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Olympic Torch Relay – Canberra, Australia

By on Friday, April 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment

Yesterday the Olympic Torch Relay came to my home town. It was an interesting occasion. Many thousands of Chinese students were sent in to defend the honor of the Olympic flame and that of China.

The main reason they wanted to come to Canberra is because of the way the western press has been reporting the situation in Tibet. They feel it is one sided and does not speak the truth. There are many forums that discuss the feelings of the Chinese people.

Canberra was a sea of red thanks to the influx of the students. It added to the atmosphere however it took the moment away from the Australians who showed an interest in seeing the flame. You could not go anywhere without seeing at least one Chinese flag being waved in your face.

Still it was an exciting day and I enjoyed the moment with my 6 year old daughter and my wife. We are going to Beijing for the Olympics so it boosted my excitement when I think of what lies ahead.

Here is a short video that shows the first torchbearer with the Olympic flame.

Are the press exploiting Facebook users? Australian Swimmers may think so

By on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 | No Comments

Here in Australia there has been an unfortunate incident where an Australian swimmer Nick D’Arcy has been charged with assault. It seems now whenever some newsworthy event takes place members of the press go hunting through Facebook or Myspace to look for photos or additional information about the subject.

The day news broke about Nick D’Arcy’s alleged bar brawl photos appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald website which were copied from D’Arcy’s Facebook profile. It appears that the photos have since been removed from the smh.com.au site. The journalist used the photos to make out D’Arcy was a boozing party animal. A judgement made from the photos.

Also on Monday articles appeared on the Brisbane Courier Mail website showing Australian Swimming world record holder, Stephanie Rice in some party shots also copied from a Facebook profile.

After seeing the photos I searched on Facebook and found a large number of swimmers had a presence on Facebook. Swimmer’s including Rice’s boyfriend, 50m freestyle world record holder, Eamon Sullivan were on Facebook. There were hundreds of photos from various parties and trips around the world undertaken by the swimmers.

The Courier Mail is making sure they get more out of this story by publishing a followup article titled “Stephanie Rice told to block raunchy Facebook pictures“. Within that article is a link to some of the photos copied from Stephanie Rice’s Facebook profile.

In a kneejerk reaction Swimming Australia asked the swimmers who are part of the Australian swimming team going to Beijing to remove the Facebook profiles. When searching today for Stephanie Rice all that remains is a fan page.

What do you think about the media going into Facebook and stealing the athletes photos for their own purposes?  I don’t agree with the media using the photos in this way. 

There is something the athletes and general public should learn from this, make the Facebook photos only available to friends or named individuals if they don’t want the wrong people viewing the photos.

Within Facebook there are privacy settings to restrict who can view photos.

Big Marketing Event

By Rob on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 | No Comments

The Olympics represent one of the biggest marketing events on the planet. Maybe the Football World Cup is bigger. The Beijing Olympics are not only about sport, they are there to showcase China to the world and the corporate world to China. Many of the biggest names in business are sponsors for the games which start on August 8, 2008.

If you are looking at attending the games you can submit your ticket requests by visiting the CoSport website. They are the official website for olympic tickets and accommodation sales. Countries that they arrange tickets for include the USA, Australia, Canada and Austria. Now until the early July you can list your tickets requests. From mid July through to September tickets will be allocated. From September onwards all remaining tickets will be available for sale.

CoSport also provide package tours. For US residents a hotel package that includes 3 nights accommodation covering the opening ceremony period costs $3509 staying in the 4 star Jianguo Hotel. There are four hotels to choose from. Some of the packages also include tickets.

If you are interested in attending the opening ceremony you could select a package that includes accommodation at the Minzu Hotel, tickets for the Opening Ceremony, Gymnastics and Swimming. The cost of this package is USD6560.50.