George Oates facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
George Oates
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![]() George Oates in 2015
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Occupation | Designer ![]() |
Employer | |
Website | http://abitofgeorge.com/ ![]() |
George Oates (born Georgina Oates in 1973) is a designer and business person from Australia. She is famous for being the first designer of the photo-sharing website Flickr. She also created the Flickr Commons program. Since 2007, she has worked to preserve cultural history. She is known as an expert in digital archives, which are collections of old digital items. George Oates has also written a book called If Only The Grimms Had Known Alice. This book retells the Grimm brothers' fairy tales, adding more female characters.
Contents
Early Life and Education
George Oates was born in Adelaide, Australia, in 1973. Her father was Australian, and her mother was British. She is the youngest of three children.
Career Highlights
In 1996, George Oates was one of the first people to work at the Ngapartji Multimedia Centre in Adelaide. There, she taught people how to use the internet. Later, she taught courses on how to design websites using HTML.
After working in the web industry for seven years, she left Australia in 2003. She started working at Ludicorp, the company that later created Flickr. For four years, she was in charge of Flickr's design.
Creating Flickr Commons
George Oates created the Flickr Commons program. This program helps put old photo collections online on Flickr. It makes them available for everyone to see without copyright problems. The Library of Congress was the first partner, and the program started in January 2008. She left Yahoo in 2008.
Work at the Internet Archive
In 2009, she became the director of the Open Library project at the Internet Archive. While there, she designed new ways to use the Book Reader, the Wayback Machine, and the main Internet Archive website.
Stamen Design and Good, Form & Spectacle
From 2011 to 2014, Oates was the art director at Stamen Design. This company in San Francisco makes data look easy to understand. While in San Francisco, she was a judge for the Information is Beautiful Awards in 2013.
In 2014, she started her own company called Good, Form & Spectacle. Her company has worked on projects for famous places like The British Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Wellcome Library.
Public Speaking and Return to Flickr
George Oates has given talks about her work around the world since 2005. She has spoken at important events like Smithsonian 2.0 and Europeana Tech 2015. She strongly supports making cultural data and content available to everyone.
In 2021, Oates returned to Flickr Commons. She plans to make the program even better.
Awards and Positions
In 2011, George Oates was named a Research Associate at Smithsonian Libraries. She is also a non-executive director for Postal Heritage Services, which is part of The Postal Museum. She is on the advisory board for the British Library Labs. This program helps more people access the library's collections.