66 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
Documentation
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#### OpenPhoto, a photo service for the masses
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This is a list of common questions that people have about OpenPhoto.
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If you have one which is not on this list send us a message via <a href="http://twitter.com/openphotome">Twiter</a> or <a href="mailto:jaisen@openphoto.me">email</a>.
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### What exactly is OpenPhoto?
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The short answer is that OpenPhoto is a way to store and share your photos without giving up control and ownership of them.
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The long answer is that OpenPhoto consists of two parts: a specification and an implementation.
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The specification is a set of guidelines that define exactly how your photos are stored, how they are accessed and much more.
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This helps make the entire system open and enables other developers to build functionality on top of your photos.
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The documentation makes up the majority of the specification.
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The implementation is code which adheres to the specification and provides functionality.
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The OpenPhoto.me website is an example where the funtionality provided is the ability to store and share photos.
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Another example would be if a developer created an Instagram like application adhering to the specification.
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That would be another implementation which provides the functionality of easily sharing photos from your phone with filters.
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### What makes OpenPhoto different from Flickr, Smugmug, iCloud or any other service?
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Normally you pay one company to store your photos and to provide services to share them.
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This means that you can't do much if they raise their prices, shut down their service or another site comes along.
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These sites may offer APIs but they typically enable addon services and rarely competing services.
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Your photos are still stored on the company's servers who provide the base service.
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With OpenPhoto you can switch between services, use more than one at a time or stop using the service and continue to have your photos stored.
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### If OpenPhoto is open sourced then why isn't it free?
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For clarity, OpenPhoto is both free and open sourced (FOSS).
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Typically what you end up paying for is storage from someone like Amazon or Rackspace.
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Amazon offers 5GB of storage for free which means if you don't need any additional space then using OpenPhoto is entirely free.
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### How much does the storage cost?
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It depends on who you use but here are some guidelines.
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1. 20GB of storage on Amazon S3 costs ≈_$2/mo_
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1. A 250KB photo served up 4,000 times on Amazon S3 costs ≈_$.10/mo_
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1. A simpleDb database for a personal account is typically _free_
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### When will the OpenPhoto software be completed?
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The initial version should be ready by the end of July (2011).
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This will allow anyone to download the source code and set it up on their server.
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We'll be working to make that easier by partnering with sites like dotCloud and providing ready to use AMIs for AWS or Rackspace.
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### When will the hosted version of OpenPhoto be available?
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We are aiming to have it ready by the end of August (2011).
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