Points for Participation?

Into the thick of the Olympic sporting competition, Canada is rolling in a litany of 5th, 6th, 7th places … but with track and field, rowing finals and trampolining yet to come, the Canucks still have a chance to visit the podium.

As Tod Maffin twitter’ed: "Maybe Beijing will at least give us a courtesy Participaction pin?(Dont understand this? Ask a Canadian over 30.)" (ed note: or view this Participaction toque).

In the social media production department, Scales continues to create video at an epic pace despite losing his co-hort Kris who was repatriated to Vancouver in time for a glorious summer weekend. Scales is staying busy by picking up more tickets for varied events at the incredible new venues including the whitewater kayak run (plus visits to the Danish hospitality house).

I’m heading to the hills with tent and beverages so here’s a few highlights to enjoy with your weekend viewing:

Buzz Speaks of the Conundrums

Buzz Bishop, an on-air personality at 95Crave, also writes a tech column for daily paper 24 Hours. In an Aug. 13 dispatch, he addressed the fine line between professional accredited media and "grassroots" coverage created and disseminated by non-paid enthusiasts in an article he titled: Olympic Coverage From the Streets of Beijing. Here’s a nugget about this tension between MSM and the rest of us (joined in progress):

But Robert and Kris didn’t pay anything to have official broadcast rights for these games. Is what they’re doing by posting blogs, tweets, photos and streaming videos a violation?

“It’s a really complicated issue,” admits Krug.

“They’ll end up realizing that they can’t control all of it, and they’ll spend less effort trying to block people like us, and more effort monetizing the content they do control.”

The IOC has taken steps to rein in the content online as rights holders’ geoblock their websites to be only accessible within the rights holder’s borders. YouTube has also been approached to make sure highlights from the Games do not appear on the site, until after the rights window has expired.

Youtube with a takedown move

Reminiscent of the Judo competition, Youtube issued a swift takedown to Krug regarding his fan-made clips of a women’s basketball game.

As a registered USA Library of Congress DMCA agent, I know how the procedure works and have received many of these boiler-plate take down notices spewed out by the leery hosting companies with their phalanx of laywers, lackeys and salivating rights-holders. Methinks besides a nicer bedside manner, they could use a better copywriter.

Dear Member:
This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by NBC Universal claiming that this material is infringing: Team USA Women’s Basketball – Beijing 2008: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=fyPrwBVG9zY Please Note: Repeated incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others.

Dear IOC/VANOC, Join the Conversation

No doubt the IOC need to listen in to social media makers at least a little. With 2010 happening in our open-everything-friendly backyard, perhaps they’ll listen to our message of: We are here and plan to document our experiences.We don’t seek to supplant the rights holder, rather we aim to enrich the experience for worldwide fans, athletes’ families and ourselves for personal expression. Call us, we’ll have coffee and talk – no big whoop.

Fencing De-mystified

Scales often casually mentions jobs/careers/experiences/adventures/skills which we, his colleagues, have little/no idea about. E.g. he’s a reiki practitioner, dive master, served in Canadian Forces, worked for Greenpeace etc. He’s also a fencer – not someone who sells stolen goods but a real sword-wielding fencer.

At my request, he prepared a video to explain this simultaneously classic and futuristic looking sport.

He also delves into the ticket buying scenarios in a video: Buying tickets and Empty seats in Beijing. Empty seats along with a few minor quibbles about the opening ceremonies have become touchstones for the mainstream broadcasters who seem to seek any topic which diminishes the Chinese efforts (or is it just me?)

Up Next

Scales is exploring more sports, armed with a new Canon D9, a Nokia cameraphone and uploading movie with Qik. Check his Flickr photostream for more photos as per his latest tweet which says (sic):

I am beat and amazed at the amount of pictures i took today: 1500+ of fencing and archery.. I need to do some downloand but 1st sleep..

PS I’m Tivo’ing the end of the rain-delayed Canada vs. Cuba Baseball game so don’t tell me who wins.

Cross-posted from: BBC Sport | Olympics | Beijing Diaries

Background: Raincity Studios CEO/Founder Robert Scales and Pres/Ambassador Kris Krug are on the ground in Beijing to document and study the 2008 edition of the Olympic Games. They are publishing dispatches to a variety of news outlets including the venerable BBC. Here’s Scales’ first installment of his Olympic diary.

