Technology has been a part of the Olympics modern era since 1896. Events of the early years were captured on still cameras and motion pictures. The first televised games were limited to a local audience in Berlin in 1936, while the rest of the world awaited results via telex and radio. The first live transmission and world-wide television coverage arrived in 1960 at the Rome Olympics.
For the past several decades network television has delivered front-row views of the excitement and events that happened many miles and time zones away direct to the comfort of our homes. Each day we'd pore over our daily newspapers as the go-to source for medal counts, event schedules and behind the scene information. In other words, how we viewed and followed the games changed very little in the 48 years from 1960 through 2008.
Look out world - mobile internet access and social media is changing everything! No longer confined to being couch-potatoes, our array of choices for receiving and sharing information will turn us all into active game participants from the opening ceremony until the last medal is awarded. No one yet knows who will win and who will lose, or what other newsworthy events will develop at these games, but one thing is for certain - social media will provide the biggest technological change to the games since the invention of television.
What events will you be following - and how will you follow them?
