The amazing team at Molson has done an amazing job in creating a great space for Hockey and Olympic fans to enjoy hockey at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.

In their partnership with with Canada and the IHF. They have been able to provide a comfortable, safe space for players and their family to have some quality time together nearby the Canada Hockey Place (GM PLace).

Tour the Inside of the Molson Canadian Hockey House.

We at Vancouver Access have had the opportunity to experience the house on a few occasions and I will be watching the Gold medal game and Closing ceremonies at the Molson Canadian Hockey House with new and old friends.

Last Saturday I went to Whitehorse for Yukon day.. (Stories coming soon..) I’ve been slacking off on the final production trying to capture as much of the games as I could in the moment…

Anyway, while in the Yukon I met Ron Flatter, a famed Radio Sport 927 Australia personality…

So when I was unable to go to the Molson Canadian Hockey House for the Canada vs USA game on the 22nd, I called Ron and he immediately accepted to go on my behalf and cover the event.

He created this fun podcast of his interaction with the Molson Canada Hockey House fans.

Listen to Ron’s segment with the Molson Candian Hockey House Fans 2010 02 22 Canada fans suffer at Molson Canadian Hockey House (Copyright Ron Flatter (C) 2010 Sport 927 Australia)

Close

Intrepid Olympic Documentation – Olympic Outsider #15

More John Biehler:

Flickr
Twitter
Web

Hockey talk from the Winter Club – Olympic Outsider #14

This is the 2nd of several Vancouver 2010 Olympics photoessays created by Kris Krüg.

Vancouver is filled with energy now that 2010 Winter Olympic Games has officially started.

The last week has been filled with the excited fervor of the last month and anticipation of the upcoming weeks.

Here is a photographic look into the last week of adventure and celebrations, before the officially opening of the Games in Vancouver.

The Olympic torch was carried downhill on the Blackcomb mountain by world champion and olympiad Steve Podborski. Steve won a bronze medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Currently he is part of the VANOC and works within International Relations.

Premier Gordon Campbell seemingly is Canada's number one fan. Campbell has travelled around Canada for the entire length of the torch relay. Here he is handing out coveted British Columbia Olympic pins to fans at the Whistler Torch Celebration.

Vancouver is part of the Coast Salish territories and has a Four Host First Nation welcoming committee as part of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Willie Lewis, dressed in a traditional Aborginal outfit, was part of the Whistler Torch Relay Celebration.

Static Photography had the chance to hang out in Whistler for the weekend with Chris Wheeler who had been following the torch relay through all of Canada. We had the chance to do some zip trekking with him! Our longest run was 2200 m.

The Olympic Torch had an extended route through all of Vancouver with the relay going through all of the neighborhoods in Vancouver. The Vancouver city council accompanied by Mayor Gregor Robertson welcomed the torch when it came to City Hall. 

Vancouver Olympiad Lori Fung, with her gold medal, was present when the Olympic Torch came to the Vancouver City Hall. Fung was the first gold medalist awarded in the sport of Rhythmic Gymnastics during the 1984 Summer Olympics which were held in Los Angeles, CA.

Iain Black welcomed the public to the opening of the VX Forum in Vancouver, BC. Black is Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development in Canada and is pictured here with Nadia Nascimento and Dave Olson of Invoke Media which is the parent company to twitter-based application Hootsuite.

This is the first Olympic Games where people are full-on involved with technology and the internet. Many fans often have out their own cameras to capture their memories themselves. With this sort of documentation present for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, some of the best Olympic news coverage will be coming from the internet!

There are many different pavilions popping up all over Vancouver with all sorts of awesome installations and displays. This is a touch screen graffitti media installation in the DigiBC part of the BC Pavilion. Here one of the creators is having fun creating some interactive art.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has been a very busy man during the preparations for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Here he is outside of the W2 Media and Culture House in the DTES. He was the speaker at the ribbon-cutting of this independent media house which opened to the public.

