Tag Archives: robert scales

True North Media + Olympics

True North Media House campaign discussed at PBS Media Shift

The PBS Media Shift blog followed the True North Media House campaign, Craig Silverman wrote a lengthy article about the various alternative reporting efforts in Vancouver during the Olympics.

Again for the record & archive, I’ve pasted liberally from the article but encourage you to read the full version in context at True North Media House, W2 Provide Citizen Media Hub at Olympics by by Craig Silverman (bio below), February 22, 2010. The article ran with photos (including this one of interviewing Gord Rickards at Molson Brewing by John Biehler) for the Olympic Outsider podcast plus video clips from WGHthemovie.ca- Webisode #2 ‘True North Media House’.

Dave Olson, left, conducts an interview with Gord Rickards at Molson BRewery, Vancouver - Photo by John Biehler

The article sets the stage thusly about the changes in the media landscape compared to previous Olympics and offers the background of the TNMH campaign:

Well over 100 unofficial media folks are united under the True North Media House, a virtual media accreditation organization that’s aggregating content from bloggers and citizen journalists at the Games. The TNMH initiative also helps them coordinate and communicate with each other via a mailing list and #tnmh Twitter hashtag, while also serving as a point of aggregation for reporting and content.

{snip}

TRUE NORTH MEDIA HOUSE

Last Wednesday, an email went out on the True North Media House email list to let people know the group would be holding an “Olympic Hockey Tweetup” the following day between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. at a local club. “There will be an appearance by special guest Guy Kawasaki at about 8 p.m.,” the message said.

{Ed Note: The mentioned was just rebroadcast via True North Media House but was organized by another group}

Apart from a few organized events like that one, the people sporting TNMH badges have largely roamed Vancouver on their own, or in small groups. They go where they choose (and where security lets them) and report, photograph and tweet what they see. As a result, theTNMH news feed is an eclectic mix of content. It’s also spreading far and wide, according to Dave Olson, one of the organizers.

“What we’re starting to see now is people are getting their coverage up and out and distributed well before the mainstream media,” he said.

Olson, whose day job is the marketing/community director for Twitter client HootSuite, hatched the idea for TNMH with Robert Scales, who runs Raincity Sudios andVancouverAccess2010.com, and local photographer Kris Krüg, who is contributing photo essays to MediaShift during the Games.

{snip}

Now that the games are up and running, Olson said it’s a matter of letting the TNMH-accredited reporters go about their business, produce content, and see what happens. One surprise so far has been Aleks, a 5-year-old Vancouver boy who’s blogging about his Games experience with the help of his dad. He proudly wears his TNMH badge wherever he goes.

“We have people who four or five days ago didn’t self-identify as social media reporters, but they had a passion for photography or making videos,” Olson said. “Once the Games were on, they realized they see stuff no one else sees. A lot of people are just stepping up and saying they want to be a part of this.”

The reports in the TNMH news feed and discussion on #TNMH bring to mind the old saying that youth is wasted on the young. It’s hard to imagine professional media are bounding around with as much joy, delight and enthusiasm. Certainly, not having an assignment editor or producer harrassing you on deadline helps keep the TNMH crew happy. But you can’t help noticing how much fun they seem to having.

He continues to profile my compatriot John Biehler who produced exceptional quality and quantity of work during the Games:

BUSINESS ANALYST GETS ACCREDITED

John Biehler is an e-business analyst for an insurance company in Vancouver, but he’s also a self-described camera geek. He loves taking pictures and shooting video, and he shares his work on a blog and on Flickr.

Biehler booked off three weeks of vacation so he would be able to document the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and now spends his days and nights reporting on everything from the torch relay to tall ships and zip line rides. His videos and photos are available in a special Olympic section of his blog, but they’re also showing up in the news feed of True North Media House.

Biehler proudly wears his TNMH media accreditation badge around his neck, and is often stopped by people who ask what it means, and where he got it.

“Some of the [people wearing the badge] have been able to get past security and get into venues because security think it’s official,” he said. “They don’t know we printed them out on a home printer and went to Staples and got them laminated.”

And Mr. Silverman shared my point (for which i am very glad) that grassroots content creation is for documentation as much or moreso than reportage or journalism.

DOCUMENTATION OR JOURNALISM?

Biehler is enjoying a unique experience because he has both a TNMH pass and an official one from the BCIMC. He is among the lucky few bloggers and folks from online media outlets granted access to the province’s media center. For the most part, he said, the professional media folks have been welcoming.

“They seem to work more hours,” he said of the pros, “and it’s been interesting talking with them about what I’m doing and what I’m working on, and comparing gear. Even if they’re working for a big company we’re similar in that we’re just trying to figure out the best way to do something.”

Olson said TNMH is more about documentation than journalism.

“But we’ve taken great pains to educate people about journalistic standards and how to tell a mixed media story,” he said. (The resources section on the website offers a wealth of useful information.)
The night we spoke, Olson was rushing off to meet a group of hockey fans from Latvia, an experience he looked forward to documenting.

“How often do you get a chance to meet someone who has come halfway around the world to your city to enjoy something that you’re also passionate about?”

To which he could have added: and then share that experience with the world.

Again, be sure to read the entire article and related media at True North Media House, W2 Provide Citizen Media Hub at Olympics and thanks to Craig for spreading the story.

Bio: Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author, and the managing editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. Follow him on Twitter at @CraigSilverman.

True North Media + Olympics

What they’re ( not) saying about Paralympics via Vancouver Sun

What they’re ( not) saying about Paralympics

British press silent, social media drop off but ‘ definite improvement’ still noted

Vancouver Sun, BY GILLIAN SHAW gshaw@vancouversun.com


LYLE STAFFORD/ REUTERS
Alexandre Bilodeau’s gold medal — Canada’s first on home soil — received a massive amount of coverage.

