Coverage of the Olympic Games is dominated by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) contracted rights-holder and accredited major media conglomerates. However some feel there is a role for crowdsourced documentation of both sporting events and the cultural context in which it happens.

This expert panel discusses changes, challenges, and opportunities facing grassroots media makers around the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.

From Northern Voice 2009.

Recorded at the post-Turin Olympic flag tour in May 2006 at Vancouver Art Gallery Robson Square, top-placing Canadian half-pipe snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb talks about his Olympic experience, pre-race rituals and 2010 plans – plus offers insight into the Whistler lifestyle, future of the sport, and how to help young boarders.

Download: High-Flying Canadian Snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb
Olympic Outsider podcast #9 (.mp3, 8MB, 9:53)

Robert Scales from Raincity Studios and Kris Krug from Bryght are featured in today’s Vancouver Sun article, “Canadians Trying To Land Beijing Contracts”. Vancouver Sun reporter Wency Leung came into our offices a few days ago to interview Robert and Kris and spoke with them about their upcoming trip to China, getting a scope and understanding on how Raincity and Bryght is looking to effect and learn from the tech and new media industry in Beijing, in conjunction with preparing for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Vancouver Sun Article Excerpt:

Vancouver-based new media partners Bryght and Raincity Studios, which are working with China Access 2008, also see opportunities at the Beijing Olympics for B.C.’s technology companies.
“We think there’s a huge market opportunity for us to do work with Chinese Internet service providers, and Chinese hosts and Chinese web development shops,” said Kris Krug of Bryght.
He added that a presence at the Beijing Games will also help Bryght and Raincity Studios prepare for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.
“We have an interest in learning as much as we can [at the Beijing Games] so that we can find out what companies and teams and countries are looking to do online around the 2010 Olympics,” Krug said.

Kris and Rob head over to China on Thursday for 2 weeks, getting on the ground and exploring first-hand the opportunities that potentially lie ahead.

Tomorrow they will be attending the China Access Forum, meeting people from other local BC companies who have already successfully initiated business in China.

You can register for the event on the China Access website and mark it on your upcoming.org account as well.

Listen Live to a reading of the article.

Wency Leung will be tracking Rob and Kris in China and will be following up with their progress upon their return.

Day Seven and I am in Heaven, How about you?

A few quick notes after busy day of attending the RainCity / Bryght-sponsored Symposium at Vancouver‘s Take 5 coffeeshop.

The event linked up the Torino street-maniacs Krug, Scales and (the not sooo maniacal) Bman at the BC lodge in Turin, Italy.  Participants on the Western hemisphere included Gold Medalist Ross Rebagliati, plus photo-machine Roland Tanglao, boy-wonder Will Pate, very public Michael Tippet, photo queen Spiral Goddess, my buddy Bread and many more.

After a few technical foibles due to the restrictive network policies in Italy, we “go’ed with the flow” and had a good discussion about new media coverage and the Olympic coverage and what all that means.  Ross shared candid comments about the Canadian sports program, the challenges of being an elite athlete, his ways and means and plans for 2010.

I enjoyed a fancy and free coffee (with Bailey’s mmm) and had a great talk with the esteemed (and comfortably infamous) Gold Medalist Mr. Rebagliatti – podcast coming soon with topics including the drug testing incident and hemp culture in Japan besides his training regiment, life plans, real estate skills and hobbies.

Medal Haul Continues

In case you didn’t notice, with 3 more medals today (see below), Canada is tied for 2nd with Russia and Germany for total medal count.  With 1 Gold but plenty of others, Norway leads the way.  The USA, despite some high profile wins, sits in 5th.

Here is a screenshot for posterity – Day 7 and looking good, with more on the way!

By the way, with 3 Golds and only 1.33 million people, Estonia is likely your top winter Olympic country.  Norway, with 13 medals (1 Gold) and 4.5 million folks is the  probable mathematical winner – thanks to Dan Funboy for research notes.

Sliding Away Quickly

Duff Gibson (superhero name for sure) became Canada’s oldest medalist (39 years old IIRC), with a Gold in Skeleton.  Another Canadian Skelathlete, Jeff Pain (good pro-wrestler name) finished with Silver and the Swiss slider ruined the Canadian sweep as Paul Boehm finished 4th.  See a new sport Canada is good at, just like wrote yesterday – so yes, i will take ALL the credit

Snowboard Supercross

See another new sport, another medal (see I told you).  This time a Bronze in a brand-new sport, Women’s Snowboard Cross won by Quebec’s Dominique Maltais in a rough and tumble event featuring lots of crashes on a challenging course.

