Vancouver 2010 Olympics Coverage Daily - social media

London 2012 Uses Social Media to Inspire Change (plus lovely bisuits)

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:35:36 -0800

Thanks to Jeff Lee's blog post "London 2012 gets social media while Vancouver 2010 falters", I saw this slide deck by Alex Balfour, the Head of New Media for London 2012 where he sets the table and drafts a plan of action for encouraging crowd coverage of the Games.

I can't help but feeling that Vancouver is missing a huge opportunity by not planning and evangelizing new media - with a diverse creative and info tech sector, it's a shame.

Anyhow, i saw this great twitter from @stuartgh in London who saw Mr. Balfour's presentation:

Just been to hear a talk on using social media to inspire change at the 2012 Olympics. Fascinating. And I ate two very nice biscuits. 3:19 PM Nov 26th from web

I love tasty biscuits! Later he puts forth his vision, thusly:

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.

Beijing Calling: Scales Talks about his Olympic Fervor on the BBC

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:59:52 -0700

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

Cross-posted at: Raincity Studios

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

Beijing 2008 Social Media Backpack - Scales and Krug are on the go!

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:44:30 -0700

NOTE: As part of on-going social media coverage of the Beijing 2008 games, this article was cross-posted at:

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.