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  |
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| Website | abitofgeorge |
George Oates, born in 1973, is a talented designer and entrepreneur from Australia. She is famous for being the very first designer of Flickr, a popular website where people share photos. She also created a special program called Flickr Commons. Since 2007, she has worked with cultural heritage, helping to make old photos and documents available online. She is known as an expert in digital archives. George has also written a book called If Only The Grimms Had Known Alice, which retells classic fairy tales with new female characters.
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Early Life and Education
George Oates was born in Adelaide, Australia. Her father was Australian, and her mother was British. She is the youngest of three children in her family.
George Oates's Career Journey
Starting in Web Design
In 1996, George Oates was part of the first team at the Ngapartji Multimedia Centre in Adelaide. There, she taught people how to use the internet. She also taught courses on how to build websites using HTML and web design.
Designing Flickr and Flickr Commons
After working in the web industry for seven years in Australia, George moved in 2003. She started working at a company called Ludicorp, which later created Flickr. For four years, she was in charge of Flickr's design.
George then came up with the idea for the Flickr Commons program. This program helps make public photo collections available on Flickr. These photos have no known copyright rules, so people can use them freely. The very first partner for this program was the Library of Congress. Flickr Commons officially started in January 2008.
Working with Digital Archives
In 2009, George began working as the director of the Open Library project at the Internet Archive. While there, she designed new ways for people to use the Book Reader. She also improved the Wayback Machine and other parts of the Archive.
From 2011 to 2014, George was an art director at Stamen Design in San Francisco. This company specializes in showing data in visual ways. During her time in San Francisco, she was a judge for the 2013 Information is Beautiful Awards.
In 2014, George 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.
George Oates has given speeches about her work all over the world since 2005. She has spoken at big events like Smithsonian 2.0 and Europeana Tech 2015. She strongly believes that cultural data and content should be open and available to everyone.
In 2021, George returned to the Flickr Commons program. She has plans to make the program even better and more active.
Recognitions and Roles
In 2011, George Oates was named a Research Associate at Smithsonian Libraries. This is a special role that allows her to help with research. She also serves as a non-executive director for Postal Heritage Services, which is part of The Postal Museum. Additionally, she is on the advisory board for the British Library Labs initiative. This program helps people access the library's amazing collections.