When Vancouver blogger Rebecca Bollwitt was writing about the Olympics, traffic to her website grew 400 per cent.

It dropped back to normal levels with the extinguishing of the Olympic flame, where it has stayed even though Bollwitt is now writing about the Paralympics.

That may help explain why social media appear to be following the lead of many mainstream media outlets in reduced coverage of the Paralympics compared to the Olympics.

It’s an issue with no easy answers. Even as media and social media numbers drop for the Paralympics compared to last month‘ s Olympics, the optimist will see the increase in coverage from past Paralympics.

And both social media and the mainstream media added their voices to the call on CTV for more extensive broadcasting of Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies.

“ I would take a step back and think about what motivates the various media outlets,” said Marc-David Seidel, associate professor at the University of B. C.’ s Sauder School of Business organizational behaviour and human resources division. “ They want to sell papers, get eyeballs or whatever you want to call it.

“ In reality, social media has the same goal; they are both looking for audiences.”

Donovan Tildesley, a Paralympian and multiple-medal winner in swimming, would argue it is up to the mainstream and social media to help raise the profile of the Paralympics.

While some might say the size of the Paralympics – 650 athletes and 10 days of events compared to the Olympics’ 17 days and more than 2,600 athletes – is explanation enough for diminished coverage, Tildesley dismisses that. The profile being given the Paralympics speaks to its importance to media providers, he says.

“ I think there is definitely an improvement from past Games but by no means is it adequate,” he says. “ It is being covered more than it has been, but successes in the Paralympic Games seem to be pushed to the back of the news reports.

“ When Alexandre Bilodeau won his [ Olympic] gold medal it was the lead story on radio and TV. Yesterday when Brian McKeever won his gold medal it was 10 to 15 minutes into the [ CBC’s] World at Six.

“ It wasn’t the lead story. If they want to make it equal or parallel, as the Paralympics should be, it should be leading off the top of the news.”

In The Vancouver Sun, which produced both Paralympic and Olympic supplements, McKeever’s gold-medal performance, along with that of fellow Canadian Lauren Woolstencroft, was Tuesday’s front-page news.

It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg question. If Google searches are any indication, the Paralympics rank far below the Olympics in online interest.

But as Bollwitt points out, the fact that the Paralympic opening ceremony didn’t register as a Twitter trend compared to the Olympic opening that did could be explained by the lack of broadcast coverage.

“ It is not as widely televised so you are not getting people watching in Florida on NBC and tweeting about it,” she said. “ It would be great if it had the same kind of profile.

“ But I think more people are aware of the Paralympics in Vancouver than in any other year. It is still kind of a young event.”

Bollwitt, who is accredited to cover the Paralympics, said she’ll continue to write about them, despite the dwindled readership.

“ I write about stuff that may get zero comments and maybe two retweets but it still is important for me to get it out there,” she said.

It’s an attitude Tildesley would applaud.

“ If we want to understand more about the Games themselves and what these athletes go through, I think the media has the responsibility to take it upon themselves and make it the lead story,” he said. “ I think the mainstream media are just apprehensive because it means stepping out of their comfort zone, writing about something they are not convinced the public will consume.

“ What they don’t realize is that it is the only way to grow the movement from a grassroots movement to a mainstream movement.”

Tildesley says the public wants coverage of the Paralympics and there are indications both in mainstream and social media that some are ready to supply it.

A survey published in the United Kingdom after London won its bid for the 2012 Summer Games indicated 69 per cent of the U. K. public thought there should be more media coverage of the Paralympic Games.

However while February’s Olympics made headlines in U. K. papers – with some controversial coverage – a check of files turns up little in U. K. papers about the Paralympics.

One exception is a Guardian story, headlined: “ BBC criticized for scant coverage of Winter Paralympics.”

A tally of newspaper coverage shows mixed results. A search on Paralympics for The Vancouver Sun turned up 69 results in the Infomart database from opening day March 12 to Tuesday March 16. A search on Olympics from opening day Feb. 12 to Feb. 16 had 286 results, the proportion of stories close to the proportion of Paralympic competitors compared to Olympic competitors.

The Globe and Mail had 222 results for a search on the term Olympics between Feb. 12 and Feb. 16 and 15 results for Paralympics between March 12 and the 16th.

During the same period, an Infomart search of the New York Times turned up two results for Paralympics, while the term Olympics between Feb. 12 and Feb. 16 had 78 results.

The London Daily Mail turned up 40 hits on the term Olympics in stories from Feb. 12 to the 16th, while the opening of the Paralympics registered zero results. The Liverpool Echo had a single Paralympics story during that time, one about Merseyside marine and Paralympian Pete Dunning.

So is there cause for optimism that coverage is increasing?

Robert Scales, who organized a social media website for the Olympics, Vancouver Access 2010, argues that although social media coverage has dropped significantly with the Paralympics, a number of factors are involved. One is that South by Southwest, the largest social media event of the year, is being held in Texas this week.

On the other hand, accreditation for the Paralympics was much easier for bloggers to obtain, as Bollwitt, who wasn’t eligible for the top-level official Olympic media accreditation, found out.

Of the eight people who contributed to Vancouver Access during the Olympics, Scales said only three are left in Vancouver, with the others at SXSW. Even he hasn’t been using his Paralympic accreditation as planned because of injuries from a recent car accident.

Echoing in part what Tildesley suggested, Scales said the Paralympics may be outside the comfort zone of some. “ Yes, we are disappointed they are not getting the same attention,” he said of the Paralympics. “ Do they deserve the same attention?

“ Bloody hell, yes, they are heroes. They show the same endurance that any Olympian does – they are Olympians.”

