We just found a clever way to use Dropbox to share photos from everyone at event parties. Sure, you could settle for Facebook's highly compressed photos, or you could have them all so you can pick and choose what photos belong in your own collection.
Step 1: Use Google Docs to create a form that asks for everyone's e-mail. Grab the URL. You'll need this to...
Step 2. Generate a QR code. There's tons out there, but we tend to use Kaywa's version. Paste in the URL of the Google Form you just created.
Step 3: Create a Dropbox folder for the event photos.
Step 4: Post the QR code on a large poster at the party, stating it'll be used to collect e-mails and give access to all the photos taken here tonight.
Step 5: Use the collected e-mails from the Google Form to send invites to the shared Dropbox folder.
Of course, there are a few issues here that we will quickly acknowledge. For one, it does require some know-how about the use of Dropbox and what the heck QR codes are. It also assumes you have an event with enough smart phone users where this could be useful.
We gave it a run at a recent local tech meetup and it was a huge success. Folks were courteous enough to create their own subfolders for their images and everything worked out fantastically. Everyone got to keep their full sized, print-quality images and it was a nice way to keep in touch with folks in the near future.
Let us know if this method works for you or if you have a better variation of it!
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That's a really cool idea! Too bad my Dropbox is full.
I'm really confused.....
Is the QR code just to collect emails?
The QR code is just a link to a Google Docs form where the person has to fill in their email address manually.
I'd add the URL to the poster; there are tons of people with phones that don't recognize QR codes, and probably tons of people who don't know what a QR code is.
http://drop.io (rip) used to be great for this.
1. Create a 'drop', with its own email address and url.
2. Hand out the email address "myevent123@drop.io" and tell everyone the photos would all appear at http://drop.io/myevent123.
Very simple, you could even use a QR code to pass around the email address and URL if you wanted it to feel geeks.
But alas, drop.io is no more.
What's wrong with just using that same list of email addresses to email out the link to the dropbox photo album folder? Too easy?
@K. Malone I don't think Dropbox lets you hotlink entire folders. I might be wrong though.
@ekoshyun: Dropbox does let you copy a public gallery link to an entire photo folder and not just individual files.
So is the QR code just another step for coolness? And then when you tell your friend to use the QR code to view the photos, can they only view them on their smartphone? Or would there be a way to view the photos on their computers?
There is a site for doing this called comemories.com
http://dropevent.com does this and provides an e-mail address that you can mail photos to. It's free, as well :)
@K. Malone: The addresses are gathered so attendees can be invited to the shared folder. That way everyone can add to it.
Fantastic! Thanks Vuotto and Zenstick!
You could also look at http://montabe.com. Photos can come in from email, mms (complete with QR code) and even a twitter search.
You can even use the projector view and have the gallery update in realtime during the event itself. Just put it on the big screen and walk away.
With the email and mms options, you get to pick and choose a) who can add photos and b) who can view them. It's all done through email address with no signup needed.
It's kinda like your proposal a) on steroids and b) waaay simpler to set up.
But then, I'm biased; I built it.
Feel free to sign in to the demo account and kick the tires.
If you have a Drupal based site you can use the dot2code module to manage QR codes and gather info about visitors. There is as well a complete API to use dot2code in other platforms.
With some creative usage that could lead easily to personalized photo galleries, comments gathering, etc... :-)
While very cool, this is a lot of steps! I saw a need for this a few months ago after attending a fundraising gala with close friends, and we spent half of the fun night out on our phones exchanging photos and videos--we pivoted from what we were working on and built a photo, video, text, (foursquare) check in sharing app...with its own proprietary QR technology to quickly add people into the shared experience. It can be as locked down and private as you'd like, or broadcast to the world--it's up to you!
Dashes is available for iPhone and on the web, and our Android version is days away from hitting the Google Play store. dashes.lifedash.com
I can't believe that I am pitching in a blog comment--but it's really that cool.