This happened
Next week, I head to Nanjing, where I will be the social media mentor for the IOC's Young Reporters programme at the Youth Olympic Games. 35 amazing young reporters from around the world will come together to learn how to report the Games, hearing from some of the world's best, including the current Press Chief of Rio 2016. It's going to be a lot of work, but a real blast I am sure. Here's a little montage selfie video I made of them all...
Over the last 2 years, I have got to know a number of remarkable photographers via the International Olympic Committee. It seems to me that sport photography is one of the most challenging subjects to really shoot well and shoot in an original way. I was glad to have a chance to be track side at the IAAF World Junior Championships this week to spend some time thinking about this side of my photography and practising a bit. Here's what I came up with...
This week, I was at the IAAF World Juniors, road testing Google Glass as a reporting tool. It was especially cool to compare stories with World Champion Ato Boldon, also a Glass owner. The young athletes at the competition were so keen to try out Glass after the media training we gave. Part of my message to them was to become early adopters, so they don't get left behind. We are witnessing a new era of digital interactions and wearable technology prototypes, like Google Glass, are just the beginning. Here is a short video showing how the athletes got on trying Google Glass for the first time.
This week, I am at the IAAF World Junior Chamionships in the USA to give social media training to athletes. Other trainers include the former world champion sprinter Ato Boldon, Olympic champion Joanna Hayes, and Canada's legendary Charmaine Crooks. Very excited Here's the programme: • Introduction and moderator Charmaine Crooks • The dos and don’ts of social media Professor Andy Miah • Being an Olympic champion – how to cope with the media’s pressure Joanna Hayes • Athletics and television – opportunities and perspectives Ato Boldon Followed by media training and questions & answers
Last weekend, I went to the Welsh festival Wakestock as an official photographer. here are some of the goods...
I recently joined the Google Glass Explorer community, after having spent the last few months working on a couple of papers about Glass. Planning a little film project around the experience and a whole bunch of other stuff. Watch this space.
In July, I ran a social media and sport workshop at #ECSS2014. Here's a video made from the congress, where I talk a bit about social media...
And here's the prezi from the workshop...
I have just published a new article with Dr Emma Rich, which writes about how we should think about the rise of mHealth. It is published in the Open Access journal societies, so it's free to download. Here's the abstract:
This month, I was asked by All Media Scotland to collate my top 10 digital platforms. this is part of a series of top 10s they have done with media practitioners. I chose to focus on the things I have discovered in the last year or so, which are taking my practice in new directions. Here's my list on their website.
This week, I was in Paris for a meeting convened by the International Olympic Committee's Head of Media Operations Anthony Edgar and outgoing IOC Press Commission Chair Kevin Gosper. It took place at AFP Paris and focused on the future of sports and news reporting. As a private meeting, it aims to set out key priorities for the IOC to consider around the future needs of the press at the Olympics. Debates were open and the climate of the meeting aimed to promote sharing among what otherwise might be seen as competing organizations. It's a really unique meeting and it was a privilege to speak there for the second time running.
This week, I was in Plymouth giving a public lecture on social media and sport. The lecture spanned wearable technology such as Google Glass to virtual reality simulations.
Keynote talk for the conference titled Social Media Analysis: Methods and Ethics, which took place at Glasgow University. My lecture was titled Mobile Media & Morality: Cultivating Ethical Sensitivity in Social Media Research.
It is a rare thing for me to be invited to speak at a Science Fiction convention, but this year I was asked to present my research within the George Hay memorial lecture slot within this Easter science fiction convention. It was a real delight to be present at this meeting and I had such a great time. I hope I get asked again some time soon! My talk was titled 'How to make your own superhero: Science, Morality and the Politics of Human Enhancement,' and it was especially nice because the event took place in Glasgow.
The Sport Accord Convention is talked about as the United Nations of Sport, where all Federations come together. This was my second year of being a speaker at the Convention and I chaired a session called the 'Youth Club'. It was the first time ever that the Convention had put together something like this and the average age of panel members was approximately 23 years old. It was a great session and the feedback was awesome.
A video I produced for @UWScreative.
Lecture made at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, produced for University of Bath
A video talk for Taylor & Francis Group, Australia journal Editors' roundtable event.
Piece first published in Inside the Games
The Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympics may go down in history as having been one of the most ambitious and accomplished of all time. The complexity and sophistication puts it on a par with the Lillehammer 1994 Games, which is widely regarded to have been a Winter opening without rival.
