Press Release posted on New Media BC Website
February 2, 2006
Vancouver, BC – New Media BC announced today that there will be a BC led new media symposium in Torino, Italy, during next week’s Winter Olympics.
The event, billed as “Olympics and Web 2.0″, and slated for February 17th, will showcase a pioneering cluster of British Columbia companies leading a shift towards Web 2.0 – what is being called the evolution of the Internet.
Vancouver-based Web 2.0 companies, Bryght and Raincity Studios, will lead sessions examining the emergence of citizen journalism and its anticipated impact on Olympic coverage and how podcasting is bringing a whole new sound to sport. Urban Vancouver bloggers will participate from Vancouver via a live connection. Snowboarding Olympic gold medalist, Ross Rebagliati, will take part in the Vancouver activity being held at the Take 5 Café at 7 am (4 pm Torino time).
According to symposium organizer Kris Krug of Bryght, the time is right and Torino is an ideal place to spread the word about this new movement in Internet usability: “Having an international audience on hand coupled with the energy of the Olympics only serves to further the momentum of the Web 2.0 revolution.”
“Vancouver has emerged as a real leader in Web 2.0 activity,” says Duff R. Gardner, VP, New Media BC. “The Olympics offer a great opportunity to profile just how much of an impact it is having on the way athletes, spectators and citizens interact with the Web during major sporting events.”
The Olympics and Web 2.0 Symposium will be held from 1 to 5 pm on February 17th at BC Canada Place at the 2006 Torino Winter Games.
About Bryght:
Founded in the summer of 2004, Bryght is an open source company with offices in Vancouver, BC. Bryght’s mission is to provide the best community content hosting and tools available, giving people and organizations the ability to maintain dynamic and leading-edge websites and web presences. We believe in open formats and standards, and our team is actively involved in the international open source community. Through our development efforts and partnership agreements, Bryght’s goal is to continue to provide innovative solutions for management of content, communities, and communication.
www.bryght.com
About Raincity Studios:
Founded in 2003, Raincity Studios is a Vancouver-based award-winning, full service, new media firm focused on web marketing, web 2.0 development and web design. Raincity also develop web-based communication applications for educational institutions such as BCIT, and is a reseller of weblog services for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
www.raincitystudios.com
About Urban Vancouver:
Urban Vancouver is Vancouver’s blog. It is the online community for “the rest of us”. Membership is free to anybody with a Vancouver connection. Members can post to their own blog, submit their event listings and add photos, audio and video. Since its inception in April 2004, Urban Vancouver has become the premier place for Vancouver related expression on the web ranging from personal reflections, diaries and journals to citizen journalism.
www.urbanvancouver.com
About New Media BC:
New Media BC is a not-for profit industry association whose mission is to advance Vancouver and BC as the World Centre of New Media and Digital Entertainment. Through networking events, peer-to-peer mentoring programs, advocacy work and marketing, New Media BC is building the new media community locally and promoting it abroad. The region’s new media industry is made up of close to 800 companies with combined annual revenues in excess of $1 billion. New Media BC hosts the annual Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST), currently Canada’s biggest digital content event.
www.newmediabc.com / www.vidfest.com
For additional information:
Kirstin Richter
Manager, Marketing and Communications
New Media BC
604-739-9878
kirstin@newmediabc.com
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