Hello there, it's Monday... again 😂, today we'll be looking at a platform that doubles as a tool, we're doing this because someone once asked me (offline) where I get the pictures I use in my blog (olabayobalogun.hashnode.dev) and if I'm not worried about being sued over said pictures 😅. It turns out that while a great number of people are aware of property rights, not many know that there are resources that one can leverage to access digital properties that are freely released to the public.
MOST PLATFORMS AND ENTITIES CAN'T EXIST ON THEIR OWN
For images, we have platforms like Pixabay, Gratisography, Unsplash, etc that one can access stock free pictures. These platforms are the source of the images you see on a lot of websites, apps, articles and other digital objects. As software engineers, we can't build it all, resources like the above make it easy to start and move quickly. I believe that our generation's generosity is unmatched by any previous generation and we can see the dividends of this as more startups are popping up daily.
A RELATABLE EXPLANATION
Things like open-source and the freemium model that's closely associated with software development have enshrined altruism and delayed gratification in a way that benefits every stakeholder in the long run without impeding capitalism. Back to these image platforms now 😊. My personal favourite is pixabay.com, 99% of the images I've used in my over 300 published articles come from Pixabay (this isn't a sponsored post though 😄). I feel like I owe these platforms and I'm trying to return the favour.
WHY I RECOMMEND PIXABAY
For content creators, Pixabay is a one-stop platform as they now have stock free music, videos and soundtracks, writers, graphic designers and other digital stakeholders are free to leverage these resources, I feel it's especially beneficial to hobbyists and new content creators. If you're doing the maths and asking yourself what the people who contribute to these platforms have to gain, it's pretty easy to wrap your head around the fact that people just like being able to create and contribute content to platforms on things that interest them.
FINALLY
Personally, I would advise the average professional to have a digital footprint, even if content creation isn't your thing, the content you click the "like" button for constitutes a digital footprint and helps people get a feel of who you are. Do have a productive Monday 🥂.