True North Media + Olympics

Social Reporting from Vancouver 2010, Open Letter #3 via Vancouver Access 2010

Open Letter #3 – Social Reporting from Vancouver 2010

With the impending Olympics in sight, here’s an update on True North Media House’s ongoing campaign to encourage and inspire social reporting of the arts, civic and sports stories happening in Vancouver in February 2010. This missive also contains a Olympics Media Toolkit to prepare you for creating and publishing your documentation during the forthcoming events.

The True North Media House (TNMH) campaign began in earnest a couple years ago with the intent of starting a conversation about the role of social media at Vancouver/Whistler 2010 and to share experience from covering previous Olympic Games and other significant world events. Further, we aimed to gather info and experience for coverage of future games as well as having some enjoyment building international relationships and audiences. Here’s a recap of progress of the campaign objectives so far.

Spark the conversation

From the first video dispatch outside the Worldwide Press Briefing (and ORN Press Conference), TNMH aimed to introduce “social media/journalism/reporting” as a viable and vital enhancement to the accredited Olympic coverage. By inspiring and educating content creators, we felt unique stories – including often controversial civic and community concerns as well as lesser-known athletes – could find a larger audience.

Indeed, from the remarkable worldwide reaction to the first Open Letter to VANOC, the conversation took off across both “social” and “traditional” media outlets who looked to our experience and research to understand the ‘lay of the land’ for citizen coverage in this age of ubiquitous web publishing tools (much of which was recapped in the Open Letter #2). Since starting the conversation, several co-working spaces have opened their doors to visiting reporters and local-centric media outlets are soliciting documenters with a story to tell to contribute heralding a tremendous opportunity for grassroots journalism.

Within this conversation, we explored conundrums like: “What is media?” “What is allowed?” “What is encouraged?” “What sorts accreditations are available?” and “What are the stories no one else will be covering?”  We also researched IOC’s intellectual property federal legislation, Vancouver’s host city by-laws, VANOC’s brand protection policies, and what regular folks are able to do in light of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the recent Canadian Supreme Court decision regarding journalism. We then shared our findings with anyone who expressed interest.

Share best practices

Along this campaign, we’ve demonstrated and educated other about the tips and tactics learned by covering the past 3 Olympics on the ground. Along with the web publishing skills, we prepared a dossier of educational resources including original sources of laws and distilled this research to produce a Media Cans and Can’ts by interviewing diverse people with different points of view to define the grey area between IOC’s guidelines and a citizen’s right to self-expression.

The joy of covering world events comes from creating interesting content and publishing it to an enthused audience. My collaborators and I shared this passion and knowledge publicly with other community media organizations including presentations at Fresh Media at W2, Capilano College, Northern Voice, Vancouver Blogathon plus participation in Journalism that Matters, and dozens of other events about the nuts and bolts of publishing content within the new media paradigm. Additionally, my colleagues and I have mentored others about media literacy and creation including W2 Bladerunners program and Purple Thistle’s Youngunz program.

Pass it around

At their recent Copehagen congress, the assembled IOC members heard a lecture called “The Digital Revolution” in which Martin Sorrell explained the landscape of citizen coverageand admonished the IOC to adjust IP regulations to embrace fan-driven media creation, especially from the youth. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how rights-holding media embrace and deputize the “folks on the ground” to enrich their coverage. As background, the rights-holding media will have exclusive use of the IBC at Canada Place 2and a 2nd tier of accreditation will use the BC IMC at Robson Square.

By pro-actively welcoming and collaborating with social media making visitors to Vancouver, TNMH will spark locals to share their area knowledge beyond the standard tourist circuit to enhance visitor’s experience and share the true spirit of who we are as a community.

Further, by documenting all the operational and academic knowledge we gather, this campaign can pass info along to for evolving coverage in London and Sochi – along with social reporters and documenters at other world events. The same way, concerned citizens in Vancouver (and everywhere else) looked to citizen reporters for unique and forthright coverage of cataclysmic world events like the Iran election and Copenhagen climate summit, this is an opportunity to tell the world about the impact of this global event in the communities we know best.

Demonstrate openness

No matter what your personal opinions about the Games are, it is important to understand your rights to share your stories with an audience. This impartial view is very important as the Olympics coming to Vancouver raised a litany of controversies and divided the citizenry in many ways. However, whether you wish to protest or celebrate, the TNMH campaigns feels your story is important to share if you so choose.

While not always easy, the campaign has kept most all communication public, meetings accessible, and outreached to other organizing, security and media entities to plainly state intentions. In fact, the producers of “With Glowing Hearts” – a documentary film project exploring the intersection of social justice, social media and social change in Vancouver – attended many TNMH meetings, events and lectures to create a segment about the campaign which tells more of the backstory of our efforts – foibles and all.

Find the stories

World news stories are regularly broken and enhanced by regular people using new web tools but important to have context with the content. What will be the compelling stories which will live on for decades after the Games? What ground-breaking story will break on Twitter first? How will the protests and celebrations go-exist? Will Vancouver really turn into a “big brother” zone? How will visitors view Vancouver in light of the social issues affecting the DTES?

No matter what the stories are, this will be the first Olympics in which people may collectively have a voice as loud as huge media conglomerates to place these experiences in the proper cultural place.

Further, communities like Squamish are almost ignored as they are not “Official” Olympic cities and/or some visitors may hesitate to trek out to suburban events like the Olympic live sites in Surrey. TNMH will provide a context to organize field trips to meet one another and share skills and find compelling stories beyond the athletic events.

A Moveable Feast

With prevalent wi-fi and data networks, “space” is less important than in years past. Like the stories themselves, social media making is a distributed experience. Rather than one physical location, the TNMH campaign will continue from a variety of locations throughout the Games.

Throughout the Olympic fortnight, TNMH will be a “moveable feast” with photowalks, museums trips, impromptu interviews, and meet-ups at international hospitality houses. Encouraging a smorgasbord of activities will leave room for exploring the issues of concern, developing international friendship,  and fostering spontaneous journalistic and artistic collaboration.

