Like many Web 2.0 applications, Flickr exposes its data to the public via a REST API, making it possible to develop customized applications that run on top of the base service. This REST API allows access to a number of important functions, including photo searching, tagging and uploading; photoset retrieval; contact retrieval; and panda recommendations.

The tutorial uses the Zend_Rest_Client component of the Zend Framework to make the actual request to the Flickr API and you'll need a API key/shared secret to be able to use it. The rest of the tutorial is code dedicated to helping you connect to the service, fetch data, search the API (and output the results), and looking at some of the "interestingness" magic Flickr has to share.

They've included lots of resources to attendees (including travel info, the conference program, and the Zend Certification exam schedule) as well as the live resources for anyone and everyone:

• live media including a live photostream from the event
• The Board to communicate with fellow conference attendees
• and the Photostream Challenge for anyone up to some coding fun.

You can check out the current photostream on thias page of the site, where it grabs the latest shots from Flickr accounts tagged with the "phptek" tag. There's also an effort underway to "community blog" the conference via the use of Technorati tags.