BillDay.com

I was recently contacted by Victoria at NowPublic about them using one of my Flickr photos, of moonrise over Lake Tahoe, for a story on a fault line lurking underneath Lake Tahoe.

I was very happy to ok the usage. Strangely enough, clicking the link to ok the use took me through an account creation process. This got me started thinking: Was this request to use my photo really new-user-trolling in disguise?

I realize that because of NowPublic’s model, creating a new account to ok usage probably makes good sense. But it appeared that that was the only way for me to ok usage. In other words, everytime anyone gives their ok to use a photo or video, they become a new member of the NowPublic community. Tick one more in the “user” column for the site.

This has me wondering how many other business models in the Web 2.0 world might have hidden agendas, even if NowPublic’s doesn’t. A whole new outlook on the virility of social networking…

Anyone else been asked to share a photo or other resource and had similar thoughts? Well, whatever the motive, it’s a great photo if I do say so myself…

C. Enrique Ortiz has noted my new discussion forums and rebranding of the “Java ME Archive” in his Mobility blog.

Thanks for the note!