FLICKR -- Next academic term is Flickr's time to enter the Media Writing classroom in Tipperary Institute, as a product description technology. The tasking involves progressively deeper involvement with the photo-sharing technology, starting with an abstract description of what the web service does, a detailed description of the Flickr API, and adding notes to Flickr photos.

We have collected photos of multimedia developers at work and will have multimedia students annotate images with relevant information to identify the kinds of apparel people wear, products sitting on desks, and articles in offices. This exercise has a practical purpose--it is designed to develop an awareness of product placement. When seeking sponsorship, promoters need to know how to leverage product placement. Wired explains why:

TRIBUNE -- This week's round-up of the blogosphere and Irishblogs takes in Flickr, Caoimhe Burke, Jason Kottke, Gerry O'Sullivan, Symbollix and Chicks Dig Unix.

An extract follows.

THE ARTISTS WAY -- Julia Cameron specifies three "Basic Tools" that she uses to improve creative writing. We are using elements of each step in the Media Writing course in Tipperary Institute.

ECONOMIST -- If Irish newspapers want to write their online ventures into profitability, they could take a lesson from the BBC and mediate it with techniques that guarantee them a loyal audience of repeat visitors.

The Economist explains how BBC Online makes the news compelling.

TRIBUNE -- The SundayTribune reviews the week gone by through the "Blogosphere" and draws interesting summaries from Bloomsday, Michael Jackson, Questions and Answers and Irish Corruption. Excerpts follow.

TIPPINST -- We have added Poynter's "50 Writing Tools" to the reading list of our Media Writing course in Tipperary Institute. They're also strongly recommended for writers of Irishblogs.

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Roy Peter Clark -- "Fifty Writing Tools"

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MIROSOFT -- Free (77 MB) download now on offer for Microsoft Acryclic, a tool providing "innovative illustration, painting and graphics" in "print, web, video, and interactive media".

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See www.microsoft.com/products/expression/ for yourself.

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EFF -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published the most recent version of its free Legal Guide for Bloggers. It includes sections on reporter's privilege, media access, and libel-- as well as other relevant thorny legal issues. Some of the advice needs to be localised for Irishblogs.

CLONMEL -- Michael Jackson's "Beat It" returns to normal airplay throughout southeast Ireland today as the musician returns to Neverland for recuperation. On the front pages of the mainstream Irish press, the newspapers give this accounting:

• Irish Independent: "Jackson Innocent"
• Irish Times: "Jury clears Michael Jackson"
• Irish Examiner: "Jackson Cleared"
• Irish Daily Mirror: "Not Guilty"
• Irish Daily Star: "Not Guilty"
• Irish Sun: "He Beat It"

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I could not retrieve the CNN story until four hours after the headline broke. The traffic to CNN was withering.
Bonus Link: Flickr Photos tagged with "MichaelJackson" are among the top 10 tags of the day.

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DERVALA -- Here's a great tip from a great essayist: "Philip Lopate’s anthology, The Art of the Personal Essay. This is desert island stuff: 75 essays, from Seneca to Richard Rodriguez. It stops just in time, too, before this last decade’s boom in pity-me memoir and precocious autobiography".