The £6.5m cost of policing the Olympic Torch – get the data

Policing the Olympic torch procession cost taxpayers almost £6.5m nationally, according to a series of Freedom of Information requests by HMI Olympics.

The spending includes the costs incurred to local police authorities throughout the UK for the 56 days the Olympic Torch went around the country.

The Metropolitan Police Service spent the most – not surprisingly as the torch spent a week in London and was perhaps the most obvious target for disruption.

Over a quarter of their spending – half a million – was spent on overtime for police and staff. The figure includes a £850,000 grant the Metropolitan Police Service received from the Home Office. Continue reading

Data: Help me find the mis-information being spread at #socialympics

This morning a Social Media Week, London event looking at the social media around the Olympic games called “#socialympics” was stirring a lot of interest on twitter relating to discussions of big data, history of new media and mega events and the revolutionary effects of social media and production/distribution of the games. Speakers include (from the site):

Our panel will feature Chris Tomlinson, record-breaking British long jumper and double Olympian; Gordon Lott, Head of London 2012 Partnership and Group Sponsorship at Lloyds TSB, the London Games’ first domestic sponsor; Hugh Chambers, Chief Commercial Officer of the British Olympic Association; Paul Kelso, Chief Sports Reporter of the Daily Telegraph; Alex Miller, CEO of Engine’s social media agency Jam, Engine’s social media and mobile agency; with myself in the chair. (3)

All individuals who have an invested interest in the Olympics and/or their brand sponsorship.

Abi Sawyer drew me the this tweet made by @SynergyCarsten:

This suggests that social media (or web 2.0) was not present during the Athens 2004 games. This claim is hard to believe, seeing that it only takes a quick google search to find blog posts still available around the time from independent (or citizen) journalists which makes me think that there is a lot of misinformation being spread about what really happened on the web during the last 12 years of games.

I’ve extracted the data from twitter (using @mhawksey‘s archive spreadsheet too) of what was said at the event and how and who was sharing it – I think it would be benefitial going through the comments to see what is being promoted as an authoritative opinion of social media and the Olympic Games. Can you help me?

The data is available here.

Link: Government’s Olympic Challenge: Good News Every Day

An article was published in the Times today (behind p/w – scan below) regarding the Government’s role in reporting “good news” stories relating to the London 2012 games during the entire Olympiad -from when the torch is lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece and lands in the UK in a few months time until when the torch is extinguished during the closing ceremony on the 12th of August. What does this mean in terms of reporting that comes out during Games times and how successful can others be to get their message across regarding not-so-positive stories?

It is worth thinking about the investment behind the PR campaigns of all stakeholders involved in the Olympics. This can be the government, the organising committee (LOCOG), the sponsors and the accredited media – amongst others.