HOW-TO STEPS for starting a Gallery & Group

[Tony Deifell]

(please post feedback and I'll modify the following instructions)

Great FEATURES about Groups:
1) Connects everyone in your group in a forum
2) Send message just your group (great way to keep in touch with them)
3) Get notified when your invitees join
4) New people can discover your group when they come to wdydwyd

STEPS:
1) Set up a Group that is titled with the name of your community (could be a school like "UCLA," or a city like "Las Vegas," or an event like "Burning Man," or a the name of your blog.

2) Edit the Group Intro to explain your project and instruct people to upload their wdydwyd submission and add a UNIQUE TAG (that you make up).

3) Start a discussion just so it doesn't look blank when people arrive

4) INVITE people through the "Invite" menu within your Group. That way, you will be notified when people join, whom you've invited.

5) As people you invite upload images, you should create an album for your wdydwyd project by filtering for the UNIQUE TAG. (periodically add to this album. Albums have a max of 50 pics right now - but here's a workaround.)

6) Get slide show widget (from inside your Album) that you can put on your blog, facebook, etc. Also, add this to the Group Intro you just created.

(pls post any corrections, clarifications I can add to these steps. thanks!)

[Annajon]

Well, joining a group is the easiest thing in the world, it seems.... The rest has to sink in first. But that may be because it is all new to me and I have never done it in this way before.

So, I will try and work it out, Tony, because I think I can make a Digital Peace Tiles Group here on wdydwyd? - as a new way to promote that campaign.

Will let you know how I went on, as soon as I start the group.

Anna

[Tony Deifell]

Great idea! And great to have digital peace tiles involved! You know, that photoshopcontest could also make a good separate group... but first things first. (I love your energy!... as always)

[Annajon]

I have done a 1st December 2007 World Aids Day Photoshop Friends for Peace Tiles project this year, and I am working on a complete digital kit to get started on Peace Tiles for the computer.

I will put the entries for the photoshop edition here on the site, as a start, to show how to get working on it.

[Jim M. Foreman]

This is the first time I have created or worked with blogs. Sorry but I am an old not too techy wise artist. But.....I have, am, exploring the art of life, and the visual arts aggressively and joyfully. I have 3 grandchildren, love kids, people, planet, and am deeply concerned about the numerous urgent problems confronting mankind: environmental destruction (consider The Weather Makers by TimFlannery, Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawkins; Political and Economic Debacles (Economic Hit Man, Loose Change etc.)and the Iraq war and how their is movement toward a war with Iran...I feel if there is any hope for turning things around it will be through a deeper spiritual relationship, community relationship, use of the arts across the nation/world/communities to get people to relate/envision/and act from a deeper place not merely to "prevent" catastrophe, but to create a sustainable, just, beautiful and harmoniious world. Whew... that all said, my images relate to environment/politics/religion and spirituality...most often in beautiful (I hope) and inspiring ways, but sometimes in quite confrontive ways, with questions or statements that are quite serious. Here are a few. And I would appreciate help in collaborations, who I might join, or who might work with me, and who might help me with the mechanics of blogs and sites such as this.
Image1. Where is the mother, is she not seen? Will she be cared for so that she may care for her children?
Image2.Is the world in the winter of its life, or a time where we and the world to join in creating the springtime of life on earth?
Image3. How and why have the attributes of the masculine and feminine aspect of humanity and God (creation by any name) been
distorted? What happens to the children under the rule of masculine authority in these times and past?
What is being shown to occur for children when the genuine feminine arises in women?
Image 4. What are the rythms of life, and are you in touch with them? Where and what might be the resources to be in touch?
Image 5. Will Christianity once again defile the life and teachings of Jesus Christ?
Image 6. Our lives are for contribution in this world, and now the universe as well, if we recognize the nature of our times.
Image 7.For compassion to be felt and realized, we must feel and transcend our anger, rage, grief and despair.
Image 8. Homeage to the sadness of little deaths.

[Tony Deifell]

Hi Jim, beautiful images! I'm thrilled that you want to collaborate.

To submit photos go here: http://wdydwyd.ning.com/photo/photo/new

The only guidelines for images on this site is that they must include text answering, "Why do you do what you do?" You can think of it answering "why we do what we do?" but just frame it in the first person (using the personal to talk about what you perceive is universal). For example, text for image 7 you listed "For compassion to be felt and realized, we must feel and transcend our anger, rage, grief and despair" could be written this way: "to feel and realize compassion" or "to feel and transcend anger, rage, grief and despair." Or, for Image 8, you wrote: "Homage to the sadness of little deaths," which could be written "to pay homage to the sadness of little deaths." Does what I'm suggesting make sense?

Also, while some people just slap text on an image, it can also be incorporated in a beautiful, graphical way that compliments the aesthetics of your idea. Nonetheless, it needs to include text somehow. And, you can add a longer caption below the image that tells us more or conveys a story or context.