1. FAQ, Answers to the most common questions.
2. API & Guides, Documentation to get started building applications on OpenPhoto.

# Installing OpenPhoto on Ubuntu and Apache
# Run this from the command line as root.
# As always, view any script before running it ;).

curl https://raw.github.com/openphoto/frontend/master/documentation/guides/InstallationUbuntuApache.sh | /bin/bash

OpenPhoto works similarly to Flickr, Smugmug and other photo sharing services with one major difference: you retain ownership and give OpenPhoto access to use them. All photos, tags and comments are stored in your personal cloud accounts with companies like Amazon, Rackspace or Google. This means you can easily switch between OpenPhoto services, use more than one at a time or stop using them altogether while retaining all of your photos, tags and comments.

While OpenPhoto functions like many existing services it's drastically different for several reasons.

1. Ownership Users can specify where their photos are stored. By default they are seamlessly stored in your Amazon S3 bucket.
2. Built in backups Since you upload photos to your own Amazon S3 bucket it's like uploading and archiving your photos in one step.
3. Portability Easily start off by signing up for a hosted OpenPhoto account and later switch to hosting the software yourself. There's no need to transfer your photos somewhere else since it's federated. It's like plug and play.
4. Durability Your photos are not tied to any particular photo service. Because everything is open you can write your own web interface for your photos, choose between OpenPhoto hosting providers or install the OpenPhoto software on your own server.
5. Community New features will be entirely community driven. Features with the most votes will get top priority in getting implemented. If you want a feature that doesn't have many votes you can implement it yourself and issue a pull request.

If you're using Flickr or Smugmug you should consider switching to OpenPhoto. The more photos and time you invest on a proprietary photo sharing service the more devastated you're going to be once they shut down or no longer appeal to you.

There are importing tools available to make the switch easy.