  We report the first experimental generation and characterization of a
six-photon Dicke state. The produced state shows a fidelity of F=0.56+/-0.02
with respect to an ideal Dicke state and violates a witness detecting genuine
six-qubit entanglement by four standard deviations. We confirm characteristic
Dicke properties of our resource and demonstrate its versatility by projecting
out four- and five-photon Dicke states, as well as four-photon GHZ and W
states. We also show that Dicke states have interesting applications in
multiparty quantum networking protocols such as open-destination teleportation,
telecloning and quantum secret sharing.