If you have a museum, hospitality house, commercial enterprise, symposium, or event and would like share your message with an audience, consider hosting a TNMH meetup event and inviting a group of blogger, photographers, podcasters, videographers, etc. to spread your news. Fill out the contact form or ping @tnmh on Twitter with details and we’ll add to theTNMH Event Calendar.

It’s all of us

The True North Media House is wherever you are and what you make it. It’s all of us making the people’s history. For me personally, the idea of sharing grassroots coverage of the Olympics began in Nagano pre-Olympics, blossomed in SLC 2002 and grew working on innovative coverage with my collaborators during Torino 06 and Beijing 08 ~ Now, with all the jamboree in our backyard, I can’t wait to see what we produce together in Vancouver/Whistler 2010.

2010 Social Reporter Toolbox

To prepare for documenting your Olympic experience, here’s a reading list and handy resources (Note: This toolbox will become a growing resource page – for additions, please submit info via contact form or ping @tnmh on Twitter):

Reporting resources

The Cans and Can’ts of Media During the Olympics on True North Media House

TNMH resources including IOC, VANOC, City of Vancouver and more

Independent Reporters Guide to 2010 on Rabble.ca

IOC’s Internet Guidelines for Written Press and other Non-Rights Holding Media (.pdf)

2010Vanfan’s Olympic Venue map

Vancouver wi-fi map (thanks Noah)

Vancouver host city “getting around”

Co-working spaces

For media makers needing a desk and/or equipment, physical work space is abundant – here are a few to investigate:

BOB co-working centre – Building Opportunities through Business program has a drop-in co-working space and is hosting some CODE activities

Network Hub – a entreptrenuraial co-working space renting desks by hour or month

W2’s Media Arts Centre (also hosting the Legal Observers program) – call for pricing details

BC International Media Centre – run by the provincial secretariat and hosting some accredited trad. and social media outlets

Beyond these resources are dozens of coffee shops, bars and studios from which to work – see wi-fi map.

Publishing outlets

Several Vancouver-centric media outlets are welcoming writers, photographers to publish content to their communities – inclusion in this list is not necessarily an endorsement, research to find a publishing home which best fits for your interests and work.

Vancouver Observer Olympics – Contribute

Rabble.ca – Interested in covering the 2010 Olympic Games? email: editor [@] rabble.ca

Now Public Olympics channel + photo pool

Orato – hiring online journalists

Media Co-Op /Dominion Olympics

Get your own free WordPress blog

Bonus reading

Bob Mackin’s 2010 Gold Rush – reporter with full access and experience covering Olympic Games

Kris Krug “Doin’ it for the love – Reflection on the future” essay from Journalism that Matters conference

Vancouver blogger Miss 604’s Olympic coverage

@KK Vancouver 2010 Olympics Twitter list

“Social Media and the Olympics” panel video from Northern Voice

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Roundtable video

OlyBlog.com – Maurice Cardinal’s punditry

TNMH social bookmarks on Delicious

Stay in Touch

Social search for “True North Media House” and/or “TNMH”  content (RSS)

Public Mailing list group

TNMH Twitter

TNMH Media contact

Extra Thanks

Along with other organizational compatriots who contributed in meaningful ways along the journey, Sixty4Media.com and Catalyst Internet contributed key design and development efforts, consider these fine companies for your web development needs.

True North Media + Olympics

“Crowd Powered Media and the 2010 Olympics” via Techvibes Blog

Aside

Crowd Powered Media and the 2010 Olympics – Techvibes Blog

Article from Techvibes’s Victoria Revay about social media production at Vancouver 2010 Olympics with specific name-checks for Robert Scales and Now Public (used to be a great community powered news site).

Shared below for context, posterity and permanent record.

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Vancouver’s Nowpublic and self-described gonzo journalist, Robert Scales (head of Raincity Studios) are both in the Tyee today.  They’re discussing citizen journalism, crowd powered news and the inevitable mixture of social media tools and the Olymics.

There’s no doubt come 2010, Vancouver will be a media circus. On top of the 10,000 accredited media anticipated by VANOC, a further 3,000 “unaccredited” passes will be issued by the British Columbia International Media Centre. Scales was accepted into this second group, and plans to show up at Robson Square Plaza each day for official briefings and meetings with other reporters — though he’ll be barred from all Olympic venues. As thrilled as he was to receive access, he’s concerned that untold legions of bloggers, citizen journalists and tech-savvy spectators won’t benefit from the same resources.

Other than the usual arguments made for and against the use of citizen journalists to cover 2010, the article also talks about Scales’ efforts to get a social media hub called The True North Media House established.  As well, Michael Geist weighs in about boosting ad revenues.

Networks need viewers to sell advertising, so the more people engaged with the Olympics, the more potential revenue..so they ought to recognize that there’s great opportunities to increase interest in their broadcasts.

I don’t recall many people discussing using ad-hoc video recordings to make money, especially when you’re uploading it for free to a site that doesn’t have online advertising…interesting read.

SXSW x 2

SXSW 2010 Vancouver-Centric Voting Guide

8 Comments

Uncleweed breaks it down with Fuck St@ts, Make Art SXSW 2009
Uncleweed breaks it down with Fuck St@ts, Make Art SXSW 2009
~ Copy/Edit by Chooglyte: Felix Ruttan

This SXSW PanelPicker voting guide is here to bring you up to speed; Vote ends September 4th, anyone can vote,  & signing up is quick and painless over at the SXSW 2010 account creation page.

The peoples weigh in for 30% of the whole SX-bang; And that’s anyone & everyone, even if you’re not planning to attend SXSW 2010. After seeing some of these events, you’ll have plans.

