London 2012 Rings, Art Rock / FlikrCC.
The 70,000 volunteers for the London 2012 Olympics have been effectively told to disconnect from any Olympic discussion in their social networks - in stark contrast to the encouragement being given to the competitors to make 2012 the "Twitter Games". Updated rules issued this week have laid down a number of rules for people to follow, and it leaves almost no room for them to make any genuine comment.
What upsets me is that these people are all volunteers, and that there has been a huge push on the part of the London Olympics Organising Committee (LOCOG) to get this unpaid army in position. Without them, the Games would simply not be able to go ahead.
And now they are being told what they can and can't talk about online during the Olympics - in short, they can't talk about much. Look at three of the points that LOCOG are demanding, and my thoughts on the implications:
...not to disclose their location
Which rules out quite a lot of social media. Foursquare is the obvious one, but how about all the pictures taken with a smartphone, many of which are geo-tagged? How about Facebook and their push to also grab location data? HTML5 allows a mobile browser to identify its location and report it back during an action. Does that count?
How about a "Mum, I'm going to to volunteer at the Handball semi-final?" and she posts that online?
...not to get involved in detailed discussion about the Games online
Really? In what time-frame? While they are on duty? During the two weeks of the games? From now until the end of the Olympics? It reads as if there is to be no discussion at all. And these are the people who you have to assume are eager supporters of the Olympics and would want to be involved in discussions, who would be positive in their outlook, and would have a unique perspective.
...they can retweet or pass on official London 2012 postings.
But you can repeat what the powers at be have cleared and magnify the official statements. So that's okay then.
I understand that there have to be rules, but the volunteer army that LOCOG have put together are not the same as employees (who would fall under a company's social media policy). The Olympic games are meant to be about inclusiveness, about sharing across borders, and bringing out the best in people.
But with these rules, I wonder if the Olympics have an inkling of just how connected the games are going to be, how much activity there will be online, and how much conversation will be going on. And those most keen on the games have had their voice snuffed out. These rules bring on an image of a digital King Canute trying to hold back the flood of genuine opinion that will flow out of London in July and August this year.
