personal expression

We're putting videos on YouTube as well -- not just from my little cameraphone, but from Kris and Robert's Samsung SportCam. Check out the Torino group on YouTube to catch up with all the latest videos. If anyone else is in Torino, stick your videos there -- it's open to everyone.

Flickr also has lots of coverage. We've been tagging everything with Torino, so check the torino tag for ours and others. As well, someone created a Torino 2006 group.

It's great to see so much citizen media being created. I only wish we could have more directly from athletes themselves, but blogs by Olympic participants appear to be banned, according to a story from the Japanese Olympic Committee. The problem appears to be commercial use, or perhaps the key phrase being "journalistic activities" by participants. And that's the key issue: are blogs and other citizen media quote/unquote real journalism, or are they personal expression? I can only imagine that an athlete's appearance at the event is one of the most amazing and powerful personal experiences they will ever have. It's a shame that they can't (or aren't allowed) to share that with both their friends and family, as well as us.