The 2010 Olympics are fast approaching and final preparations to get game-ready are taking place. Part of this effort is prepping the various media outlets from across the world to cover the games.  As part of this process, last week VANOC held their worldwide press briefing. Vancouver has a vibrant Social Media, Online Journalism, and Technology scene and it makes sense that this community is interested in covering the largest event to ever come to Vancouver.

Kris Krug and Dave Olsen of Raincity Studios - leaders in Vancouver’s Social Media, Citizen Journalism and Technology scene - had applied to VANOC to attend the event, but did not receive a reply regarding their attendance and they were not granted access to the press briefing. Rather, they were greeted by security, escorted out of the building, and instructed to join the protesters across the street. If this happened to any representative of a mainstream media outlet, the public outcry would be immediate and monumental.

Raincity Studios wanted to leverage their past  experience reporting 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”. Kris and Dave were there not only as representatives of Raincity Studios, but as ambassadors for Vancouver’s entire Social Media and Citizen Journalism community - their exclusion from the briefing sends a message that social media is not a welcome commentator when it comes to the 2010 Olympics.

In response to being shut out from the official press briefing, Raincity issued an Open Letter to VANOC.

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 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.

As you likely know, Vancouver is a hub of innovative journalism with companies like ourselves, Now Public, and others plus renowned conferences like Northern Voice. Raincity Studios/Bryght is also an “official weblog service provider.” My colleagues Robert Scales and Kris Krug were published in the academic paper “Pathway: Critiques and Discourse In Olympic Research,” participated in the 9th International Symposium on Olympic Studies in Beijing and will be presenting about the experiences at the noted SXSW Interactive conference in 2009. [Read More]

As you can tell from the tenor of the letter, they are cognizant of the issues that face VANOC with regard to press coverage of the Olympics and are open to finding a solution that is amenable to all of the parties involved. As well, it makes it clear that this is not a new venture for them, and they’ve actively participated in covering previous Olympic games and have done so through both citizen journalist and mainstream media avenues.

I fully realize that VANOC has responsibilities to their broadcast sponsors, as corporate sponsorship is one of the primary drivers of funding that allows host cities to hold the Olympics, but Social Media and Citizen Journalism are realities of today’s media world. Regardless of how VANOC feels about Social Media and Citizen Journalism, it needs to realize that we will be covering the Olympics for our various media properties. Ideally, we would like to work with VANOC, ensuring that we are aware of the basic guidelines that it has regarding our coverage, i.e. not showing a Telus ad when Bell is a sponsor.  By excluding us from the VANOC media briefing, the organization is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy - by not including members of the Social Media community for fear that we will not follow the rules, it is ensuring that we do not know what rules need to be followed.

According to Kris, “Raincity has grown grassroots organizations in Vancouver’s Technology and Social Media communities through the organization of events like Northern Voice and BarCamp. We want to do this for the Olympics, we are trying to bring things together in a positive way.” In this tradition, Raincity Studios is organizing a Social Media and Independent Media Center for online journalists who are not able to participate in the Official and Unofficial Media Centers. They are trying to create positive opportunities for Vancouver organizations and show the world the caliber of the technology and social media community in the city as well as deliver an awesome online presence for 2010.

The initial response to their quick twitter post asking if anyone in the industry was interested in meeting to discuss the logistics of and interest in hosting the media center was immense. On my twitter feed alone, I counted at least 20 individuals - including Vancouver’s most prominent bloggers and social media elite - immediately reply back to Dave indicating that they will be participating in the meeting. The initial meeting is to be held on Thursday, December 4th at 4:30 at the Raincity Studios office. If you’re interested in attending, contact Dave Olsen and let him know that you’d like to stop by.

The immediate and overwhelming response - within a small geographical location - that this cold VANOC reception and subsequent open letter from Raincity Studios has received, shows the power and reach that Social Media holds. Yes, currently we do not measure our readership levels at those of mainstream media, but in aggregate we do receive significant viewership. In my opinion, VANOC is being extremely myopic in their exclusion of Social Media and Citizen Journalism, when it has a perfect opportunity put in their laps - being the first Olympics to fully capitalize on the power of Social Media that is present in Vancouver’s thriving tech community. When the Olympics are over and the MSM’s coverage of the Olympics is relegated to a disk or hard drive in some storage area collecting dust, the coverage from Citizen Journalists will be alive online, gaining views daily, reminding people how truly awesome the Vancouver 2010 Olympics really were.

