April 23rd, 2009, 1 Comment »
In the past few days, I’ve gotten news from sundry friends and longtime readers about projects, causes and sundry stuff they’re working on. I thought I’d pass it on:
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November 25th, 2008, 6 Comments »
There’s been plenty of talk lately about how social media creators will fit in with the 2010 Olympics. Dave Olson wrote an open letter to VANOC Media Relations and Press Operations:
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…
We are aware of your obligations to media rights holders and are seeking to provide an entirely different sort of coverage than the accredited media provide. We are not looking to cover events per se but are instead interested in covering the cultural stories, athletes’ families’ stories, and stories from fans who saved and traveled from around the world for this experience.
That led to an article in the Vancouver Sun, and a response from a VANOC spokesperson.
This feels like a good place to start. As Dave says, social media types aren’t expecting all-access passes to the gold medal hockey games. He’s right to point out that there’s a big hole to fill in the media coverage for such an event. I was thinking about it, and drew this little Venn diagram:
The CTVs and CBCs are going to have the major, breaking news covered. It’s all that green space–that’s where social media creators can live. Through various channels, I’m seeing several ways forward for benefits for both parties. Social media creators get some tools, resources and access to help with their citizen journalism efforts, and VANOC enjoys a whole new layer of news coverage. Such a partnership would also highlight Vancouver’s place as a global for new media, citizen journalism and the like.
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September 23rd, 2008, 1 Comment »
This weekend is the third annual version of the now legendary Vancouver BarCamp. There will be over 300 people this time around, and we’re taking over Granville Island with three different venues. The long term forecast looks okay, but it’s too soon to tell, weather-wise.
I wanted to post a quick run-down of the BarCamp stuff that I’m involved in. Descriptions are lifted from the BarCamp topics list:
- How to Be a Laptop Bedouin or ‘Hobo 2.0′ - Julie and Darren are going to start a conversation about living where your work isn’t, and what tools and techniques you need to live in Africa and work in Yaletown.
- ShortTermOlympicVancouver2010RentalsForBigBucks.com - Todd and Darren want to lead a talk about building a short-term apartment rental site for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The conversation will cover feasibility of the idea, requirements, business model and so forth. If participants think it’s a good idea, we’ll form an ad hoc group to build the site.
- Don’t forget the post-BarCamp hockey pool at the Backstage Lounge. We’re going to try to occupy their big back room, and there’s dinner to be had if you’re feeling peckish. We’ve got 9 or 10 participants thus far, and we’ve got space for 15. You’re welcome to join even if you’re not coming for BarCamp.
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August 24th, 2008, 6 Comments »
We don’t have a TV, so I’ve hardly watched any Olympics. I’m surprised to say that I missed watching them a little. I’ve caught the highlights on the CBC’s website (live streaming still very dodgy on my MacBook), but that’s been it.
So, I have a lousy sense of Canada’s achievements at these games. They’ve won 19 medals, which sounds good, but how about a little context? How does 19 medals today compare to winning 19 medals in, say, 1968? How have the Olympics changed in the past 40 years?
I did some research on Wikipedia, and assembled this spreadsheet. In doing so, I learned some interesting stuff:
- At the 2008 Olympics, Canada ended up ranking 19th in the medal standings. That’s its best performance since 1992, and (ignoring the heavily-boycotted 1984 Games) its second best performance in the last 40 years. The Canadian Olympic Committee had set a goal of a top-16 finish, which seems pretty unrealistic given history and the competition.
- We can also look at the portion of the total medal pot that Canada won. They won 1.98% of these year’s medals.
- I looked at some other factors, like how many medals Canada won per event or attending athlete, but I’m not sure that they’re germane.
I also discovered a couple of general Olympic stats:
- Since 1968, the number of athletes attending the Games has doubled.
- Since 1968, the number of events has increased by 76%, and the total number of events by 82%. I guess we can attribute the greater increase in athletes to new team sports or larger pools of qualifying athletes?
I know, I’m a big nerd. But I think we can celebrate Canada’s medal haul as a very good result. They’ve done better, but 2008 counts as above average.
To those who would accuse me of focusing too much on the medal count, I’d point you to this Globe and Mail article. In it, two-time gold medal winner and executive director of the Road to Excellence Alex Baumann talks about how much their emphasis is on winning, and funding those sports where Canadian athletes are likely to medal.
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August 11th, 2008, 5 Comments »
I was watching some Olympics coverage yesterday, and started thinking about rituals of celebration:
- In indoor volleyball, the team converges after every successful point. There’s a momentary huddle where, I assume, encouraging and congratulatory remarks are exchanged.
- In gymnastics, the girls (for, yes, they’re mostly still girls) of the American team gave each other the most cursory of hugs after each routine.
- Basketball seems to reflect what occurs in the NBA. There’s very little reaction after the average basket, and just some macho posturing after a particularly righteous slam dunk.
- I didn’t see what happened in water polo, but I think it’s much like basketball.
In games where teams accrue points, there’s a correlation between the frequency of scoring and the amount of celebration. In hockey and football (that is, soccer), the entire team congregates around the scorer to congratulate them. At the other end of the scale, there’s very little reaction from teammates in basketball or doubles tennis.
Is there a threshold where the group-to-congratulate stops? Maybe it’s not that simple. There’s potentially 25 points in a volleyball game, though there’s easily 75 to 100 in a match. That’s actually more ’scores’ that the average basketball game, so I guess there’s no hard and fast rule.
Can you think of other high-scoring sports where the team celebrates after every point?
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April 6th, 2008, 12 Comments »
A couple of years ago my wife Julie started a figure skating blog. She’s got a particular purpose in mind for this project: she wants to get media accreditation for the skating events at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
One way to do this is to write the most popular figure skating blog in the world, according to Google. She currently sits in the #2 spot.
The goal is to get her up to the top spot, and I need your help. If you’re so inclined, please link to Julie’s blog with the phrase ‘figure skating blog‘. Collectively, we ought to be able to boost her up to the top spot, eh?
To entice you, she’s collected eight of the worst falls in figure skating (Digg that mofo, if you’re thus inclined). It’s, uh, not for the squeamish. My favourite is the hip check that Laetitia Hubert lays on Midori Ito.
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November 29th, 2007, 11 Comments »
Earlier this week, Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic mascots were revealed. You can see and hear the mascots through this microsite.
Each mascot will say their (his? her?) name aloud when you mouse over the text of their name. When I heard Sumi say his or her name, I heard something of a mid-nineties rave in it. Just a hint, really.
I spent an hour with GarageBand, and produced 67 seconds of pure Olympic magic. To play the song, just click the icon in the box below:
I know it’s really awful, but I had tremendous fun making it. GarageBand rocks out. As it were.
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November 27th, 2007, 27 Comments »
Of course, I’m hard to satisfy on the Olympic mascots.
The images come courtesy of The Province. I tried to go to the official Olympics site, but it’s down for ’scheduled maintenance’. Hmm…either that’s the standard ’server crashed’ message, or they picked a really bad time to do maintenance. I’m guessing the former.
UPDATE: Their site is redirecting somewhere now, and you can see the mascots dance and say their names. It’s freakin’ weird, if you ask me.
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