Comments on: Seeing more Olympics means seeing the Olympics differently

By: Adina Levin

Adina Levin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:57:09 +0000

Some musing on what more open olympics coverage would be like: wikipediolympics I handled their request for a cable modem provider by lying. I don't have cable, and watch video on the net, or dvd, or not at all.

By: Caryn

Caryn — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:55:42 +0000

But if you aren’t in the United States, you can’t watch any of it (“NBC is required to restrict this video to viewers inside the United States”)

I’m in Australia at present and having a hell of time trying to find video footage I can actually watch. Fox is covering it here, but I’m not watching things live and all I can find on their website is still photos and “bits” by commentators. I don’t know what the licensing agreements are, but all my friends back home keep sending me links to watch this or that and I can’t watch any of it. Very sad.

By: Crowdsourcing the Olympics | Workplace Learning Today

Crowdsourcing the Olympics | Workplace Learning Today — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:02:36 +0000

[...] Seeing more Olympics means seeing the Olympics differently | Strategies for Internet Citizens | Jon Udell | 7 August 2008 Share and Enjoy: [...]

By: Laurence H

Laurence H — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:26:42 +0000

I remember the last time I watched the high bar (which was probably the last olympics) the opposite was the case. One guy did 6 moves that involved releases. Only 2 were mandatory. He got marked down, the crowd weren’t happy. I seem to remember they booed so much that the judges actually upped his score slightly. It’s probably what’s driven the change though.

By: Jon Udell

Jon Udell — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:28:04 +0000

> if you do a very technical run that was
> kinda ugly you’re going to get beat by
> somebody who does a beautiful, big, smooth,
> but slightly less technical run.

How frequently would you say people just crash and burn? If that happens a lot, it seems like a sign that difficulty may be overvalued. And in gymnastics it does seem to be happening a lot.

By: Jon Udell

Jon Udell — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:25:42 +0000

> but seems quite willing to serve video
> without it.

Yes, there’s a non-Silverlight version of the site. I’m not clear on which if any alternatives to Windows Media Player, on which platforms, will work with that version of that site, and would be interested to know.

By: Doug K

Doug K — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:20:38 +0000

the nbcolympics site assures me I will have a better experience with Silverlight, but seems quite willing to serve video without it. However as noted I don’t have the right cable subscription, so no go for me.. dang. I was looking forward to actually seeing some canoe races..

By: Bill Mill

Bill Mill — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:55:45 +0000

Athlete’s behavior in this area must almost certainly be a rational response to the judging, right? So you feel that gymnastics judges undervalue style and grace in favor of technicality?

I don’t watch gymnastics, but this is something I think halfpipe snowboarding judges generally do well: if you do a very technical run that was kinda ugly you’re going to get beat by somebody who does a beautiful, big, smooth, but slightly less technical run.

By: cariaso

cariaso — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:49:45 +0000

I’ve yet to watch the nbc feeds, but big thanks for the early tip off about the live video stream. I woke at 8a to the portion of the opening ceremony where people were running upside down on the moon. I spent the rest of the day not quite sure if I’d dreamed the whole thing.

Silverlight is surprisingly cross-platform for a Microsoft project, and response from the open source community has been relatively positive given the history.
http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight
I’m happy to be able to write IronPython, instead of Flash although I confess to being all talk and no code so far.

As for John’s comment about crowd sourced annotation, it reminded me of this japanese youtube + popup video blend
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/22/video-comments-the-japanese-way-nico-nico-douga/
and it seems a wiki based collaborative annotation might provide a best long term annotation, while I could instead subscribe to various IRCed realtime commentaries from average joes, or semi-experts who aren’t associated with NBC.

By: Jon Udell

Jon Udell — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:49:44 +0000

Based on earlier responses, it appears that lack of a companion cable TV subscription may currently be more of an obstacle than lack of a Silverlight-compatible computer.

Still, point taken. Only Intel Macs can run Silverlight, and my Mac is a PPC model. Ouch!

That said, Silverlight isn’t the only project that’s reluctant to invest in that orphaned platform. SPSS, for example, is withdrawing support for the chip. http://www.marketresearchtech.com/spss-170-powerpc.htm. I expect that trend to accelerate. And I wonder, actually, where Apple itself will draw the line.

By: John Fink

John Fink — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:11:30 +0000

Yeah, but it’s in Silverlight, right? Across the board? Which means, yet again, that some of us are shut out. I rage at Flash a lot, but at least it makes the effort to be cross-platform.