ROBERT SCALES, MONTREAL, CANADA

Robert runs a web development company based in Canada

Since Autumn 2007, I have been living in China in preparation for the upcoming Summer Games.

I can honestly say that I have been an Olympic fan, or a "fen zhi" as the Chinese say, since I was a little boy!

I remember watching the 1976 summer games in Montreal on the TV, and
that has always stayed with me. In 2006, I had the opportunity to go to
the Winter games in Torino, Italy. This lit a flame in my heart and
since then I have been working on securing new opportunities to attend
future games such as Vancouver 2010 and London 2012.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing my Beijing
experience with you. I like to shoot low quality, single take, unedited
videos.

I am also travelling with my friend and business partner, Kris, who
is a photographer extraordinaire, so there will be no shortage of
pictures to share with you folks.

Some of my goals over the next 16 days are to attend the
Olympic fencing, which I have several tickets for on 15 August. I also
plan to visit some of the nation houses around the city to make new
international friends and meet athletes.

Other goals are to enjoy some of the local food and culture, and to have a great time.

Now, I must make myself ready to go and venture out into the Beijing
wild, in hope of finding the perfect spot to watch the opening
ceremony, since I have not been blessed with a ticket.

Citizens On the Ground

Raincity Studios Sino-Away-Squad of Scales and KK, are on the ground in Beijing to cover and participate in the Olympic experience as citizen journalism, technology experts, social pundits and cultural ambassadors.

The Glimmer Twins’ tasks are diverse and their methods varied so here’s a preview:

• participating in the 9th International Symposium on Olympic Studies, in Beijing, August 5-7 with Olympic scholar Dr. Andy Miah’s
• documenting the scene for crowd-sourced new site: Now Public, Vancouver radio station: Crave 95, and BBC Interactive – among other media outlets



• shooting Creative Commons licensed photos delivered via Flickr
• extolling about the new, improved Bryght web community hosting product – available in free, cheap or fancy varieties
• meeting up with prospective clients to extol Raincity Studios’ status as an approved weblog vendor for Vancouver/Whistler 2010
• cheering for Team Canada at the Archery, Fencing, Women’s Softball, BMX and more summer games sports
• spreading international goodwill in the fun-loving/hard-working style they honed whilst at the Torino 2008 Winter Games.

Get Friendly

Follow along with their content via your RSS feeder, Facebook or whatever you prefer … or, if you are in Beijing, track Scales/Krug down for a photo walk, meetup, excursion, interview, geekout or just a tasty beverage. Leave a comment to or message via the arsenal of communication funnels at their disposal.

Scales’ coverage:

• Now Public – dispatches from Beijing
  episode 1: kk and Scales at the 2008 Beijing Olympics!
• Scales’ Beijing tag on Flickr
• Facebook videos (ask Robert to be your friend)
  
• Youtube videos
• Scales on Daily Vancouver

KK’s collections:

• Beijing 2008 photoset
• Facebook updates (ask Kris to be your friend)
  
• Youtube videos
• KK on Daily Vancouver

Chinese Theme and Version

Meanwhile, back in the tubes, … we are playing along with a Chinese
styled blog theme to celebrate the Games – birdsnest and everything.

Also worth reminding you that Raincity Studios’ site is
available in Mandarin for
Chinese readers. Even if you don’t read Chinese, you gotta say the site looks
really cool in kanji .

Also, the new improved Bryght hosting platform is available in Chinese for your international-minded web community hosting projects.

Approved Olympic Weblogs

In case you didn’t happen to know … Raincity Studios is an approved weblog vendor for Vancouver/Whistler 2010:

“Along with the good people at Raincity Studios, Bryght has been successfully passed an RFQ process to provide weblog services to the BC Olympic Games Secretariat.

We want to work with teams, countries, athletes, non-profits, and businesses who are preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and want to take advantage of emerging internet technologies.

We can help you get online, start blogging, podcasting, posting video, sharing images, building a community and sharing your news and messages with a global audience hungry for information about the 2010 Games.

We’re experts in syndication, aggregation, web development, community development, search, microcontent, blogging, online publishing, Drupal, PHP, CSS, ecommerce, content management and hosting.

