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London Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment process

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/18/london-olympic-organisers-defend-peculiar-ticket-payment-process

London Mayor Boris Johnson brands Olympics 2012 ticketing process ‘an oddity’ Locog gives itself until 24 June to inform successful applicantsThis article titled “London Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment process” was written by Owen Gibson, for The Guardian on Wednesday 18th May 2011 16.51 UTCLondon Olympic organisers including Lord Coe have been forced to defend their ticketing process in the wake of criticism from consumer groups and after the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, called it “peculiar”.Consumer groups including Which? have criticised the fact that money started coming out of applicant’s accounts this week but Locog has given itself until 24 June to inform them which tickets they have received, if any.Coe denied the policy was an attempt to avoid a scenario where customers may cancel their orders if they had only received tickets for less popular events. He argued instead it was an attempt to create the breathing space to solve any problems with payments.“The important thing here is, let’s not be coy or naive about, we want to make sure that people have the funds to be able to do this. We’re talking £500m here, this is not chopped liver,” said Coe. “We want to make sure people have funds available. In the event they don’t, we don’t want to rip up that application on the first day.”Which? has said the ordering process forced people to take “a gamble with their finances”. Johnson told a parliamentary committee that taking payment before emailing successful applicants was “a bit peculiar” and “an administrative oddity”, though he added it was “not the end of the world”.Locog’s head of ticketing, Paul Williamson, said up to 25% of ticket payments may not go through first time due to lost cards, technical problems or because there were insufficient funds, adding an extra layer of complexity to a system that had 6.6 million tickets on sale across 648 sessions at five price points and numerous venues. He said the ticketing process had been well trailed and that he had no regrets about the strategy.“We can’t tell people what tickets they’ve got until we’ve charged their card. We need to make sure it’s a fully paid for order before we inform people. That’s sensible business practice,” said Williamson. “The second reason is the sheer scale of this enterprise. More than 1.8 million applied and more than 20 million tickets were applied for. The sheer scale of it is why it takes time. If we told people the day after their credit card went through, we’d be telling people across three or four weeks. You might be told and your next door neighbour wouldn’t.”He said that by the middle of next week Locog expected to have charged well over half of all payments. The emails to inform applicants whether they were successful will all go out on the same day.“We’re trying to be fair to people. No one is going to be allocated a ticket they haven’t applied for. On average, people have applied for 12 tickets worth a total of £500. People are applying for tickets they’ve chosen,” said Williamson.He also defended the fact that Locog has not informed buyers where they will be sitting, effectively asking them to take on trust that more expensive tickets will have better views.“The higher price points are closer to the action and more central, the lower price points are further away and higher up. That’s quite normal in major events where you’re selling tickets a year beforehand,” said Williamson, drawing comparison with other events such as Wimbledon and the FA Cup final that sold tickets in price bands.In June, anyone who didn’t get any tickets at all will get “first bite at the second chance cherry”, said Williamson, followed by those who didn’t get everything they applied for. All the remaining tickets will go back on general sale in November. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLondon Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment processRelated posts:London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame routeWill the 2012 Olympics be a sell out?London 2012: Ten best of the web
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May 18 2011, 11:55am | Comments »
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Olympic Park: name that neighbourhood

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/19/olympic-park-name-that-neighbourhood

Some sort of competition for naming the five Olympic villages for the London 2012 Olympic games in Stratford East London.