Press Coverage of the Open Letter:

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Sun

Now Public

Daily Vancouver

Tech Vibes

Tris Hussey

Outsmarts Marketing

Will Pate

Darren Barefoot

Olympic Media Coverage from Raincity Studios:

* Raincity Studios Olympics posts: http://raincitystudios.com/search/node/olympics
* Olympic overage at Daily Vancouver: http://2010.dailyvancouver.com
* Beijing kick off post: http://raincitystudios.com/blogs-and-pods/daveo/beijing-2008-social-medi…
* Krug’s Flickr Olympics photos: http://flickr.com/photos/kk/tags/olympics
* Scales’ Flickr Olympics photos: http://flickr.com/photos/raincitystudios/tags/olympics
* Olson’s Flickr Olympics photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uncleweed/tags/olympics
* You Tube videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/robertscales
* Olympic Outsider podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/olympicoutsider
* Scales’ Olympic coverage on Now Public: http://my.nowpublic.com/user/6247/assignments
* SLC 2002 photo/video essay: http://olsonboys.org/galleries/olympic-gallery.html
* Torino/Vancouver Symposium: http://2010.dailyvancouver.com/torino/symposium

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Every Remembrance Day, we take a moment to remember all the sacrifices that have been and are being made by our country’s soldiers in defense of our country. My Granddad fought in World War II and every year on this special day I think of him and everything that he has done. Unfortunately, I was unable to join him this year at the cenotaph to commemorate the friends he lost during the war.  This year has been a particularly hard one for him, as he lost his loving wife of 57 years this summer. I know that Remembrance Day is an extremely important day for him and I want him to know that I am thinking of him and sending all of my love over his way.  I am very thankful for everything that he and his friends and colleagues did for us.

The details of what he did during the war are still somewhat sketchy as he was flying top secret missions that he was not allowed to talk about for 50 years. This time frame has just passed, but as you’d imagine, after not being allowed to talk about it for that long, one has grown accustomed to keeping the secret.

From what I have heard either from my Granddad or second hand through my Mom, Granddad joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) when he was 17. He flew a number of planes, including gliders. One of his missions was to fly a massive cargo glider carrying a large number of troops behind enemy lines. This was achieved by the glider being towed by a large powered plane until they were close to enemy territory. At that point, the glider was released and Granddad flew the plane to a secret field and safely landed the plane. They used the gliders because they were so quiet, they couldn’t be heard by people on the ground. Once down, and the troops were deployed, the plane was abandoned and Granddad had to rendezvous with people that helped him get back across the border without getting caught.  His plane was shot at on one of these missions and he still has the shrapnel from that in his back to this day.

I know that this is just a small part of what he did during his time in the Air Force and I will probably never understand the true extent of everything he did during the war. As time passes and each year we have fewer veterans with us to tell us their stories, we need to make sure that we take the time to hear and learn about the stories from the war - lest we forget.

So I took a small portion of my day to say thanks to everyone who has ever fought a war in defense of this country and remember the great sacrifices that they made so that we can live with the freedoms that we take for granted every day.

I’ve spent so much of my life pursuing major goals that I’ve set for myself - namely school and work - that I’ve realized that I’ve lost my passion pursuits.  I find myself pouring this drive into my life goals and relationships, but it’s really not the same.

When I do something, I want to do it really well and will focus much of my effort and dedication into these pursuits, but I’ve been realizing as of late, none of these things make me a better or more well rounded person because of it. Yes, it’s great that my career is going so well or that I finished school, but there needs to be more than that!

So I’ve decided that I’m going to do something about this, I just don’t know what that is yet. When I was younger, I had music - I played the clarinet for 10 years.  Once I graduated high school, I let this hobby fall by the wayside. I’m not particularly interested in picking it up again, so I’m crossing that off of my list.

So as I sit here on the verge of my 29th birthday, I’m trying to figure out what my passion is. Even with the thought that I’ve put into this as of late, it’s still not come to me. So I’m thinking that I would like to try a vast assortment of things to see what piques my interest.  I’m never one who sets a resolution on New Years, but I think I’m going to do it for my birthday - like a present to myself.

Over the course of the next year, I am going to do things that take me past my current comfort level. I want to take an art class, help people less fortunate than myself, learn how to be a better photographer, maybe pick up a sport or enroll in cooking classes, who knows? But as a present to myself, before my 30th birthday, I want to try at least 10 new things and maybe, I’ll develop a passion for one of them that I will continue on with throughout my life, wherever that takes me.

I’m always open to suggestion, what are you passionate about?