Smugmug sites @ Schools

vaio2006

For those of you who run Smugmug sites for Schools, Colleges and Universities. (K~12 / College),

1. HOW you use it.
2. Student Privacy?
3. Photo Sales? (What account?)
4. Who uploads it how? Do you have a school photographer?
5. Special Customizations? (Can you show us your layout?)
6. Anything else?

OmahaMama

I see this is an old post, but I just started a SmugMug site for my kiddos' elementary school and thought I'd give my 2 cents.

To answer your questions:

1. HOW you use it.
We use the SmugMug site to collect photos for the school's newsletter and yearbook.

2. Student Privacy?
It is completely locked down, in every possible setting. So parents and teachers can upload to the galleries, but no one can view them, except the editor of the newsletter and the editor of the yearbook. And me, of course. (;

3. Photo Sales? (What account?)
Since it's all locked down, no sales.

4. Who uploads it how? Do you have a school photographer?
We do not have a school photographer. The system I have set in place is that there is a gallery for each classroom, and then a gallery for each school event and program. On the school's website, I have links for the 'Guest Upload' to each gallery. Then, in every newsletter and e-mail, we encourage people to go to the school's website for links to upload pictures to the galleries. So it's random parents and teachers that upload.

5. Special Customizations? (Can you show us your layout?)
I didn't bother with any customizations, since no one would actually be perusing the galleries.

6. Anything else?
There is still a high amount of apathy and few people have submitted photos, but the people who HAVE have commented that is was really easy (even though they weren't sure if it actually uploaded, since they couldn't view the gallery...)

Good luck!

St Leo

School Photographer
Many schools have a designated school photographer. Usually volunteer, sometimes student, if it is a private school they will often contract for a photographer.

They job is challenging, but SmugMug makes it easy for schools to shine. I'm sure the data usage of a school SmugMug account is higher, with more photos being taken, and more photos/videos being downloaded.

I would love to see SmugMug to come out with a School Mug account to address this market. They could charge more, but in return make it much easier to utilitize guest upload, integration into existing school web hosting services (being able to tailor the school's domain for a Yearbook or Photos URL link as part of the school website).

The ability to issue yearly passwords to parents of a specific grade/classroom.

I'm sure there are many more features, but I hope SmugMug would consider branching beyond Pro photography and consider using their engine for the school market as well, as that could be very profitable.