This article titled “Olympic Park: name that neighbourhood” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 19th April 2011 09.47 UTC The Olympic Park Legacy Company recently made known four of the entries to its competition to name the five residential areas the park will eventually contain. It says the four are a sample of the “hundreds” it has received, and quite an instructive sample it is. I’m guessing that the suggestion of Plastic Fantastic is aimed at Area 3 and a historical reference to the development of early forms of plastic in the old chemical industry area of Hackney Wick, where dry cleaning too was pioneered. But who would rush to reside in a place called that? Would it assist estate agents in their noble task of wooing purchasers of the mixture of flats and family homes destined to rise alongside the Lea Navigation Canal? Stylish modern living in, ah, Plastic Fantastic? The OPLC’s Duncan Innes anticipates it being “quite a funky little area,” with “lots of arty people living there,” perhaps because the new local industry is galleries. From the commercial point of view, I’d be looking for bog standard pretentiousness in that case. Leaside Quarter? Wick Modern? Old Laundry? The three other suggested names released are Little Athens and Redgravia, whose Olympic inspirations, though ingenious, are perhaps a bit too obvious, and Dog and Bike, which to me sounds like a pub and only a pub. Still, I suppose the efforts made public were chosen to give clues and motivation to other potential competitors rather than on the basis of quality, and they do concentrate the mind on the complexities of the task. It needs to be tackled seriously. The organisers reserve the right to reject all contenders if they don’t think they’re up to scratch and impose their own instead. Should the five neighbourhoods’ names be Games-connected or reflect local history? They can’t really be both. If Games-connected, should they have a British or an international flavour? If localist, how local? And if history is to be the guide, whose history should take priority? That last is, of course, a political question and there was more than a whiff of politics about the decision to elongate the park’s name to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Would such eager deference to royalty have happened under a Labour government and Labour London Mayor? The very Conservative Boris Johnson is plainly pleased with the monarchical association, and it is one that could in theory be extended to the neighbourhood names, giving the whole area a thematic unity. Charles Environs? Middleton Village? On the other hand, perhaps Boris’s predecessor, who played such a big part in securing the Games for the capital, should have a neighbourhood named after him to recognise his contribution? Alas, Kenton and Kensington have already been taken. I’d been interested to hear your suggestions for Olympic Park neighbourhood names, and I’m sure the OPLC would too. Full details of its competition and the five neighbourhoods are here and the BBC, a partner in the enterprise, provides further helpful information here and here. I’ll be away on holiday when this post goes live, which means I’m unlikely to respond to comments. However, I’m sure there will be more to say on this subject before the competition’s closing date of May 18.

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April 19 2011, 6:36am | Comments »
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UK Uncut’s fears over clampdown on black bloc tactics

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/01/uk-uncuts-fears-over-clampdown-on-black-bloc-tactics

Activists from UK Uncut and the Black Bloc are concerned that Theresa May’s vow to curb further violence may impinge on the group’s direct action protests

This article titled “UK Uncut’s fears over clampdown on black bloc tactics” was written by Robert Booth, for The Guardian on Friday 1st April 2011 20.54 UTC TV news footage of last Saturday’s protests focused on anarchists using black bloc tactics to smash bank windows and attack shops, but the arrest of 145 activists from UK Uncut, a completely separate group who occupied Fortnum & Mason, grabbed the headlines. The result was a blurring in many people’s minds between the two groups, which threatens to hamper UK Uncut’s ability to operate, especially after the home secretary, Theresa May, ordered a review of police powers to handle public demonstrations following the weekend’s violent disorder. There are clear differences between the two groupings: black bloc anarchists condone violence and want to smash the system, while UK Uncut supporters promote peaceful direct action, with a particular focus on the reform of tax laws that allow avoidance by big business. Many UK Uncut supporters emerged from the Climate Camp movement. Their trademark tactic is a sit-down protest in a shop owned by an allegedly tax-avoiding company. Spiky v fluffy, some observers say, although Boris Johnson claimed the Uncut activists at Fortnum & Mason “stormed that building, terrified the staff, upset the customers and caused tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage”. Confusion with the black bloc was compounded when a UK Uncut spokeswoman refused to condemn violent direct action when she appeared on BBC2′s Newsnight. Now UK Uncut is worried that talk of a crackdown to curb further violence could impinge on its activities, which this weekend are planned in Bangor, Barnstaple, Edinburgh, London and Oxford. “Theresa May’s comments are quite worrying,” said a spokesman. “She seemed to imply that anyone who goes beyond marching would be criminalised and that would be dangerous. Our actions are direct but we consider them creative civil disobedience.

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April 1 2011, 5:53pm | Comments »
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Millions will watch as Boat Race is re-branded as ‘world-class event’

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/millions-will-watch-as-boat-race-is-re-branded-as-world-class-event

The 157th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race will be shown in more than 200 countries and it’s one of the top 10 annual events in London

