instagram

Really clever things are happening on Vine and Instagram, two free social apps that ask us to communicate through images. Sift's Digital Engagement Manager, Elena Goodrum asks:

How can not-for-profits make the most of them?

What a bizarre couple of weeks for the image conscious, or at least the photographically-minded, first Instagram severs it's close ties with Twitter, then ratchets up user anger with a dramatic changes in its terms, enabling it to sell users' photos.

Meanwhile, over at Flickr, the once beloved haunt of pictures the product development wheels have cranked into high gear with numerous updates including a well-received and surprisingly snazzy mobile app.

In the latest social media battle, Instagram has switched off their integration with 'Twitter Cards', the app used to display multimedia within tweets - meaning we're no longer treated to twitterfeeds enhanced by beautiful photography (albeit mostly of cats and food).

So why the move back to 140 characters, a link and strangely cropped images? Speaking at Le Web '12 last week, Kevin Systrom, Instagram's founder and CEO, said the decision was "an evolution of where we want links to our content to go."

After 10,000+ entries globally, including Bogata's skyline, LA's beaches, Barcelona's architecture, Hong Kong's night lights, Chicago's public art and of course London's various attractions through the Jubilee and heading into the Olympics, #InstagramYourCity has announced it's city and overall winners.

The tough decisions came down to a judging panel of Dan Rubin, Columbian photographer Mauricio Velez, social media leader Todor Krecu, founder of Stickygram Kejia Zhu and Social Media Week's founder Toby Daniels.

The winning image and all city finalists are included below.

University of Westminster and Museum of London are on the hunt for 12 #citizencurators to record life in London during the Games.

As everyone knows, the great moments of the Olympics will be photographed & written about, with opinions of organisors, commentators and celebrities in the media - but what about the experience of the humble London resident?

That's where the #citizencurators come in! #Citizencurators is a research project developed by the University of Westminster for the Museum of London that explores what it is like to live in London during the Olympic fortnight (July 27 – August 12).

The wonderful Social Media Week competition, #InstagramYourCity, where entrants submitted edited photos of this September's 15 Social Media Week cities, has come to an end!

Running from 1st May til 30th June, here in London we've had over 1000 fabulous entries, all of which can be viewed on our two Pinterest boards:

All I’ve been hearing about recently is Pinterest. The pinboard styled start-up that allows you to create image-based collections of things that matter to you. A great and simple concept, and having been a member for over a month now I can honestly say I love it.

Pinterest has found its way into the hearts and browsers of millions of people. But why? Well, in the past couple of years there’s been a growing need to share things. I say need; it’s more a “want” from people. We don’t need to share any of this information, but we’re compelled to.