Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
True North Strong and Free
True North Media House is virtual initiative which started at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics by media makers, enthusiasts and leaders from Vancouver's grassroots technology community. The idea was to aid media makers and documentarians with information, assistance and community events. When I heard about it I had to be a part. My greatest regret of these games was not taking the two weeks off work to enjoy the festivities and create more media! I did alright and was able to enjoy my time but my advice to others interested in documenting any great human event is to drop everything and soak it up.
Two of the leaders of True North Media House are heading to London to present about outsiders, online and social media. They will specifically be highlighting True North Media House, something that helped me stay in touch with the awesomeness of Vancouver's Olympics and allowed me to be part of something from wherever I was taking in the festivities. I wrote a few posts and put up a bunch of photos during the Olympics. Here is a wrap-up:
- The Olympic Torch Relay hits is Target a Photo Set
- Athletes Confused by the "Twitter Olympics"
- VANOC's Greatest Oversight at the 2010 Winter Olympics
- Exciting and inspiring Crowd-sourced Olympic Videos
- BONUS: Thanks to the Olympics I was able to test drive the Chevy Volt!
With Glowing Hearts: The Social Release
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| Andrew & Jon |
The shooting of the 30+ hours of film is complete but post-production is a very expensive process to get done right so it’s time that we turn this project inside out and that’s exactly what we intend to do with a social media campaign unlike any other.
The campaign turns to the community at-large to support the completion of these important stories. In a Tweet and Toonie ($2) Torch Relay we hope to raise the $10,000 necessary to complete post-production of the film. Some stories need to be heard and this is one of them. This is a story about communities, for communities and now with our efforts, toonies or tweets made by communities.
For just $2 you can become a producer: your name will appear in a word cloud much like this. A $2 donation will show your name in size one font while a $200 donation will show your name in size 100 font. All fonts are proportional to the largest contribution. An image will be posted of the cloud and made available as a poster.
Enter to win a producer credit and copy of the film with a tweet: You can also enter to win a weekly prize of a DVD or digital copy of the film and a $20 producer credit (size 10 font). Each tweet represents an entry. winner will be chosen at random. All you have to do to enter is tweet one of these messages:
- I am a proud supporter and hopefully winner of a copy of the film #withglowinghearts and a producers credit! http://wghthemovie.ca
- Only $2 makes me a movie producer #withglowinghearts http://wghthemovie.ca
- I am entering to win a film credit and a copy of the film #withglowinghearts http://wghthemovie.ca
- Support local documentaries. Become a producer #withglowinghearts http://wghthemovie.ca
April Smith started out down and out, but through the power of social media and her drive to succeed she became an entrepreneur and community activist for a community in need of leaders like her. Her story is at the heart of the message in With Glowing Hearts.
Garvin Snyder is a self-declared 'binner' who utilized empowering social media programs - Megaphone Mag and Hope in the Shadows Calendar and photo contest - to create positive change in his own life and leads those around him to see the power of real life social media.
The True North Media House is a virtual space for media creators to join together for a variety of reasons. It was born during the lead up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and began with an idea and a dream a group of passionate individuals. Dave Olson and Kris Krug spearheaded the project and are featured prominently in With Glowing Hearts.
Irwin Oostindie is an advocate for social change who has been working for 6 years to bring to life a vision of something different, something called W2. W2 is an initiative born from social housing protests outside Vancouver's famous Woodwards building in 2002. W2 is now Vancouver's most impressive collaborative project in the mind of this lone blogger. W2 is what it is because of dedicated visionaries like Irwin.
The Unfinished Press Release:
VANOC's greatest oversight at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics
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| Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky |
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| By: David Byrd |
Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky are both national heros, without a doubt. Does anyone remember how Rick Hansen ended up in a wheel chair? "He was paralyzed at the age of 15 from being in the back of a pickup truck when it crashed into another car." -Wikipedia. So there's Rick Hansen inside BC Place where he finished his 26-month trek of over 40,000 km through 34 countries almost 23 years before and he sits there as Wayne jumps into the back of a pickup truck to take the torch down to the cauldron in Coal Harbour and light it.
The parallel of being in the back of a pickup truck while Rick's message is to always wear a seat belt, don't drink and drive and be safe while driving seemed to me to be the largest oversight of VANOC and no one noticed.What do you think of this? What was the greatest oversight in your opinion?
Crowd Sourced Olympic Montage Videos UPDATED
I have been troubled about what to write about the Olympics while basking in the short afterglow. I have a few things planned for next week in terms of intellectual discussion and the Olympic movement in general but this week I thought I would leave it to the people who created loved and enjoyed the Olympics to it's fullest. Under each video is a short description of and link to the creator.
Stephen Brunt of the Globe and Mail created this tear jerker of a photo essay of the games.
John Biehler a local citizen journalist and all-round awesome guy made this.
This video was created by AHA MEDIA's Richard Czaban. AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media cameras. For a better quality version of this video, contact April Smith on Twitter or Facebook.
A tribute to the Canadian Gold Medal hockey team! Lyrics by Ray Blackmore & Produced by Kevin Lambert
This video was posted on Vancity Buzz and is a static video shot of downtown with audio as Canada wins Gold in Men's Ice Hockey. The sound you are hearing in this video is mostly from the LiveCity Yaletown venue in the lower middle of the shot. Check out the video above to experience the noise from inside the venue.
The Olympic Torch Relay hits its Target
I quickly got over to Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby outside BCIT to tak pics of the torch relay from the street. Thousands of people took to the street to greet the flame as it ran past BCIT. Check out this for more.
You can see all 200 of the photos I took of the torch relay February 11th on Flickr.
Athletes experience Social Media confusion at The 'Twitter' Olympics #TNMH
I recently read an article in Wired on athlete confusion around social media publishing policies. One skier told he 35,000 Twitter followers that "because of the Olympic rules (blackout period). I will not be able to post any updates from now until March 3rd. Sorry, it bums me out too!" The update was also posted to her Facebook, showing some savvy, nice one.
Apparently, the move was made based on a faulty understanding of the International Olympic Committee’s rules on blogging and social networking. There is no Olympic rule that sets up a blackout period for athletes according to Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee. “Athletes are free to blog during the Games. Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time. You can’t act as a journalist if you aren’t,” says Condron. “You need to do things in a first person way.”
Speedskater Nick Pearson posted on Twitter, “Due to Olympic regulations I can no longer post pics on Twitter through the Olympics.” On the left is a photo he took from his room in the athlete's village. IOC guidelines state that athletes may post photos of themselves as long as they don’t show any of the actual sporting action during the Games. On the right is a picture of the Olympic speed skating oval he took Feb 4th accompianed by this twitter post, "After all has been cleared up, pictures are a go!!!! Just nothing from the competitions or the opening ceromies." Both of the photos are linked to the originals so if one disappears we can guess what may have happened.The IOC's concerns are about the very expensive exclusive advertising and broadcast sponsorship deals. Many of these athletes are sponsored by companies other than Olympic sponsors and photos of them in the Olympic venues or spirit may be considered 'offside'. For athletes with no major outside sponsor obligations these worries around twitter pictures and Facebook posts seem like a bit of joke for good reason, they are. No one can stop the wave of social media and this Olympics will confirm it.
Expect heavy social media activity among athletes in Vancouver. These are going to be the Twitter Olympics. On The Georgia Straight's website I found this list of about 50 Canadian athletes who tweet which stands in contrast to the situation with described in Wired. At least their article forced the US Olympic committee to clarify the situation for the athletes. The US Olympic Twitter page's recent tweets are a great example of dealing with the problem and some of the limitations of Twitter to serve customers.
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