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15:09 GMT, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 16:09 UK

Flickr and Twitter on BBC Sport

BBC Sport uses a selection of social networking tools as an alternative means of covering sport around the globe.

These tools make sharing our - and your - images and stories simple, easy and fast.

Read on to discover more about the tools we use, and see examples of the ways we use them.

FLICKR

Introduction

Flickr allows users to easily upload photos, see other users' photographs, and add tags to photos which describe the contents within the image.

Our first major project using Flickr saw two journalists travel to the 2006 World Cup in a camper van, sending photos back from Germany. We also operated a Flickr group in conjunction with Radio 1, allowing anyone to contribute photos taken at the World Cup.

Since then Flickr has played a part in our coverage of the Rugby World Cup, the Hatton/Mayweather fight, the Beijing Olympics and, thanks to Test Match Special's own account, cricket.

How does it work?

You can view BBC Sport's photos on the Flickr website without having to sign up, but you will need to register if you want to upload your photos and add them to any of BBC Sport's groups.

We are always adding our own photos, taken by reporters, producers and even top athletes, and you can find these on our Flickr homepage, as well as on special feeds in certain parts of the BBC Sport website.

We have also created groups for certain sporting events, where we invite your contributions to sit alongside our photos - which means your pics have the chance of appearing on the BBC Sport website.

If you would like to contribute, once you have signed up, follow Flickr's help guide to find out how to add photos and send them to our groups.

Where is it being used?

You will see links to Flickr photos in various places on the BBC Sport website. Places to look include the golf, cricket and Olympics indexes, plus the Your Game and Sport Relief campaign homepages.

Follow these links to visit some of BBC Sport's main photostreams on the Flickr website: BBC Sport's homepage on FlickrBBC Sport's photos from Euro 2008Upload your best Euro 2008 snapsAdd your photos to BBC Sport's Beijing Olympics group

And here are a few other Flickr highlights: Test Match Special's cricket photos on FlickrBBC Radio 5 Live's Flickr homepageCycling photos: Preparing for the Etape du TourHundreds of photos from 2008's Your Game football festivals

Other photo sharing sites include Fotki, Picasa, Photobucket and Photobox. You can find links to these on the right-hand side of this page.

TWITTER

Tom Fordyce at the Rugby World Cup Introduction

BBC Sport first used Twitter at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, where ace reporters Ben Dirs and Tom Fordyce used the innovative messaging service to post short updates alongside their blog from the tournament.

Twitter lets you publish updates the size of a text message - called "tweets" - to the world, telling people where you are and what you are doing. For reporters, Twitter can be very useful when you have something to say but not enough to warrant a full report or blog post. It also comes in handy when you have no access to the internet, since Twitter accepts text messages from your phone too.

The latest Twittering BBC Sport journalist is Paul Fletcher, from Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.

How does it work?

Anyone can get started with Twitter by going to their website and registering for an account. Then you simply fill out a form to send a new update, or alternatively you can set up a mobile device, then send updates from that.

BBC Sport journalists at the Olympics will use mobile phones with GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to send Twitter posts, which will also carry information about where in Beijing our reporters are.

If you like a particular individual's Twitter updates you can subscribe to them, and receive every update they publish. So if one of our Twitter feeds interests you, sign up and add us to your list.

Where is it being used?

Our Twitter updates appear in special bubbles alongside posts on our Rugby World Cup, Euro 2008 and Olympics blogs.

From there you can click through to any individual Twitter account if you would like to subscribe to that feed.

Follow these links to see Twitter in action on the BBC Sport website: Twitter on the Euro 2008 blogTwitter on the Rugby World Cup 2007 blogTwitter on the TMS blog

Alternatively, visit the Twitter website to see all updates from Paul Fletcher and TMS: Fletch's Euro 2008 page on TwitterTest Match Special on Twitter

Twitter's updates are also known as "micro-blogging". Jaiku offers a similar service and status updates are also available on Facebook.




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RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Flickr
Twitter
Facebook
Fotki
Jaiku
Photobox
Photobucket
Picasa
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