Crossing the Gap in Women’s hockey

This is huge!  and tremendously exciting as Sweden survived a USA team with strong goaltending and some puck luck.  It took a shootout to decide the contest which the USA led until the third when they failed to capitalize on many chances and Sweden scored a sweet one to tie.

Overtime saw end to end rushes with numerous battles as the energy-depleted players skated with maximum effort.  USA wasn’t able to score on a late Power play and, even got a bonus shot in the shootout when the Swedish goalies was judged to have moved before the puck, couldn’t put one in.  Sweden made it secure with 2 nice goals – that being said both goalies made nice saves but players were perhaps guilty of trying one-too-many dekes.

So, after thick-headed, sports-talk-radio types ranting on about Women’s hockey’s lack of legitimacy because of the disparity between the two powerhouse teams and the rest of the countries, this year (note: the third Olympics since this sport joined) the top 2 will be different.  Here’s to Piper, Sunohara and the rest of the Canadian Women going for Gold!

Cherry Agrees with Me on Moore

So Don Cherry stirred up a bit of controversy (as is his custom) by expressing  sentiments about Steve Moore’s poor timing on lawsuit.  I agree and feel Moore’s suit is *still* out of jurisdiction and frankly, his whack-a-mole civil lawsuit strategy is embarrassing to him and his family – his money-sniffing legal advisor(s) should be ashamed.

It is one thing to file a lawsuit (and no i don’t condone Bertuzzi’s actions in the incident), but it is another thing to file repeated frivolous lawsuits naming numerous defendants from a “crime” which has been tried, convicted and penalty served.  Steve, take your insurance settlement and find a new dream.  Peace.

Hasek Czechs Out

Indeed Dominik’s groin, or hamstring, or something gave out so ‘no go’ for the ’98 Olympic hero.  Tomas Vokoun is a fine goalie but does not have the big game mystique and intimidation, not to mention the raw competitiveness, that Gumby brings.

I am curious to the see the fall-out from the Senator’s GM (and other NHL GMs for that matter), if Hasek’s injury prevents him from playing the stretch or playoffs for the NHL club.  Elias is out too as his injury bug woes continues – good news is this time the injury is an ankle, not a recurrence of hepatitis A -  Kotalik from NHL Sabres takes his place in the line-up.

Despite the setbacks, the Czech team is far from a long-shot, still boasting a stocked roster who may find these injuries as a rallying point – especially after the loss to the Swiss.

By the way, I want to see the Czechs and Slovaks match up in the cross-over.

Key an Eye on …

- Herman Meier the Hermanator is skiing in the Super G event.  His races are NEVER dull.  Canada’s Eric Guay, who pulled out of earlier events with injury, goes too on Saturday.

- Curling – After a slow tourney start, the Canadian women Kleibrink rink had a solid win against the defending gold medal Rhona Martin of Scotland (UK).  the Men’s Gushue rink couldn’t get past the Finns.  As this tournament heats up, watch how the medal-favorite Canadians respond.

- Canadian Men’s Hockey face-off against Switzerland early tomorrow.  The Swiss are coming off an epic win versus the Czechs behind the goaltending of David Aebischer.  Martin Broduer goes for Canada who will look for some of the less notable Canucks to step up and make their presence known.

Go Canada!

The Olympics and Web 2.0

Friday, February 17th, 2006
BC Canada Place, Torino, Italia

Join Bryght and Raincity Studios in Torino for a half-day symposium in BC Canada Place in Torino exploring the intersection of sports and web 2.0. Chaired by Andy Miah and Kris Krug this event aims to explore how changes in technology and the internet are influencing media and the coverage of the games. Topics to be discussed include citizen journalism, the decentralisation of media power, user generated content, mobile devices and applications and open-source software.

Presenters include Boris Mann, Andy Miah, and Robert Scales.

Sign-up today to attend the event.

Attendees

• The Daily Bit
• Dschola
• KORE Multimedia
• La Stampa Daily Newspaper

KK and Scales in Italy at the British Columbia Canada Place watching ad-hoc street hockey Canada vs Italy…