This article titled “Millions will watch as Boat Race is re-branded as ‘world-class event’” was written by Barney Ronay, for The Guardian on Friday 25th March 2011 20.38 UTC In terms of sheer weight of numbers, the biggest attraction of a busy sporting Saturday takes place tomorrow afternoon, not in Cardiff or Colombo, but on a suburban stretch of the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake. The 157th Varsity Boat Race, an event competed for by amateurs at several rungs below world class level, will once again attract six million UK TV viewers, with 250,000 watching from the river bank and a further multitude tuning in via BBC website streaming and TV coverage in over 200 countries. At last week’s weigh-in at City Hall the London mayor Boris Johnson described the student race as “a world-class sporting event that is huge for London”. He seems to be at least half right. Part nostalgia pageant, part emerging talent showcase, the Boat Race has in the last two years made a visible effort to reposition itself as a high-end London heritage event. Selling it has been the lot of Boat Race Ltd, the company responsible for dragging this unique sporting “property” — an unavoidably class-bound two-horse race — into the modern world of high-end revenue raking. “It really is a part of London’s history,” says David Searle, the company’s executive director. “The mayor has been incredibly supportive. He’s there to promote London as a centre of all things and the Boat Race is considered one of the top 10 annual events in London.” Menaced by the loss of its ITV rights deal two years ago, the race has since promoted itself aggressively and is now brought to you by title sponsor Xchanging, plus a slew of commercial partners. Despite all of this Boat Race Ltd maintain the race is still financially under-geared. “Running it is very expensive,” Searle says. “We pay the clubs [Oxford and Cambridge] to turn up and row. That’s very expensive. There’s travel and coaching for teams. We don’t get any money at all from the colleges.” If the Boat Race has perhaps been more energetically sold, paradoxically today’s race is one of the more parochial of recent years. The race is often maligned as a sub-standard event. This is perhaps unfair: with the national squads yet to be formed, and thanks to the unusual intensity of Varsity race training, these are still currently the two finest eights in the country. On the other hand, with London 2012 now officially looming the pool of available talent is at a four yearly low. Currently the priority for potential Olympians is national competition. Hence the unusual absence of jobbing overseas rowers in today’s field; 13 out of the 18 competitors are British with just one American. On the plus side both of today’s eights are unusually well-stocked with young British talent, including six undergraduates whose chief rowing experience has come through their colleges. Cambridge are fancied by many to repeat last year’s triumph. They are the heavier eight, by 13 kilos, and also the more experienced, with four previous rowing Blues. But even in the light blue boat there is a fresh-faced tinge. Cambridge’s Dan Rix-Standing didn’t even try out for the race last year. There is also undergraduate colour: David Nelson, an Australian economics student, likes to hunt crocodiles in his spare time back home in Brisbane. In the Oxford boat the teenage old Etonian Constantine Louloudis is flagged up as one to watch. Dark Blue cox Simon Hislop, a 26-year-old testicular cancer survivor and a campaigner for awareness of the disease provides the most heartening story of a race that, true to its own branding as an annual rite of spring, seems set to take place on an unusually placid River Thames.

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March 25 2011, 4:46pm | Comments »
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Who will live in the Olympic Park homes?

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/23/who-will-live-in-the-olympic-park-homes

Dave Hill wonders if the Olympic Park‘s post-Games vision really can be translated into reality.

This article titled “Who will live in the Olympic Park homes?” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 10.39 UTC First, lap up a projection of the Olympic Park’s future. That’s the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, to give it it’s full handle – a place of graceful living in stylish family homes amid world class sporting facilities, giant visitor attractions and rather large butterflies. Behold. Appetising, isn’t it? Speaking at the unveiling of the revised park masterplan last October, Boris Johnson declared: Not since Georgian England has London seen such an ambitious and comprehensive vision for a new district. Our plans seek to combine the classical best of this city with the greatest benefits of modern urban living. But who will actually live in this promised paradise? How many of its inhabitants will be drawn from that rather large pool of Londoners on low or even average incomes who find the bulk of the capital’s housing stock beyond their means? There are signs that the percentage could be rather small. The masterplan makes provision for only 35 percent of the 11,000 homes the park is anticipated to eventually contain being “affordable”. And that term “affordable” is a stretchy one. It accommodates everything from homes let by housing associations for subsidised “social rents” to “intermediate” range properties that households with quite large, middle-class earnings can part-purchase through schemes designed to help people onto London’s ludicrously steep housing ladder. Soon “affordable” will demonstrate still greater elasticity. Next month Mayor Johnson will bring into effect his First Steps policy programme, making “intermediate” schemes available to family households with incomes as high as £74,000 a year – rather more than a member of parliament is paid – compared with the present £60,000. (See policy 1.2C on page 22 of his London Housing Strategy). Meanwhile, the government is preparing to bring in what it calls its new “affordable rent” model, which will underpin the finances of housing associations. This will require the introduction of housing association rents at a level of “up to 80% of gross market rents” in the area concerned – a figure far higher than the highest at present. At last week’s London Assembly plenary Margaret Ford, the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s chair, candidly acknowledged that she and colleagues were still trying to work through its implications for their housing plans. These could be far-reaching, especially in light of the government’s forthcoming capping of housing and other welfare benefits. Rents set at 80 percent of local private sector levels look likely to be beyond the reach of many families in the greatest need of the sorts of homes Boris and OPLC want to see built in large numbers on the park. Is that what London’s Mayor wants? You can read much more about that ideal future of the park on the OPLC’s website. It will have its own, brand new postcode – London E20 – and bear the hopes of many that it will succeed where so many regeneration schemes have failed in the past. Although its completion is a long way off, the process of translating that “comprehensive vision” into reality is already underway. More than half of the 2,800 future homes presently comprising the athletes’ Olympic Village have already been sold with nine developers shortlisted to buy the rest. Bids have been invited to build the first 800 post-Games homes in one of the five new neighbourhoods set out in the masterplan. Will the end results resemble those vibrant, mixed communities of regeneration cliche or a rather less attractive legacy – one that benefits the affluent and wealthy investors from which ordinary working and struggling Londoners are all but priced out?