Dave Olson SXSW 2010

Signed up? Check out uncleweed’s solo panel “Hitchiking to the Boardroom”; “An inter-disciplinary conversation distills a decade of working odd jobs in 20+ countries, followed by 14 years of Internet biz endeavors, into unique problem-solving skills as well as inspire attendees with a replenished toolbox of usable tactics”.

Kris Krug/KK and Bev Davis join Dave for “Rock N Roll Photography” 2010. This panel explores how bands and photographers can work together (technically & creativity) to produce images which enhance the artist/fan relationship.

Check out the F@ck Stats, Make Art SXSW 2009 wrap-up elsewhere in the Feast House.

Vancouverites @ SXSW 2010

Robert Scales examines the local movement to secure our right to cover of the Olympic Games in Vancouver with “Social Media and the Olympics: A Case Study”.

John Biehler’s spotlights “the importance of co-creating with your users from a design, business, and user perspective”: “Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?”.

“Whuffaoke and the Magic of the Magic Bus” preps you for an epic, geeked out in the best possible way, roadtrip; Mostly by recounting an epic, geeked out roadtrip via bus converted into a mobile party.

“Your Content is You, Your Website is Dead” & “Listening the the Internet: Online Media Monitoring” by KK gives you a crash course in being awesome on the New Social Nets.

Joy Gugeler pushes to upgrade bandwidth between Print & Web Publishers in “Make Friends with Cannibals: Linking Print & Online Publishers.”

Tara Hunt aims to remind us how rad Karaoke is, and why you should go do it. Right. Now. “Don’t Stop Believin: Why Karaoke WILL Change the World”

SXSW 2010 Music + Film + Interactive + You! March 12th-21st
SXSW 2010 Music + Film + Interactive + You! March 12th-21st

What’s Next For You?

sixty4media’s darling Rebecca Bollwitt has put together an awesome list “SXSWi PanelPicker – Vancouverites to Look For”, linking even more local talent (who will soon join the list).

With that in mind, don’t hesitate to start your own dig for SXSW 2010, Interactive, Film, and Music faves. Comment with your picks, and not just Vancouver-oriented — Web wide! We’d love to source a huge list of quality entrees; Rep yourself, your fam & friends!

Vote up your faves!

Updates-post-Publish:

Eve And The Serpant What Went Wrong by Pinny Gniwisch, the man behind ice.com.

SXSW x 2

F@ck Stats, Make Art spiel at SXSWi 2009 – Round-up Jamboree

8 Comments
Art is the Future.
Art Makes the Future. Art is the Future by KK.

F@ck Stats, Make Art at SXSWi 2009

I presented my soliloquy for personal expression called “F@ck Stats, Make Art” on March 13 at SXSW in Austin, TX as a Core Conversation. While I was spieling, I couldn’t help to recall all the others times I’ve stood before groups – from Rotarians to Mormons to Deadheads to strangers on buses to students in Germany – to tell my stories.

When I spoke about my ole dead Gramps from whom I heard I alot of tall tales, I realized that so many of the mundane and amusing talks I’ve busted out at one time or another were all coming together in that room. Thanks to everyone who listened while the stories were in development and when they were really happening.

To everyone who showed up, Thanks. To everyone who came up for a hug and a kind word to to show off their hero/project/metaphor cards – big thanks. I feed off of you to lay it all open. I gotta trust you or I can’t tell it real-style.

DIY Analog Power Point
DIY Analog Power Point by Unkown – did you take this?

At the risk of waiting any longer to post *everything*, here is an evolving wrap-up of the related content from F@ck Stats Make Art at SXSW 09. Consider dropping a vote for my pitches for SXSW10:

You may also enjoy this recap of F@ck Stats, Make Art at Northern Voice 2008 and this podcast episode SXSW Stories from Middle Earth – Choogle On #79 in which i both preview and recap SXSW09, finally, here are all my SXSW 2008 Choogle on podcasts – 6 episodes to soak in the chaotic flavour of the music and parties. What’s next? I have a closet full of stories – literally. I plan to tell them. Perhaps a tour, more books, more artifacts – Wanna help spread this message of tolerance, translucency and creativity? Subscribe to Choogle On! podcast.

Photo Slidedeck

I didn’t use this deck in the prezo but it includes most of the photos in the envelopes of Heroes, Metaphors and Projects.

Treats! Photo By James Chutter
Treats! Photo By James Chutter

Twitter updates

@SimpleScott : #sxsw insight #2: “be tolerant and translucent” – Dave Olson

@SquanderingTime : I think the food thing needs to happen before the next set of talks. Btw, the fuck stats make art talk was incredible.#sxsw

@MezzoBlue : @uncleweed‘s “F@&$ Stats, Make Art” was so compelling I forgot to check Twitter for an hour. #sxsw

@MeJayne : http://twitpic.com/22fk0 – MoJo talk’n tasty nuggz with rockstar Dave Olson, preacher of truth and rebellion

@SarahDavies : “Even if you’re one in a million, find the 300 other Americans just like you, and have a party!” – Dave Olson #sxsw

@LeslieBradshaw : At my first session, from Dave Olson: “embrace translucency” (not everything about you is interesting) #sxsw

@AustinJardinera : Inspired by Dave Olson to try presenting stories to customers via arts and crafts projects #sxsw

@TexasBrat : #sxsw F*&K stats make art tolerance & translucency makes people able to get along and share with others ~Dave Olsen @TexasBrat was rocked the coverage of the spiel! Check these: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven! whoa!

Clever? Express with Vigor!
Think you’re clever? Express with Vigor! (I Love Fish Tacos) by KK

Blog etc.

