THE Beijing Olympic Games have begun but the timing of some events isn’t convenient for viewers in the Middle East. Plus, with so many competitions ongoing at the same time, scheduling conflicts are unavoidable. Sports fans are finding that online resources are a great way to follow the action, particularly in regards to more obscure sports and less well-known national teams.
One of the best websites for news and video feeds is www.comcast.net/olympics, which is a linkup between Comcast Corporation and NBC Universal (NBCU). The site is rich in content and during the Games will deliver 2,200 hours of 25 events streamed live, plus full-event video replays, extensive highlights, including daily re-caps of key events, best-of montages, commentator analysis and athlete-specific clips each day.
To get Olympics news on a mobile connection, the best sites are operated by ESPN, Yahoo Olympics, NBC Olympics, MSN, BBC and CNN. From a PC, consider the sites already mentioned, plus Sports Illustrated, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports, Reuters and Associated Press. Olympic sponsors have special features at their websites, these include Atos Origin, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Lenovo, Manulife, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.
Olympic sponsor Kodak has done a particularly nice job. Through http://kodak.com/go/olympics, fans can really get into the Beijing 2008 Games with a variety of interactive online features including an Olympic Picture of the Day, a photo tour of Beijing and a party pack which can be printed out and used to decorate an Olympic-themed dinner. Also, don’t miss the Cituis-Altius-Fortius Photo Story — a collection of photographs capturing the beauty and power of athletic competition and symbolizing the Olympic motto and spirit. Kodak’s photography blog at 1000words.kodak.com is the headquarters for Kodak’s chief blogger Jenny Cisney who is sharing the fan experience and the culture and history of Beijing. At PluggedIn.kodak.com, covering his 12th Olympic Games, Richard Mackson, a former Sports Illustrated contract photographer who works for Kodak’s chief technical officer, is discussing his photographs and providing tips for taking the perfect shot. Lastly, the graphic communications blog at GrowYourBiz.kodak.com is featuring stories about on-site printing services and technologies at the Games.
Other companies have harnessed their online technologies in new ways to give perspective to the Beijing Olympics. “One World. One Dream. One Dashboard.” This is the idea behind the business intelligence dashboard, a Web-based tool from iDashboard which presents medal results data in easy-to-view charts and graphs, providing a visual representation of the 28 Olympic events. The daily updated dashboard gives a summary of the day’s athletic results and an interactive world map highlights participating countries and corresponding medal tallies. The dashboards’ unique hover-and-click capabilities enable fans to drill down through each country’s results by sporting event and individual athlete performance. For Olympic enthusiasts, an additional dashboard provides even greater detail and the ability to compare results from across the globe with the help of graphic bar charts, speedometers, gauges, interactive country flags and medals. View the resources through http://live.idashboards.com/beijing2008/?guestuser=guest.
And Google has turned its powerful computing resources on the Olympic Games. The search giant has created 3D models of the Olympic Village available in Google Earth, that are available for consumer use throughout the Summer Games. All venues and stadiums as well as scenes throughout Beijing have been replicated using high-resolution imagery. Available videos include views of the Olympic Village in 3D. Check it out through http://earth.google.com/.