But there was one problem that became the focus of attention after the ceremony finished. You might not have noticed it if you were watching on television, as the delay from live to broadcast meant that a rapid replacement of prior footage could wallpaper over what really happened.
In the segment when the Olympic Rings were being spectacularly visualised from gigantic snowflakes, one of them failed to expand and achieve its circular form.
So what? You may say. In the press conference that followed, it was apparent that this was a source of frustration for the organisers, who implored reporters to focus on their achievements instead of this tiny failure. The artistic director even said that this was one of the simplest technical moments in the Ceremony.
However, there is good reason why reporters will focus on it, as the presentation of the Olympic Rings is the second most important symbolic moment in the Ceremony, after the lighting of the Cauldron.
It wasn't always like this. In years gone by, the Rings would have just been erected within the stadium from the start of the show. However, in recent years, this segment has become a moment where the hair will stand up on the back of your neck and that moment was lost, at least for those who were in the stadium, which included Vladimir Putin, who was sitting next to International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach and not far from UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon.
So, the significance of this moment is easy to understand. After all, as much as the Games are about the athletes, they are also significantly about those Rings. The entire economic foundation of the movement relies on their sale to the highest bidder. The success of the Games rises and falls on the basis of who has the right to use the Rings.
Thus, the rings have come to symbolise more than just the Olympic values and so their failure to be properly visualised during the Opening Ceremony is to compromise the integrity of that powerful symbol. It is equivalent to the Olympic Cauldron failing to ignite. This need not mean embarrassment but it does mean that an important moment was lost for Sochi.
It would be unfair for the world to judge the artistic merit of the Ceremony on the basis of this one technical fault. Art may deserve a bit more flexibility in terms of how we evaluate success, compared to sport, where only perfection matters.
However, what took place also means that we cannot award the organisers a perfect 10 for their delivery, even if it was the best Opening Ceremony of all time. But at least that means that the next host city has something to strive for how, beyond Sochi 2014.
Besides, the beauty of television means that it won't be difficult for the Olympic organisers to easily dodge international commentary on what happened. For the majority of viewers - and for the record - it never happened.
In recent months, there has been a lot of talk about Russian law and homosexuality. Much of it has centered on international outrage at a change in legislation which, for many countries, would be a return to a very dark and depressing era in humanity's history, where non-heterosexual lifestyles were seen as something to hide or feel ashamed about.
Some political leaders are not attending the Sochi 2014 Olympics, it is thought, because of these anxieties about human rights. Yet, the time for debate is now over. As the Games begin, the only question remaining is what will happen to an athlete if they do anything to express their sexuality while at the Games.
The IOC's position on political manifestation at the Games is pretty unambiguous: the Games are apolitical and any action to politicize the Games is likely to be met with disciplinary action by the athlete's National Olympic Committee. This happened in 1968 when Smith and Carlos each raised a black gloves fist on the podium on behalf of African-American civil rights. They were subsequently removed from the team.
Sochi's equivalent to Mexico 1968 is sexuality and the IOC would prefer that athletes just focused on their competition. I have some sympathy for the IOC, which, all along, explains itself as essentially the guardians of a multi-sport mega event, and that the issues around belief systems is not within their purview. It is not realistic to expect the IOC to make a significant intervention in long-term domestic law, beyond what is required to logistically deliver the Games.
Yet, over the years the IOC has nurtured an identity that has made more central its contribution to advancing society in crucial ways and this is actually part of what Coubertin dreamed of when setting up the modern Olympics. For example, the IOC has built close relationships with the United Nations on a range of issues, such as creating global peace and environmental concern. In this sense, it has become a powerful advocacy organization, the value of which is born out of its response to and action around important global concerns.
Furthermore, it is hard to understand how sexual identity should be construed as a political manner, rather than a fundamental human right that the IOC should support. After all, the Olympic Charter compels its members to support non-discrimination. To this end, support for sexual freedom is more adequately understood as a condition of membership to the Olympic movement, not a political choice. Being the host of an Olympic Games should make these commitments even more necessary to uphold.
The IOC's only defence is found in the difference between a fundamental freedom and the advocacy of this freedom in public fora, the latter of which is what authorities seek to avoid. This may be the only way that the IOC can justify its stance. In any case, the IOC should guarantee that GLBT athletes will not face action for taking a stand at the Sochi Olympics. This would be an important message to send the world and the only way that these can really be great Games for everybody and avoid being labelled in history as the homophobic Games.
As the Google doodle today states in its rainbow colours, quoting the Olympic Charter:
The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
Article feature in XL Semanal, a spanish Magazine
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