CAN YOUR LIFE’S WORK BE DIGITAL? (Sarah Davies)

Is there a digital Thoreau? Will we discover a currently neglected philosophy blogger in a hundred years and suddenly realize that we ignored someone whose ideas would come to change the world? SXSW Diary – Friday (Pete Ashton) It worked for me because he’s sort of a fellow traveller having done the zine thing. I’m still processing my thoughts but it tied in with some thinking I’ve been doing about what I might end up getting involved with next…

jewgonewild @ identi.ca Watching David Olsen put on a robe.. lol (look closely) # http://pikchur.com/pan Kris Krug @ Friendfeed Looks like Dave Olson’s ‘Fuck Stats Make Art’ talk is gonna be standing room only. Come be a part of history. ;) #uncleweed #fbombs #sxsw

Catchin a buzz with Elvis by Michael Barnes
Catchin’ a buzz with Elvis by Michael Barnes

Photos

Do you have photos from F@ck Stats, Make Art at SXSW 2009? Please tag them “uncleweed” and “fsma” “sxsw09” or something and i’ll pick ’em up.

Kris Krug – Dave Olson – Fuck Stats Make Art – SXSW 2009 – photoset – see above for samples

James Chutter – Dave Olson Reads Thoreau

Dave Olson's Tickle Trunk by James Chutter Treats from Dave Olson by James Chutter Dave Olson's analog slide show by James Chutter Dave Olson Reads Rousseau by James Chutter F@ck Stats, Make Art by James Chutter

John Biehler – SXSW09 SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler SXSW 2009 by John Biehler Dave Olson and Robert Scales at YVR by James Chutter SXSW 2009 by John Biehler

Love these annotations by So Misguided, Monique Trottier

F**K Stats, Make Art by So Misguided

+ Joey Zornes – Dave Olsen at SXSW

Remix

Mojo makes a slide about Transluscency
Mojo makes a slide about Transluscency
Mojo Remixes Art Make the Future or a slide deck
Mojo Remixes Art Make the Future or a slide deck

Special Thanks To John Biehler, Peter Andersen, Jeremy Crowle for helping me bring it all together – and to all of you who took the time to show up and/or rate the prezo.

Ratings (not Stats)
Stats?! Fuck em’… Ratings on the other hand…

Hero/Project/Metaphor cards

Make your own from the attached .pdf (attribution, non-commercial use only – note: while I took most of the photos, some photos’ origins are unknown or undocumented but presumed to be in public domain-ish). {coming}

What Else? You tell me @uncleweed

True North Media + Olympics

Citizen Journalists Poised to Reinvent Olympics ‘News’ via Mediacheck :: thetyee.ca

Aside

Citizen Journalists Poised to Reinvent Olympics ‘News’ :: Mediacheck :: thetyee.ca

Article about social media making at Olympics in Vancouver’s TheTyee.ca by Geoff Dembicki, Mar. 23, 2009. Features Robert Scales and Kris Krug and their exploits in China during Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Shared in full for context, posterity and permanent record.

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‘You cannot stop people from recording’: Raincity’s Robert Scales.

‘You cannot stop people from recording’: Raincity’s Robert Scales.Robert Scales stands on a bustling Chinese sidewalk and waves a thin, greenish stick in front of the camera. “We’re at the street food market,” he says. “And this is snake.”

He takes a bite. Strings of white flesh stretch taut from his mouth. “It tastes like squid almost, or something.”

During the Beijing Summer Games, Scales walked the streets with cameras in hand, capturing the sights and sounds of a city gripped by Olympics frenzy.

He shot dozens of YouTube videos, wrote a fan diary for the BBC and uploaded daily photos to Flickr. He wanted to share his experiences with the world.

When Vancouver’s own Olympics hit town next year, the self described “gonzo journalist” and head of locally based social media company Raincity Studios wants to do it all again.

But this time around, Scales will be part of a phenomenon on the verge of breaking huge.

Internet rules more lax than in China and a rapid proliferation of recording devices and open-source websites could mark a turning point for social media — a prospect that has some of Vancouver’s most active new media pioneers counting down the days.

“2010 is the junction,” Scales told The Tyee. “I’m a fervent believer that that moment in time is going to change how we play this game.”

What is social media?

In the shift from traditional media forms to something entirely new, crowd-generated content is everything. On sites such as Facebook, Flickr, and Blogspot, hundreds of millions of people connect daily to share personal experiences and document the world around them.

Kris Krug, a colleague of Scales’ who blogged the Olympics in Torino and Beijing, said the idea of social media is as old as the Internet itself — and changing just as fast. He traced a clear line through pre-Internet bulletin boards to community forums in the ’90s — from the first wave of blogging in the early 2000s to multimedia platforms such as YouTube. And most recently, the real-time updates of Twitter and Facebook.

If today’s numbers are any indication, the trend is growing exponentially. Technorati has indexed 133 million blogs since 2002, Facebook boasts over 175 million active users and YouTube draws enough Americans each month to dwarf domestic Superbowl ratings.

The open source explosion is being fueled by an abundance of smart phones — advanced mobile devices often featuring Internet and video — which have made it simpler than ever to enter the public dialogue.

“Things are getting easier, cheaper, faster and more ubiquitous,” Krug said. “If you can publish a video report to your blog in real-time you essentially have a television station in your pocket.”

Why Beijing wasn’t a turning point

When Krug and Scales attended the 2006 Games in Torino, the world of social media was just awakening to its potential. High-speed Internet and record bandwidth allocation made it possible to publish videos of informal street hockey games and informal interviews with Canadians abroad.

But the technology and the amount of people using it wasn’t quite advanced enough to propel social media coverage into the mainstream, Krug said.

In the years to follow, a Wi-Fi boom and the wide-scale adoption of mobile units such as the iPhone — which has sold roughly 13.7 million units since its 2007 debut — blew the door open for real-time events coverage.

As the Beijing Olympics approached, it looked like social media could be poised to transform the way big events are documented. The Summer Games did see an unprecedented level of amateur coverage, but Internet restrictions limited its impact.