The beautiful Olympic Athlete Village sits on the waters' edge of the False Creek. There was a bit of controversy when the athletes from Australia hung up their official Aussie flag, which is a copyrighted image. Despite some grievances with the IOC, Vancouver fought to keep the flag up!

Bombardier, the company who designed the Olympic Torch for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, also designed the Olympic Line, a train that runs from the Main Street Skytrain Station to Granville Island. Bombardier has given Vancouver two of their streetcars, on loan from Brussels, Belgium. The Olympic Line is a 60 day demonstration project so get a ride while you can! 

Visitors have been packing into Vancouver from all over the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics. This group of women associated with Ukrainian team were photographed on their way into the Opening Ceremony on February 12th. 

Another type of visitor that has been sighted in Vancouver is the increase in public security, with the influx of police from other provinces. These police officers are in fact from four different Canadian provinces! 

It was very exciting to watch the crowd gather for the Opening Ceremony at the German Saxony House. The place was packed with locals and visitors for the three hour televised event. Of course, everyone went nuts when the Canadian team was ushered into BC Place. 

The biggest secret of the 2010 Winter Olympics was the identity of the person who was to light the final torch in Vancouver during the official welcoming of the Games. Wayne Gretzky ended up carrying the torch from BC Place to the final outdoor giant torch at Waterfront station in a great fanfare. The night ended with a fireworks-filled sky. 

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games have only just begun. The city of Vancouver has ahead of it three weeks of events and celebrations!

This is only the beginning so make sure to check back for more photographic recaps from Static Photography! 

In case you missed it, here is our first photo essay about 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Thanks to Vancouver Access, Culture at the Olympics and the LA Times for republishing our first 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics photo essay!

{note: Originally appeared in Vancouver Observer as Creating the People’s History of 2010: Accredit Yourself and Start Reporting, Partying, and Schmoozing with the World}

“You know it’s gonna get stranger, so let’s get on with the show” Shakedown Street, Grateful Dead

Ours to Document

How are you spending your Olympics? No matter how you roll, whether you plan to celebrate, protest, or observe, my admonition is to document the people’s history about how the Olympics interacts with our communities like historian Howard Zinn would advise. Perhaps you’re skipping out of school to see some events or explore Vancouver’s hidden gems? Good. Recluse J.D. Salinger woulda wanted you to, but wouldn’t let you know it.

Indeed, the frustrations many feel about the Games is because the VANOC doesn’t represent “us” the way we see ourselves and we want the world to see our communities the way the really are. Not the fabricated, sanitized version TV will spew to the world. Alas, most any sense of excitement is overshadowed by the broken promises, funding overruns, security boondoggles and twisted public priorities. However, the Games are coming soon.

And if we don’t tell the stories from the street, who will?

Accredit Yourself

My personal objectives are:a) story making; b) internationalizing; c) good times.

In other words, I’ll be seeking stories about lesser known athletes, civic conundrums, and festive adventures and inviting other social story tellers along for my forays and finding the best hospitality along the way.

Wanna do the same?

Declare your intentions with a self-accreditation badge and share something you enjoy. Lead a walking tour of Chinatown, the old Expo grounds or your own neighbourhood. Maybe host a pub meet-up for Latvian hockey fans, or show up for a blogger tour of the Police Museum. Rally a field trip to Surrey or Richmond for celebrations and cultural exchange with the rest of the outsiders. I’m envisioning a moveable feast of ad hoc events led by anyone, attended by anyone, no signup. Go with the flow, share your skills and content using web tools.

I plan to meet international arts and media-minded visitors and show them Vancouver beyond Stanley Park and Granville Island (though those are great too).

Personal Documentation

“The first thing you’ll probably want to hear is about my trip to Nagano, Japan where I rented a crumby flophouse to turn into a coffee and craft shop and all that kinda David Copperfield kinda crap, but all I remember from Nagano is that snowboarder whassis name getting all hassled – why can’t anyone just leave people alone – makes ya wanto head to the mountains and live in a bunker.”