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Related posts:2012 Olympic Park: after the Games London Orbit Tower Rises at Olympic Park The Orbit Tower, Olympic Park Stratford East London 2012
March 23 2011, 3:09pm | Comments »
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Will the Orbit become London’s Eiffel?

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/22/will-the-orbit-become-londons-eiffel

How does Anish Kapoor‘s design for the London Olympics Orbit Tower compare to Gustave Eiffel‘s Paris icon?

This article titled “Will the Orbit become London’s Eiffel?” was written by John Graham-Cumming, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 2nd April 2010 13.00 UTC At the unveiling of Anish Kapoor’s design for the Orbit tower it was compared to the Colossus of Rhodes and the Tower of Babel. But the history of those follies isn’t auspicious. The Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed by an earthquake after standing for only a few decades, and the Tower of Babel was, the book of Genesis tells us, constructed to glorify those that constructed it. I can’t help wondering to what extent the ArcelorMittal Orbit is being built for the glory of Boris Johnson, Kapoor and Lakshmi Mittal. And as details emerge of its Olympic corporate entertainment role, it looks less and less like a work of art. But setting the motivation of the creators aside, the worst comparison of all is with the Eiffel Tower. Gustave Eiffel’s iconic tower was not designed as a piece of public art, nor was it intended to remain in Paris more than 20 years. It was built as a grand entrance for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, and was designed to be easy to take apart. It became a work of art in the eyes of the world against the protestations of the Parisian art world. And it remained, in part, because of its utility. It was used for early radio experiments at the start of the 20th century and in 1910 the tower was used to detect cosmic rays. To this day its top bristles with antennae, and its bottom bustles with tourists. Another problem with comparing Kapoor’s structure with Eiffel’s is that what makes the Parisian tower so pleasing to the eye is that its shape was dictated by the forces of the wind, not by the foolishness of man. Eiffel is quoted as saying: “Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument’s four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.” By following the forces of nature, Eiffel’s massive iron structure appears graceful and almost part of the natural environment. By comparison, Kapoor’s structure is a prime example of man demonstrating his mastery over nature. The sweeping shape is reminiscent of melted roller coaster ride, or as one Twitter user put it: “It looks like congealed intestines”. The horror of which was only replaced in my mind by the relief of recalling that Kapoor and not Damien Hirst had been awarded the design contract. But the worst part about comparing the Orbit with the Eiffel is the idea that London needs to rival Paris in the metal tower stakes. London already beat Paris to host the 2012 Olympics; now it seems Johnson wants to rub salt in French wounds. The copycat unoriginality of building London’s Eiffel verges on parody when one realises that the Orbit will be 100m shorter than the Parisian monument and 20m shorter than the diminutive Blackpool Tower. The true determinant of whether the Orbit deserves a place on London’s skyline should be how it is perceived by Londoners. It would be hard to find a Parisian today who hates the Eiffel Tower; Boris Johnson should set a 20-year time limit on Kapoor’s tower and let the public decide. If in 2032 it hasn’t endeared itself to the residents of Stratford and beyond it should be pulled down. Since the tower is to be made of steel it could be safely recycled. That standard has applied to at least one other London icon. The giant ferris wheel London Eye, after all, was initially a temporary attraction that married engineering prowess with a graceful form. It has stood the test of time and looks set to stay on the banks of the River Thames. In it London already has a worthy rival for Eiffel. And from it a panoramic view of London is already possible. Writing in the Times, the architecture critic Tom Dyckhoff described the tower as a “giant Mr Messy”. But initial reactions should be tempered by allowing time to pass; perhaps I’ll get over thinking it looks like a giant blood clot. Whether you love it or hate it, the last word should go to Johnson, who said of the Orbit: “It would have boggled Gustave Eiffel”. There’s no arguing with that.

