news
2014.04.10
10 years with OrthPhoto
From the beginning the website is created by a team of volunteers. We have started in Poland. Then Serbian community joined in, followed by Romania, Bulgaria and other countries. Since the beginning everything depends on people who devote their free time to work in editorial team and to promote the website.
After a few years we started to go beyond the internet. Serbian community organized the first meeting of Orthphoto users. Then they organized international photography competitions for OrthPhoto. Last year we organized competition and exhibition with IAP about Easter (www.eiao.orthphoto.net).
What is important is that over the years Orthphoto users in other countries started to get to know each other. From a website we turned into a community of people who wanted to share their orthodox experiences. For our 5th anniversary we organized our first exhibition which proved to be a great success! Encouraged by that we organized other ones: about Monasticism, Poland and Serbia (www.exhibition.orthphoto.net). The exhibition about Poland was recognized by the Polish president. We also received funds from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to show the exhibition outside Poland. We presented the exhibition in European Parliament and capital cities of 7 other countries as well as some other places (more than 50 cities altogether )(www.poland.orthphoto.net). We have also helped the publishing house of Polish Orthodox Church to print 3 photo albums with pictures taken by OrthPhoto users. Together with the Suprasl Academy we have organized 2 photo-workshops and we still hope that one day we will organize an international workshop.
This long list of stories about our success was created by you, our Users. The website exists because you want to share your beautiful photos. Some of our users become more active and want more than just photo sharing. Those are the people who develop new ideas, work on projects and organize events. Of course, we know that we can do a lot more, but today we would like to say… THANK YOU.
Thank you for creating the website, for sharing your photos, for your comments and ideas and for supporting us throughout those years.
Recently we have been less active as users than before. The editorial team is less active as well, but I hope our big jubilee is a good occasion to restart our activities and work on new ideas. We need new energy and fresh ideas. We need you in the team so if you want to be more active please do not hesitate and write to us. Together we can think about the future of Orthphoto.
This jubilee is also an occasion to renew a few things on the website and to finish some of the unfinished tasks:
1. Probably you have already noticed that we finally have a better home page with more information. However, it still needs to be finished – if anyone wants to introduce a new design basing on this content or has some other ideas for improvement, we are open for cooperation.
2. Finally we have search tools which allow us to combine different criteria of searching for pictures
3. We have started presenting photo sets with interesting subjects – slowly we will be adding new subjects. We need someone who will take care of this content so if you want to work on this contact us.
4. We have introduced the concept of partnership which allows some websites to use content from the website more effectively and to inform our users about this
5. We have created all static informational pages – for the moment only a draft of the English version. With your help we want to make final versions – please use forum to suggest changes and help us with translations.
6. We have restored tutorial section – for the moment we have 2 texts but if you want to share some other things or help with translation we will be more than happy :).
7. We have launched first draft version of OrthPhoto for mobiles – try to install it and give us a feedback. Further development of the app depends on your response. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.project.orthphoto)
8. From now on you can upload bigger photos on OrthPhoto: up to 1000px and 400kb
Expect more news and details about the above issues shortly. Of course we were doing lots of things at the same time which means there might be some bugs in the system…so we need your feedback. If you find out that something is not working properly, please, let us know.
Every year on this occasion we are writing about statistics. This time we have prepared a special page where you can find some information: www.orthphoto.net/statistics.php
Our 10th year of existence is just beginning and we will slowly work on some extra things outside of the net: jubilee exhibitions, calendar, album, maybe meetings etc.
Remember that you can also participate in all of our projects and events. You can organize an event in your country, join the team and work on our common initiatives, or suggest new ones. The easiest way to get involved is to use our forum to share ideas ….and you can be the owner and the host of the website!
To contact us please write to info@orthphoto.net
One more time thank you for all your support and presence
Orthphoto coordinator
Aleksander Wasyluk