. You only give credit to me to publish the number of books we all agree upon (50 in this case). I am not purchasing your photographs from you, nor do I have any expectation of ownership over any of your photos. You will be free to use it on other publishing projects or any way you could consider in the future, even sell it.
• Do you know what the price range will be?: There are 51 photographers (one extra for the cover) all getting $1 each for their photo. Additionally there are printing costs and the commission % Lulu.com takes. For organizing everything, I would like to take an administrative fee as well, if you all agree to that. Therefore, with the limited run (scarcity), the price will be right around $80 for the book. Shipping and handling will be separate. That sounds like a lot of money for your photos, but remember, to everyone else you are professionals, and this is a professional book. I would like to make the pricing transparent to the public, if that’s ok with everyone. Understanding the cost structure and seeing the scarcity of the products help to increase the price. I believe the price is right. But, that’s what this is all about, it’s a market test to see if doing it again is viable.