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March 22 2011, 8:55am | Comments »
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2012 Olympic Park: after the Games

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/17/2012-olympic-park-after-the-games

The man and woman guiding the future of the London 2012 Olympic Park after the Games themselves are over were questioned by the London Assembly yesterday.

This article titled “2012 Olympic Park: after the Games” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 17th March 2011 14.27 UTC The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) is the organisation responsible for making the vast public investment in next summer’s three weeks of sporting endeavour pay off for decades after the medal podiums have been packed away. Its chair is Labour Baroness Margaret Ford of Cunninghame, formerly of government regeneration agency English Partnerships. Its chief executive is Andrew Altman, who used to be Philadelphia’s Deputy Mayor for planning and economic development. Together they took questions from the London Assembly yesterday. Their answers both solidified in my mind’s eye the shape the Olympic Park is intended to take after the Games and showed how much of that shape is still shrouded in mist. The points that interested me most were as follows: One: The OPLC top brass are upbeat. Ford kicked off with a list of big achievements over the past twelve months. One was the rescheduling of £600 million of debt accrued by the London Development Agency – the economic development arm of the London Mayor – in buying up the many small plots of land that now comprise the Olympic Park. Both the present and the previous governments have enabled this. Ford was very grateful: “The original debt schedule had the company starting to pay back that £600 million very, very quickly. We’d have had to just put a for sale sign up and flogged it to the highest bidder. We don’t have to do that now.” She professed delight too with the new park masterplan, unveiled by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Bunt (sic) last autumn. Ford described it as “rooted in family housing,” significantly more (40 percent) of which is now envisaged. She was delighted too by the government earmarking £220 million over the next four years for switching the park from Games mode to post-Games community mode. This sum, she said, will pay for all the necessary infrastructure for “the early stages of developing the entire site: the signage the security the lighting, the children’s playgrounds, the toilets.” She was chuffed too that a preferred anchor tenant – West Ham, in partnership with Newham Council – has been found for the main stadium. Looking ahead, Ford saw finding equivalent occupants of the giant International Broadcast Centre – big enough to hold five jumbo jets – as a major challenge in the coming year. “It’s not going to be one company,” she said. Instead, it will need to be “the right group.” The adjoining Main Press Centre too will need filling once the global army of Games hacks have disappeared. Market testing has been undertaken. Ford was candid about this part of “legacy” being the company’s “most difficult task.” Altman described wanting to have everything required for the post-Games evolution of the Park in place before the Games themselves, including operators for all the sports venues and other attractions, notably the rapidly-forming ArcelorMittal Orbit. Two: It’s not clear how affordable the park’s “affordable housing” will be The new masterplan envisages up to 11,000 homes being built in the park eventually, including about 1,300 already under construction in the athlete’s village. Lib Dem AM Mike Tuffrey was pleased to be reassured by Ford that she still thinks 35 percent of that 11,000 will be “affordable”, though that term can encompass anything from houses or flats for “social rent” to the more expensive “intermediate” variety that provide a toe hold on the London housing ladder. The government is introducing a new “affordable rent” model, which many feel will generate homes for rent that people on low incomes will find far from affordable. When asked by Labour’s Nicky Gavron how many of the park’s “affordable” homes might be for social rent – within the range of households on low incomes – Ford explained that the OPLC was still trying to work through the implications of the new model. To me, these already appear ominous. Bids for the first 800 post-Games homes have recently been invited. Three: Leyton Orient will not find a new home on the park. Ask Owen Gibson. Four: It’s hard to tell how much local people will benefit from new jobs, opportunities and skills Ford told Labour’s John Biggs, one the two AMs who represent the Olympic boroughs that, “Every investment that we make in the park we have to look at through the prism of, how does this help with education, how does this help with jobs, how does it help provide opportunities for local enterprise or social enterprise.” Biggs thinks, rightly, that delivering this community legacy is vital if the Olympic project is to succeed. His Labour colleague Jennette Arnold, the other Olympic boroughs representative, asked if Ford and Altman were committed to creating local employment for the full diversity of local people. Ford said she hoped to “import” the good work done in this field by the Olympic Delivery Authority and said that over the next twenty years the development of the park – in construction, horticulture and so on – should provide “a generation’s work opportunities”. That’s an aspiration to keep an eye on. Five: the park’s attractions won’t immediately be available to the public after the Games Conservative AM Andrew Boff extracted some detail about this. Altman explained that “a huge amount of work” will have to be done before the park can be re-opened after the Games: seats will be removed from the aquatics centre; the main stadium will be transformed; the handball stadium will be converted. Ford said they were chewing over where it is “better to put the fence up round the park, make it secure and safe, get the job done really quickly then open the whole thing up,” or better to cordon off and open up different bits at different times. She was “moving towards” the former option, but no decision had been taken. Either way, she and Altman are thinking summer 2013 “at the earliest,” before “a staggered opening” of venues and attractions starts. You can watch a webcast of the hour-long session here (assembly plenary, 16 March) which is followed by Sir Simon Milton, Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, taking questions about the transformation of the OPLC into a development corporation under mayoral control later this year. Your comments and queries on any aspect of yesterday’s business are very welcome.

