We all know how templates enable design teams and their customers to jump over much of the upfront drudgery and focus on the important part: the content.
Should it then be any surprise that newsmakers would use such templates in their social networking efforts?
Barack Obama’s group obviously wanted to maximize their Flickr juice by rapidly updating their Flickr site with images from today’s news. Today, at least, it appears the production team outpaced the communication team on some of the images.
But should we care that we see their generic captions? The images obviously aren’t generic. They’re real-time and were probably uploaded within minutes, if not hours of the event. What’s the primary purpose here? Is it to provide near, real-time photos of an event we’re following, or an edited description of the event? (Hint: Flickr is a “photo management and sharing application“) Traditional media will have plenty of time creating content describing today’s events in tomorrow’s papers.
Do you see it as a sign of sloppiness and poor attention to detail on the Obama side?
Or, do you see it as getting something “now” and the rest “later” (maybe)?
I wonder if our perceptions of the Obama’s Flickr site also reflect how we view and treat our elearning design. Does every elearning event: custom, rapid and informational, require the same development cycle? Are there types of content so urgent that a full, 3-pass QC isn’t necessary?
Personally, I appreciate the real-time approach and look past any missing extras. Oh, and I also like getting a glimpse into the Obama Flickr Style Guide🙂