Bloggers, podcasters, cell phone videographers and social network users were dismayed to find that China blocked platforms such as WordPress and Blogspot, while Facebook access was unreliable, Krug said.

“They crushed the infrastructure which the social media movement is built on,” he said. “While the technology had advanced from Torino, and the amount of people doing it there had advanced from Torino, I don’t think we quite saw Beijing fully harness the power of the age that is available.”

A new model for news coverage?

Four years ago, Vancouver local Michael Tippett started NowPublic.com with the goal of building the world’s largest news organization. These days, his site is a global locus of citizen journalism, with 170,000 members and up to 60,000 contributors each month.

The concept is a mix of social and information networks, where amateur news creators armed with their own recording technology share videos, photos and written reports from all corners of the planet.

At its best, this sort of coverage is more timely and visceral than traditional outlets can offer, Tippett said. When armed extremists gunned down tourists and residents in Mumbai last fall, live Twitter updates and on-the-scene footage brought the carnage to the world. In its 2008 wrap-up, NowPublic ranked the attacks as the most important user-generated news story of the year.

“You’re finding that stories as they break are being told by people on the ground,” Tippett said.

During the 2010 Games, anyone with a personal-recording device and an eye for breaking news can upload content to NowPublic. The site will also feature the sort of coverage Scales and Krug have helped pioneer for the past two Games: tourists experiencing Chinatown for the first time, on-the-street interviews with family members of competing athletes. “There are no limits,” Tippett said, “as long as it’s quality.”

“What happens to the overflow?”

There’s no doubt come 2010, Vancouver will be a media circus. On top of the 10,000 accredited media anticipated by VANOC, a further 3,000 “unaccredited” passes will be issued by the British Columbia International Media Centre.

Scales was accepted into this second group, and plans to show up at Robson Square Plaza each day for official briefings and meetings with other reporters — though he’ll be barred from all Olympic venues. As thrilled as he was to receive access, he’s concerned that untold legions of bloggers, citizen journalists and tech-savvy spectators won’t benefit from the same resources.

“What happens to the overflow?” Scales asked. “Are they not entitled to cover the same stories? Are they not entitled to have a space to collaborate?”

For the past few months, Scales and Krug have participated in talks aimed at starting an alternative media centre. The True North Media House is still a work in progress, but could see 500 Games-time passes issued to everyone from international broadcasters to figure skating bloggers. Scales and Krug envision a social media hub where pros and amateurs trade sources, avail themselves of speedy upload technology and gain access to First Nations, protest and cultural groups outside of conventional channels.

“There’s going to be all these people who aren’t sports journalists who are here to figure out what Vancouver’s about,” Krug said. “The centre is about harnessing all these individuals doing alternative or outsider coverage of the Games.”

Up against the IOC

Advocates of social media often portray citizen-led coverage as a phenomenon that takes place outside traditional outlets. But come Games-time, official broadcasters still get to call the shots.

This year, the CTV-Rogers Olympic consortium caused jaws to drop when it paid the highest price in Canadian history to broadcast the 2010 Olympics. For $90 million (U.S.), the group secured exclusive rights to air events and results in Canada — and a squadron of IOC lawyers.

In the lead-up to the Beijing Games, the committee released a set of blogging guidelines — to be updated in April — that recognized the legitimacy of the medium, but placed restrictions on its scope.

“The dissemination of moving images of the Games through any media, including display on the Internet, is a part of the IOC’s intellectual property rights,” say the rules.

“The IOC reserves the right to take any and all other measure(s) it deems fit with respect to infringements of these Guidelines, including taking legal action for monetary damages and imposing other sanctions.”

If material coming out of the True North Centre falls into IOC crosshairs, Scales will be quick to comply with official orders. But given the realities of today’s social media landscape, the IOC may end up fighting a losing battle.

“You cannot stop people from taking pictures with their cell phones, you cannot stop people from recording,” Scales said. “It’s too much. There’s no way they’ll be able to monitor it all.”

Support social media, boost ad revenues

Rather than limit the amount of social media coverage coming out of the Games, the IOC and official broadcasters should encourage it, argued Michael Geist, a leading expert in digital policy and law based at the University of Ottawa.

His reasoning is simple. Networks need viewers to sell advertising, so the more people engaged with the Olympics, the more potential revenue.

“They ought to recognize that there’s great opportunities to increase interest in their broadcasts,” Geist said.

The main argument against them is that amateur recordings could erode the Olympic brand and steal viewers from rights holders. But Geist countered there’s little chance a grainy cell phone video of a Games event can compete with the official high-definition footage broadcast from coast to coast.

So instead of wasting resources in a broad clampdown, he said, organizers should push athletes, spectators and bloggers to document their own eye-level Games experiences, and aggregate the content on an ad-friendly platform.

To date, VANOC and the IOC have been unreceptive to a Games-sponsored social media website, Scales said. But the social media phenomenon is gaining so much momentum, he thinks it’s only a matter of time before organizers recognize the inevitable.

“The trend is going to be massive,” he said. “Just as was the adoption of the cell phone and the microwave and the automobile.”

Related Tyee stories:

 

True North Media + Olympics

Blogging for the 2010 Games Expert says IOC has no on-line strategy

Aside

Blogging for the 2010 Games – Expert says IOC has no on-line strategy February 22 2009, By Erin Loxam

Note: Article shared here in full for historical record. Original article link is broken, as such, accessed from Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, Feb. 2017.  Posted with original publication date to place in context.

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – When the world comes to town for the 2010 Games, the media spotlight won’t just be on the competitions.

Robert Scales, a social media expert, explains bloggers will get to add their say about many things not medal and performance related.

He says rights-holders have different priorities.

“They will tend to focus on the result, on the activity, on the story behind getting that gold medal versus citizen journalism, because of the restrictions they have.  They will only take the approach of looking at the culture, at the art scene, at the downtown eastside poverty issue.”