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March 17 2011, 12:15pm | Comments »
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London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/15/london-2012-olympics-countdown-clock-stops

I was in Trafalgar Square yesterday, but that was before the unveiling ceremony of the countdown clock for the London 2012 Olympic Games. It all looked like and advertisement for Omega, buts as it turns out, not a very good one perhaps.

2012 Olympics countdown clock Trafalgar square London

This article titled “London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops” was written by Owen Gibson, sports news correspondent, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 15th March 2011 15.24 UTC It was launched in a blaze of sparklers by Lord Coe, London Mayor Boris Johnson and potential London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Ennis. But on the day Olympic tickets went on sale, organisers suffered a major embarrassment as their official countdown clock stopped. The timepiece, which has become a traditional fixture for Olympic host cities and is made by sponsor Omega, stalled reading 500 days, seven hours and 56 seconds to go until the opening ceremony. The 6.5m-high structure, which is in a prominent position in Trafalgar Square, was launched on Monday night at an event hosted by Clare Balding. It was unveiled by four Olympic gold medallists from Team GB – rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson. “The launch of the Omega countdown clock is an important milestone for any Olympic Games and is something of a tradition within the Olympic movement,” said Locog chairman Lord Coe before the launch. “It will be a daily and hourly reminder to everyone who visits Trafalgar Square that the countdown to the start of London 2012 has well and truly begun and that the greatest show on earth is soon coming to our country.” Omega says it is not immediately apparent what has caused the problem. In a case of life imitating art the BBC on Monday night launched a Thick of It style mockumentary, Twenty Twelve, which featured a PR farrago around a countdown clock. A spokeswoman for Omega said: “‘We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue. The Omega London 2012 countdown clock was developed by our experts and fully tested ahead of the launch in Trafalgar Square. “We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible.”

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March 15 2011, 10:39am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net

London’s 2012 Olympics must be a ‘regeneration games’

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/15/londons-2012-olympics-must-be-a-regeneration-games

Unless the London 2012 Olympics deliver their promised regeneration legacy for East London, the whole project will have ultimately failed