We have an experienced network of partner companies who have also been approved as Olympic vendors who we work with to offer comprehensive integrated marketing and communication campaigns from your browser or mobile phone at the front end to the web server at the back end as well as normal, real world marketing and communications.”

Have a Luge team needing a communication platform? Maybe a site to keep athlete’s and families in-touch? An interactive training diary for your entire team? We’d be pleased to help.

No matter your idea, Raincity Studios is ready to deliver a top-notch performance. Contact Raincity Studios to begin the conversation.

Bonus: Archive & Related

• Beijing coverage at Daily Vancouver
• Torino coverage at Daily Vancouver
• Symposium on Web 2.0 and the Future of Sport – Torino 2008
• Coffee talk with Gold Medalist Ross Rebagliati podcast from Symposium in Vancouver 2008
• Vancouver 2010 – Official site for Vancouver/Whistler – Media Centre
• Web Services for International Sporting Events – Bryght
• China Access Eases the Way – Raincity Radio – podcast with Andrew Gilkes of China Access 2008
• Olympic Outsider podcast Blog – iTunes – Feed
• Mobile Muse
• Scales’ at 2010 New Media Day

Over the past month, Kris Krug of Bryght, Robert Scales of Raincity Studios and various other Vancouver companies have been working together with New Media BC and Leading Edge BC to coordinate a technology symposium at the BC Canada Place next month during the Torino Olympics in Italy.

This morning as part of my first assignment for Urban Vancouver, I attend Vancouver Mayor, Sam Sullivan and Vancouver 2010 CEO, John Furlong’s announcement at the Vancouver City Hall.

In just one month, Sam Sullivan is to accept the Olympic Flag at the closing of the Torino Olympics, making him the first quadriplegic to have such honor.

I managed to video the announcement on my PDA2K while Kris Krug took some great pictures of Sam and John.

Here’s an extract from the official press release

The flag ceremony protocol begins with Torino Mayor Sergio Chiamparino returning the Olympic flag to Dr. Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Dr. Rogge will then present Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, the only elected Canadian official in the Closing Ceremony, with the flag, symbolizing the official beginning of Vancouver’s responsibility to host the world in 2010.

Mayor Sullivan is then required by IOC tradition to wave the flag back and forth eight times. Because of the physical challenges to Mayor Sullivan inherent in his participation, a number of innovative accommodations are underway, including a custom-made holster on the Mayor’s motorized wheelchair and the installation by the Torino Organizing Committee of a customized elevator within the stage.

“I’m greatly honoured to represent Vancouver and Canada in Torino,” said Mayor Sullivan. “We are thrilled to be the host of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and invite the world to our beautiful and progressive city and country.”

“Mayor Sullivan will be acting on behalf of all Canadians, and I can’t think of a better person to represent this nation’s spirit, determination and commitment to ability over disability, said Vancouver 2010 CEO John Furlong.”

Upon the Mayor’s return to Vancouver the Oslo flag will be put on public display in Vancouver City Hall and a replica flag will be raised outside City Hall on Tuesday, February 28. The flag raising event is just one of the activities planned in Vancouver to celebrate the flag handover. For more details, visit Vancouver.ca.

Great Shots from KK

Picture by Kris Krug

More information to come over the next few weeks, it looks like we are to cover more events from both Vancouver and Torino.

Technorati Tags: Torino Olympics, Vancouver 2010,Raincity Studios, robertscales, 2006 Olympics, Vancouver, VanOC, Sam Sullivan

Kris Krug from Bryght is spearheading an initiative to have a delegations of companies, including Raincity Studios travel to Torino, Italy for the Olympics next month.

Yesterday, Kris and I met with members of New Media BC to explore ways to join our efforts.

At first glance, it looks like we will be there between the 14th to the 26th of February. During the first few days, we will be hosting a few media events and information sessions on “Web 2.0 and the Olympics” at the BC Canada House, next to the Media Centre. We plan on doing some Olympic blogging, podcasts and vcasts on location and attend a few events.

Here’s a little clip from Boris Mann of Bryght, speaking about Mobile Media and the olympics, posted on Now Public

You can expect us to blog more about this over the next few weeks as our planning effort translate into a more concrete plan of action.

For more information or if you would like to join the delegation, please contact me (robert at raincitystudios dot com) or Kris (kris at bryght dot com)