NOTE: As part of on-going social media coverage of the Beijing 2008 games, this article was cross-posted at:

• Raincity Studios
• Now Public
• 2010 Daily Vancouver
• etc.

Citizens On the Ground

Raincity Studios Sino-Away-Squad of Scales and KK, are on the ground in Beijing to cover and participate in the Olympic experience as citizen journalism, technology experts, social pundits and cultural ambassadors.

The Glimmer Twins' tasks are diverse and their methods varied so here's a preview:

• participating in the 9th International Symposium on Olympic Studies, in Beijing, August 5-7 with Olympic scholar Dr. Andy Miah's
• documenting the scene for crowd-sourced new site: Now Public, Vancouver radio station: Crave 95, and BBC Interactive - among other media outlets
• shooting Creative Commons licensed photos delivered via Flickr
• extolling about the new, improved Bryght web community hosting product - available in free, cheap or fancy varieties
• meeting up with prospective clients to extol Raincity Studios' status as an approved weblog vendor for Vancouver/Whistler 2010
• cheering for Team Canada at the Archery, Fencing, Women's Softball, BMX and more summer games sports
• spreading international goodwill in the fun-loving/hard-working style they honed whilst at the Torino 2008 Winter Games.

Cross-posted from: BBC Sport | Olympics | Beijing Diaries

Cross-posted at: Raincity Studios

Background: Raincity Studios CEO/Founder Robert Scales and Pres/Ambassador Kris Krug are on the ground in Beijing to document and study the 2008 edition of the Olympic Games. They are publishing dispatches to a variety of news outlets including the venerable BBC. Here's Scales' first installment of his Olympic diary.

ROBERT SCALES, MONTREAL, CANADA

Robert runs a web development company based in Canada

Robert Scales winds up the Vancouver China Access event with his personal narrative and candid remarks about his experiences with Kris Krug exploring China, setting up businesses and understanding the cultures. Recorded by Roland Tanglao on video.

Download the RCS CEO Remarks at China Access Vancouver - Raincity Radio Podca

Raincity Studios' international ambassador of open business (and also CEO) Robert Scales, along with Bryght's honcho (and fellow new web luminary) Kris Krug, are in China for their fourth foray in the past couple of years. This time, it's getting permanent.

After 4 years spent making hundreds of Drupal-driven sites, building a diverse and noteworty client list, and hosting/promoting/sponsoring/covering dozens of events, Raincity Studios is now officially trans-Pacific with a new office in Shanghai as of yesterday China time (which is sometime late tomorrow here on the left coast ;-)).

Here

Doing business in China in advance and following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, is the topic as Australian businessman Andrew Gilkes, Chairman of ChinaAccess2008, an international business facilitation program, shares tips and best practices for interacting with this rapidly growing economy.

From information technologists, to media workers, to celebrities, blogging in China has always been a place to have the freedom of speech in a country that does not permit it in the mainstream.

Now more than ever, celebrity blogs are becoming more and more popular and has increased audiences into the hundreds of thousands for just one post.

Check out this article and celebrity post that has been translated, highlighting the progression of the blogosphere power that's rising in China.

Blogging In China - They Have Open Source Conferences Too

I recently found this article in China's Danwei online magazine. It highlights an article written on the recent blogging conference held last week in Hangzhou, China (it was the second annual!), and touches on reasons why the Chinese government should be embracing, not blocking, these future-thinking, web 2.0 savvy citizens and bloggers.

Read this article here, a summary of the conference, the people in attendance and the issues and topics that were covered.

Oliver Stone Among A List Of Big-Wigs to Produce Shorts

The next Olympic Games is just under 2 years away, and there still seems to remain a slight question mark on the topic of citizen journalism in China and how blogging and people adhering to open source communities reporting from the games will be received.

After a month of having his new film delayed, Oliver Stone is in China for the opening of "World Trade Center". (Beijing imposed the delay in an attempt to promote homegrown films.) It looks like Stone will be doing more than just that for the Chinese. He has been named, along with 2 other international directors, Italian Giuseppe Tornatore and Majid Majidi from Iran, to create a short film promoting the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The Olympic Committee has already brought on board the likes of Steven Spielberg as a consultant for the opening and closing ceremonies, while also summoning the great work of Ang Lee to boot. They seem to want to include the great filmmakers of our time to help cultivate a positive impression of Beijing and China to the world. What better person than one of the most controversial directors known to current day film!

Registering Your Legal Name To Blog In China

The powers that be over the blogosphere in China, China's Net regulator Ministry of Information Industries (MII), has just put forth an initiative that may be issued in the near future, where upon all bloggers in China will be required to register their real names if they wish to continue to blog. This has been instigated in an attempt to put a stop to or get control over the insults, curses, libels and fraud typically found on blogs - a tactic that is both illogical and absurd. And what the hell are they going to do to these "real name" bloggers when they find them?!

Head Down To The Morrissey Tonight For Some Roundtable China Chat and Pints

Scales and kk+ will be conducting a casual roundtable chat this evening at the Morrissey Pub on Granville St. at about 5pm. They'll be sharing their experiences on their latest trip to China which wrapped up about a month ago, speaking about the business connections and relationships they formed and about the first BarCamp in China, BarCampShanghai.

Find The Morrissey Pub here.

The gathering will continue after 6pm with any new media types who want to get together to connect, an event that has been happening regularly every second Friday of each month. Come down and join in on the conversations and meet some new and old friends alike.