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
China
LA Times Photo Essay: Faces of Beijing
LA Times Photo Essay: Streets of Beijing
If you live in Vancouver, 