He adds the IOC hasn’t used the Internet to their advantage so far, with no real strategy in place for online content.

Among those rights-holders is News1130, Vancouver’s official radio station for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

True North Media + Olympics

Northern Voice 2009 Citizen Media and the Olympics – notes by Miss604

Link

Northern Voice 2009 Citizen Media and the Olympics Robert Scales and Andy Miah via Miss604.com, February 21, 2009, Rebecca Bollwitt

NOTE: Respectfully shared in full for historical record and educational use. Original links and date intact for context.

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The first Northern Voice 2009 session following lunch in room 1005 here at the UBCForestry Sciences building is Robert Scales (of Raincity fame) along with Dr Andy Miah, whose various credits include writing for the Huffington Post during the 2008 Beijing Olympics (he also came all the way here from Scotland, just for this!)


Photo from Beijing last summer: Scales on Flickr

Update: With the network issues I will attempt to update real-time but if that doesn’t work I’ll take notes and publish them here as soon as I’m back online.

Update: I have just been informed that there is a full panel for this talk, including DaveOas well who just blew on a big red horn to get our attention. “Michael Phelps has got nothing on these lungs.”

Debbi Lander came here from England as she is on the Cultural Committee for London 2012.

“I’m going to have the chance to see the third Olympics in Canada,” says Scales as he leads off the presentation. He gives us a run through of Canadian Olympic moments and says he’s definitely a fan.

Scales

He went to Turin in 2006 as independent media (through the non-accredited media centre) along with Kris Krug and covered it from a local perspective ie. hockey in the streets, and the impact on local culture. In 2008 he went to Beijing, which was a small leap from the Raincity offices in Shanghai. He was able to collaborate and create a document about the spirit of the Olympics with various research. Scales attended various events including achieving one of his goals of seeing Olympic fencing. As a result, the BBC picked up some of his work and asked him to write an Olympic diary. When he returned to Vancouver he opened more dialogue with VANOC and eventually became accredited through the BC International Media Centre. With that, a representative from the BCIMC comes up for a quick talk about how Olympics

“The international media centre for the 2010 Games will be at Robson Square,” and he says he’s been faced with how to accredit bloggers, “let me tell you that we’re not there yet,” but they are working on it. “We do want folks to register.”

January 29th 2010 the media centre will open and will have an auditorium about the size of the one we’re in. The majority of the money for the media centre will be spent on the pipe – so everyone can get information in and out as quickly as possible.

Update: Scales now moves on to the London 2012 Games and introduces Andy who is a professor in ethic and emerging technologies at the University of the West of Scotland. He discusses ambush media and marketing ie. billboards that are not sponsored by Olympic sponsors are left empty. As a side note, I think Seattle’s Best Coffee has the rights for 2010 so Starbucks shops near venues such as Whistler Village will have to cover their signs — don’t quote me on this but I believe this is one of Andy’s points. Sort of like how GM Place will now be Canada Hockey Place for two weeks in 2010.

Ambush media consists of things like “reversing the direction of interrogation towards traditional media and then broadcasting the results often before traditional media.” I just found this presentation on Slideshare, which contains more information:

Ambush Media: Journalistic Freedom and Media Politics at the Beijing Olympics

Andy says that in the short term social media can make a bigger impact than the traditional outlets. He also discusses branding and brand protection ie. the London 2012 logo being used for a Facebook group. “The Games time is remarkably different than the years before it, leading up to it.”

Update: DaveO is up next talking about his experience living in Japan in the pre-Nagano times as well as his time in Utah for the Salt Lake City Winter Games, catching 28 events in 13 days.


Don Cherry in Salt Lake City wearing Dave’s hat: Dave on Flickr

Dave’s coverage was a marathon of photos and video, he was able to catch moments and “microcosms of events” that were taking place and not getting covered ie. the first Olympian from Nepal at the Winter Games. He also describes heading to an Olympic media briefing and being immediately told, “the protesters are over there across the street.” Dave said it sucked because “we’re not journalist-y enough to hang out with the journalists and we’re not protest-y enough to hang out with the protesters.” He says “we’re not here to live stream the women’s figure skating in prime time,” that’s not the idea. “We own as much of the culture about the olympics as the IOC does,” says Dave. “People are coming and i plan to welcome them and make cool stuff.”

world. Update: “Every host nation has the responsibility to push the boundaries of one aspect of the Games,” says Debbi who is up last on the panel. “When the handover happened from Beijing to London they opened a Flickr channel although it wasn’t open to users yet, there was simply a chat.” She says there’s a willingness to bring it into the centre but they’re also discussing if that’s appropriate and “if that can exist in a parallel universe”.

When the handover happened from Beijing to London they opened a Flickr channel although it wasn’t open to users yet, there was simply a chat. “I don’t want to put four years into something that no one wants to ever get to hear about.” She will be working with the ANDFestival, check it out for more details.

Northern Voice x 11, True North Media + Olympics

Citizen Media and the 2010 Olympics – Video from Northern Voice 2009

Video 1 Comment

From Northern Voice 2009 comes a fast paced and intensive discussion about the role of Social Media in the Olympics . The roster featured Robert Scales, Andy Miah PhD, Kris Krug, myself (Dave Olson) and others from BC IMC and Cultural Olympiad.

Note: Much happened after this video so visit the True North Media House articles to see how it all worked out.

Video Notes:

Bruce Sharpe – who shot, edited and posted the video – sets the up piece thusly,

“Coverage of the Olympic Games is dominated by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) contracted rights-holder and accredited major media conglomerates. However some feel there is a role for crowdsourced documentation of both sporting events and the cultural context in which it happens.

This expert panel discusses changes, challenges, and opportunities facing grassroots media makers around the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.”

Citizen Media and the 2010 Olympics from Singular Software on Vimeo.