- (not a) lost chapter from Catcher in the Rye

SLC 2002

After seeing the torch in Olympia, WA, I loaded up a car with my brother, a stack of tickets, two ounces of herbal supplements and a trunk full of NW micro-brews and smoked meats and cheeses. After 13 days and 28 events, I’d documented with 700+ photos, dozens of video clips, a couple TV appearances, partied with gold medalists and lent Don Cherry my hat.

I also learned the power of grassroots reporting by sharing a video clip of the first-ever Nepali Winter Olympian (vid) and observed the passion of Latvian hockey fans. I also learned what you see on TV is very different from on the ground – ain’t it all bad. Heck, the Olympics brought public transit and liberalized beer laws to Utah!

Torino 2006

I remained in Vancouver, living on Torino time with 4:00 AM cappuccinos and frustrating hockey games while my colleagues Mssrs. Krug and Scales were the new media pioneers encamped in Turin at the Piedmonte Non-accredited Media Centre, testing streaming video cams, visiting hospitality houses, and rallying photo walks in between events and business outreach.

I assembled a collection of Olympic Outsider podcasts and frequent Olympic Notebooks to document the sports, media, and business issues of the games. But the gem of the Torino 2006 social media experiment was the “Social Media and Sports Symposium” – a panel discussion delivered from Vancouver and Turin over the web featuring Ross Rebagliati discussing the changing role of blogging since Nagano with Roland Tanglao and Will Pate ~ the old media begin to notice the magma bubbling up from renegade tech-journ-artists.

Beijing 2008

Everyone wondered how the bureaucracy and policies of social control would affect every aspect of the Games and the torch relay was famously interrupted several times and the Olympics became a politically-charged event akin to days of Moscow and LA boycotts compared to relatively non-political Games in Athens and Sydney.

This time around, I again contextualized content from colleagues Kris and Rob who stormed Beijing like savvy pirates covering street food, conferences and fencing. From the Occident, I assembled massive storypacks from their artifacts through Raincity Studios and crafted educational toolkits and closely observed the nuances of IOC’s priority of protecting rights-holders.

Vancouver 2010

Leading up to Vancouver turn to spend, there were a bevy of events to podcast including the Governor-General presenting the Olympic flag from Oslo, the flag tour with Crispin Lipscomb and Duff Gibson, plus reconnaissance of venues in Whistler, Cypress, Richmond and Vancouver.

But the big effort started with rejection from the worldwide press briefing and an open letter to VANOC – which sparked commentary, meetings and ideas. The letter also attracted media of all flavors to the conversation about the roles and regulations in the grey space between “accredited journalists” and “fans with cameras and recorders.”

Now the fruits of this conversation are evident with publications and organizations building coverage communities and logistical resources for all sorts of journos – more on these below.

Handing the Laptop

London 2012

A few months ago at the IOC Congress in Copenhagen, ad man Martin Sorrell spoke about the “Digital Revolution” (video) Slide Deck (.pdf) to the assembled dignitaries and extolled the virtues of easing IP restrictions, embracing fan media makers and using social media channels.

While VANOC was late to the revolution (they have made efforts @2010Tweets – Youtube), London has a head of New Media evangelizing Change, Social Media and London 2012 plus concerned citizens are using social media in a non-confrontational manner to express concerns directly to Jacques Rogge. Dr. Andy Miah of Univ. of Western Scotland will be documenting what he sees here and sharing in the UK after participating in the Social Media and the Olympics Panel at Northern Voice here in Vancouver.

Sochi 2016

Residents of Sochi will enjoy the benefits of social media for community discourse from early days of their Games as they received a Knight News Challenge of $600,000 to use for:

“… the latest online tools to both discuss and influence the impact of the games. A web site and database will allow the community to track and debate how the plans are changing life there over a five-year period. The idea is to help residents better prepare for the Olympics, to inform the media about the city’s issues and to use discussions about the games as a way to improve life in Sochi.” A notable achievement to celebrate by – props to young Fulbright scholar, Alexander Zolotarev – and I hope i can help out!

