Vancouver 2010 Olympics Coverage Daily - media

Spieling about the importance of respectful conversation at Canada Place

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:27:47 -0800

Dave Spiels Forth at Canada Place outside VANOC Worldwide Press Briefing

Outside of the VANOC worldwide press briefing, independent media maker Dave Thorvald Olson answers questions about the Olympics, protests, and tension between social concerns and international events.

He spiels forth about peace, pacifism, understanding, love of winter sports, copyright, rumoured riots, the importance of dialouge and respect and conversation. Also he briefly recounts his experiences covering Olympic Games from a grassroots point of view.

Filmed by Manfred Becker - thanks!

See Dave Thorvald on Daily Vancouver for more: http://2010.dailyvancouver.com/blog/davethorvald

Re-cap of VANOC World Press Briefing and Olympic Resistance Network Press Conference

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:37:05 -0800

Following up on our Open Letter to VANOC, here's a quick re-cap of observations and experiences at the Worldwide Press Briefing and the Olympic Resistance Network press conference, November, (Thursday) 20, 2008.

Kris Krug and I went to Canada Place and were rejected entry to the VANOC worldwide press briefing event. We had hoped use our experience crowd-covering previous Olympic Games to discuss how social media can enhance the accredited media's coverage and also provide deep documentary into the fan experience and lesser-known athlete's stories.

Open Letter to VANOC Media Relations and Press Operations from the Social Media

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:38:24 -0800

NOTE: Sent to VANOC {mediarelations@vancouver2010.com, pressoperations@vancouver2010.com} Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Cross-posted at: urbanvancouver.com, nowpublic.com, raincitystudios.com etc. Hello VANOC Media Relations and Press Operations, I am writing today on behalf of Raincity Studios, a Vancouver-based social media company who owns and publishes a suite of media properties. We had hoped to talk about social media (blogs, podcasts, twitter, wikis etc.) at the World Press Briefing this week, however we did not receive any response from the applications we submitted to the participate in the event. So, as per Mr. Furlong's suggestion at the Vancouver Board of trade meeting last week, we are liaising with VANOC. In brief, we'd like to have a conversation about how to allow fans and amateur media makers to document their Olympic experience while keeping out of the way of the IOC IP lawyers. As a company and as individuals, we've produced extensive, non-accredited coverage of Beijing 2008, Torino 2006, SLC 2002, and Nagano 1998. With the next games literally in our neighborhood, we'll be hosting an independent, international media centre at our Gastown loft office. As part of this, we'll organize events like photo walks and aggregate fan-made content for the enjoyment of a worldwide audience. We'd like to work with you to do this for mutual benefit.

CTV non rights holding media team: Meeting the Murman

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 15:49:29 -0800

One of the great experiences of supporting events at the BC Canada Place here in Torino was meeting the CTV team -- including Murray, Brent, Kevin, and Vicki (apologies if I've missed some people). If you want to get a real sense for how media functions on the ground during such a crazy news period as the Olympics, check out Murray's blog, aka Chopper Murman. These guys are working super hard and going through a lot, and for such a sustained amount of time that the fatigue levels are astounding.

Murray has been doing a fantastic job of chronicling the experience with words and pictures on his blog, which he started right at the beginning of the Torino experience. I like this post about filming a typical Italian family's reaction to the open ceremonies (since non-rights holders can't cover ANY events that take place directly at official Olympic venues). They ended up editing the shots directly at the dinner table -- check out The Opening:

Day Three Winter Olympic Notebook

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:25:48 -0800

I watched bits and pieces of coverage today and catching up tonight, so here are few notes along the way, ...

Snowboard Half-pipe

Watching replays of Shaun White's snowboard run and also watching video of him on skateboard half pipe, I am very impressed by the athleticism, imagination and enthusiasm displayed by the young, gangly redhead. Kudos also to two-time medalist Danny Kass who scored his second Silver.

Markku Koski of Finland took Bronze while another Finn, world champion Antti Autti dropped to 5th. Finland may be the best per capita Winter Olympians, - maybe.