Share and Share Alike, Privately

Just over six months ago a photo-sharing web 2.0 application came on the scene, 7Moments.  In the Help section they state:

With 7Moments you can easily share and exchange photos in a safe and private environment.  You create an Album, upload and import photos and invite others that can contribute to the album as well.

Still running in beta this service can be used by invitation only.  My invitation arrived in under a week.

To receive an invitation go to their site and enter in your email address.  Your invitation received by email includes a link.  The link takes you to their site where you are asked to enter in your name, a password and a check to accept their terms and conditions.

When you are logged in you can create a new album or adjust your settings (name, email address and password).  When you create a new album first determine a name for that album.   If you make a mistake in the naming of an album you can click on that title, as if it is a text box, and make changes.  You are then taken to what I would call the work space.

Clicking the option on the right of the screen, at the top of the screen and beneath your title, you can add photographs from your computer or import them from Facebook.  Photographs are uploaded from your computer by clicking on the white arrow to the center right of your screen.  If you want to see your uploaded selections as a group click the white arrow to the center left. 

If you want to view a single selection click on it.  You can then move through your photographs like a slide show.  Once at 7Moments a single image can be added to your selection, rotated left, rotated right downloaded or deleted.  To get back to the work space click on the esc key. 

At the bottom of the screen is a small row of tiles icon.  When you click on that it brings into view all the photographs in your album.  By clicking on any image in your album it appears in the center of the work space.

Across the top of the work space are a series of tabs allowing for:   the addition of photos and people, downloading the entire album (to a zip file on your computer) or your loved photographs, or viewing recently added, most loved, date taken and contributors.  At any time you can create a new album.  Each time you create a new album an email is sent with a link to that group of photographs.  Each time you log in to 7Moments the albums you have created will appear with the option of deleting them completely or working on them further.

Currently there are six styles available for an album:  Uptown Girl, Crystals, Jingle Bells, Fresh Powder, Golden Season and Winter Wonderland. 

Users of 7Moments must be 18 years or older.  The only sharing option at this site is private.  Albums can only be viewed with an authentication key through album owner invitation.  At any point you, as the album creator, can send an email invitation which includes a link to a specific album.  Only you can send out invitations. 

When an invitation is received a user will need to register to view and contribute by entering in their name, email address, selection of a password and accepting the terms and conditions of the site. 

An album is restricted to 100 users and one GB of disk space.  7Moments stands by their privacy; photos cannot be found by search engines.  Only people receiving an email can access the photographs. 

I have created two albums, Autumn Memories and Views of School Library Media Centers.  Whether working professionally or personally, group sharing could be done with complete confidence that only those invited would be viewing the album. For an educator this would be a way to share photographs with parents about activities in the classroom without posting them on a Facebook page or a less than private venue.

7Moments states that very soon photographs may be added via email.  They are also exploring about using 7Moments on an iPad, iPhone or Android device. (Please note:  As of December 1, 2013 this site will be closed.)