Watching the 2008 Opening Ceremony last night, and doing my AM web reading today it struck me that new mobile and web-based technology is just as much on display with these 2008 Summer Games as are the athletes. Many of the athletes, from almost every nation involved, walked into the now famous Birds Nest carrying state of the art digital cameras, hot new mobile phones with both camera and video features, and the almost standard olympic gear - micro size digital camcorders. These devices recorded the spectacular event from the Olympians point of view, many of which will ultimately post to blogs, and You Tube. The folks at home are also now able to use technology that puts them closer than ever before. Mobile websites with streaming video, timely text alerts with medal updates, mobile TV is streaming live 24/7, and mobile recap videos are available all day as well, check out NBC.com for nice examples of all of this. Sadly, there is even a web cam setup showing the smog conditions 24/7 live from a spot in Beijing posted on Camvista.com. The 2008 Beijing Olympics is a wonderful showcase of mobile and Internet technology. People all over the world will not only be able to see these 2008 Beijing Olympics via the unprecedented global television coverage, there are numerous websites streaming live video, and updates to the global citizenry.
Showing off all this new mobile, web, and digital technology is not only great for the Olympics, it is great for Technology. Why? Just like each Christmas buying season seems to break in a new crop of online shoppers who make their first purchase online, like it, and never turn back, this huge push to show these 2008 Beijing games will break in a new crop of web cam viewers, steaming video watchers, text mesagers and mobile video veiwers. All over the world, the Olympics are in effect pushing technology, showing it off, and the adoption by millions will not stop in 16 days. The global adoption of these technologies will undoubtedly increase as a result of these games. As a tech-geek, I love it and you should too 
-GadgetMan
2 Comments
Wow, great point! I never thought of the fact that this may be the first Olympics where we see more from the athlete’s perspective than from the media. THAT my friend is a cultural revolution!
you are absolutely right
but with cameras, and mobiles in hand many of the participants looked like tourists rather than athletes….and that is a shame….one must maintain the dignity of the moment
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