Strong, Free, Social

While some are quick to polarize attitudes about the Games into pro or con,  I am convinced that embracing a variety of opinions about the Olympix events is of significant value. While IOC and VANOC policies may be sources of personal frustration, by documenting the people’s history of the arts, sports and civic issues around Vancouver, we can effectuate positive change in our community and pass on knowledge for future events.

With this spirit in mind, the True North Media House campaign encourages social media education, aggregation and collaboration. My cohorts and I assembled a toolkit of practical resources to help find, tell, and share stories:

Stellar Work! The lads behind With Glowing Hearts – the Movie demonstrate the importance using creative art to document the social transitons and civic landscape which otherwise go under-noticed. Their ongoing film project includes a segment about the True North Media House evolution which Scales also discusses at Vancouver Access.

Good Idea! Like predictive back-to-school essays, some of my cohorts have published posts about how they will spend their Olympics – consider doing the same. Meet: John Biehler, John Bollwitt, Rebecca Bollwitt, Duane Storey plus the crew at Vancouver Access 2010 who are providing epic info resources for fans and props to event mapmaker 2010VanFan AKA Andrea.

Hang your @

Need a place to plug-in? You can meet like-minded doppelgangers at several physical facilites – each with a distinct point of view and requirements including:

• IBC at Canada Place 2 – no use mentioning it cause you ain’t getting anywhere near it unless you’re already sorted out
• BOB co-working centre – Building Opportunities through Business program has a drop-in co-working space and is hosting some CODE activities
• Network Hub – a entreptrenuraial co-working space renting desks by hour or month
• W2’s Media Arts Centre (also hosting the Legal Observers program) – call for pricing details
• BC International Media Centre – run by the provincial secretariat and hosting some accredited trad. and social media outlets
• Squamish tourism and rumours of more centres at UBC, Whistler/Blackcomb, Carnegie Library and others …?
• A city full of coffee shops and libraries with wi-fi and tables (tip your baristas)

Need a place to publish your work? Find an online community which suits your tastes like: Vancouver Observer, Now Public, Orato, Rabble.ca, Media Co-Op /Dominion or roll your own blog, set up Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo accounts to season, and you’re rolling.

Best Social Practices

There is a huge difference between sticking your content on Facebook and sharing it for the public enjoyment and archiving. Without giving your the full “Web2.0″ manifesto, here are three critical steps to maximizing the reach and longevity of your creations.

• Publish your work Creative Commons – this alternative copyright framework allows you to give permission for non-commercial use with conditions of attribution and share-alike-ness (CC on Flickr)
• Tag it specific, tag it general – tags are meant to increase findability – i’ll use #van2010 for all Olympics related content and tags for community-specific awareness e.g.: #vo2010 #tnmh + track in HootSuite so I see everything</plug>
• Share it to last – don’t hide your content and expect your work to live on, instead, publish content across multiple sites including Wikimedia commons & Archive.org

It will get Weird

No matter what you think now, expect mind to expand and evolve as you find some inspiration or motivation which you never previously considered.

Perhaps, you’ll discover the notion to express yourself or find new co-conspirators to create a new reality or play a role in helping others explore the places you pass each day.

If not, methinks you’ve missed out on the biggest chance for international fellowship since Expo 86 – and whether you plan to celebrate, protest or observe, you now have the ability and opportunity to contribute to the public record.

So, what do you plan to contribute to the future?

Photo Credits:

Canadian fans – Dave Olson

Roland, Ross and Dave – Rachel Ashe

Ski Jump – Dave Olson

Media Badge – John Biehler

Claudia Pechstein on drums – Dave Olson

Roland, Ross and Dave 2 – Brad Rees via Dave Olson

Seahorse Snacks – Kris Krug

Duff Gibson & medal – Dave Olson

Scales, Maih and Krug – Via Andy Miah

Governor General and Mayor – Dave Olson

Dave and Nadia at Fresh Media – John Bollwitt

Protest Sign – Dave Olson

Don and Ron – Dave Olson

The Torch is Nigh! – Olympic Outsider #12

Examining Main and Hastings – Olympic Outsider #11