This article titled “London’s 2012 Olympics must be a ‘regeneration games’” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 15th March 2011 12.57 UTC There are 500 days to go, the tickets are on sale and the big question on Radio 5 Live this morning was, “Are you up for the Olympics?” Well, I am, in spite of everything. Everything? Well, there’s been Locog’s miserable decision to switch the marathon route away from the East End, enabling overseas TV viewers to be spared seeing what real East Enders look like and instead compare their chocolate box mental images of Buck House with scenic pictures of the real thing. There’s the mad prices of some of the seats and the lurking whiff of ligging and privilege. There’s the colourful tale of Boris Johnson, his “fund-raising champion“, her former lover and the eighty grand that unhappy gentleman coughed up to help an arty monument tower immodestly above the Olympic Park. The result, being bolted together as we speak, is formally called the ArcelorMittal Orbit, though London blogger Diamond Geezer thinks only by people who write press releases. Then there’s the logo, which I still can’t learn to love. There’s the unending, well-meaning bilge about the Games inspiring a modern equivalent of Muscular Christianity, when we all know perfectly well that Britannia’s couch potatoes will take still deeper root when high definition telly makes it plainer to them than ever that serious sporting exertion involves pain. Most of all, there’s my bedrock scepticism about the Olympic project as a whole: I like sport, but the industry that attends it is absurd; I like the idea that London 2012 will bring prosperity to what has long been the capital’s poorest compass point, but am wary of the very concept of urban regeneration. Who really profits in the end? And yet I’m “Up for the Olympics” anyway. For one thing, is there a choice? The rash of post-credit crunch commentariat demands that London 2012 should emulate the austerity Games of 1948 struck me as joyless and contrary. There was no point in rowing back by then. The Games have long been a case of in for a lot of pennies, in for a lot of pounds and work like crazy to make the investment pay. For another thing, I live near the Olympic Park. Once these words are safely launched I’ll be running from my doorstep to the stadium and back as part of my London Marathon training schedule. Over the months I’ve watched the various venues grow from seed. I challenge anyone to stand on the Greenway linking Stratford and the River Lea and remain unstirred by the romance of the Olympic vision even if, like me, you fret that history will judge it foolhardy. I don’t mean patriotic dreams of sporting glory, intoxicating though they are. I mean those hopes that the running and the jumping, the pedaling and the diving, will indeed prepare the ground for the gradual creation of new London neighbourhoods that bring new jobs and homes to the Londoners who need them most and exemplify the best in big city planning. West Ham’s securing of the stadium as their new home was a hopeful sign. Neither their bid nor Tottenham’s was ideal, but the principle that the publicly-funded Games infrastructure should have some continuing public use has been honoured. Will the same spirit guide the sorts of homes built on the wider Olympic Park – the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as it’s become since the general election – over the next twenty years? Will as many as possible be affordable to low-paid and even averagely-paid Londoners? Will the press and broadcast centres, which have formed before the sometimes disbelieving eyes of residents of Leabank Square, really give career opportunities to locals who lack them now? I could be applying for my Freedom Pass by the time answers to such questions are truly known. Tomorrow morning, the London Assembly will be trying to find out if those answers will be “yes”. Unless they are, more ominous one will soon arise. What were the 2012 Olympics really for?

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March 15 2011, 8:11am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net

Why would councils want to exclude bloggers and tweeters?

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/11/why-would-councils-want-to-exclude-bloggers-and-tweeters

Can you be a blogger and respectable at the same time? I hope not.

This article titled “Why would councils want to exclude bloggers and tweeters?” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 11th March 2011 15.00 UTC Local government minister Bob Neill MP (Con) recently wrote to local authorities as follows: “Bloggers, tweeters, residents with their own websites and users of Facebook and YouTube are increasingly a part of the modern world, blurring the lines between professional journalists and the public. There are recent stories about people being ejected from council meetings for blogging, tweeting or filming. This potentially is at odds with the fundamentals of democracy, and I want to encourage all councils to take a welcoming approach to those who want to bring local news stories to a wider audience.” Excellent advice. But some councils have been slow to get the message. These notably include the famous Tory “easyCouncil” of Barnet in north London, whose leader Lynne Hillan told the Barnet Times: “The current advice according to the constitution does not allow filming in the council chamber … The only thing we will do is consider responsible media requests, and they are the only thing we would allow at this stage … I do not think we would consider a request from bloggers. Only respectable media would be considered.” The statement raises an array of questions. What defines some parts of the media as “respectable” and “responsible” and others not? Who does the category “blogger” include? Can you be a blogger and respectable at the same time? I’ve a hunch that Councillor Hillan had a certain person in mind. His name is Roger Tichborne, publisher of a blog called Barnet Eye. The Eye campaigns tirelessly against her administration. Its author’s greatest triumph was successfully complaining that a Tory colleague – the quite astounding Brian Coleman – had breached the council’s code of conduct by sending him an abusive email. Tichborne networks with fellow local online citizen journalists – some of theme dissident Barnet Tories – in one of London’s best-blogged boroughs. Following Hillan’s remarks he attended a council committee meeting as a member of the public and filmed it until another Tory councillor ticked him off, unimpressed by the unrespectable blogger’s protesting that he had legal opinion on his side. But the law shouldn’t need to be dragged into this. Neither should those increasingly meaningless distinctions between citizen journalists and the professional media, not least because plenty of the latter are far less “respectable” or “responsible” than plenty of the former. Little love may be lost between Tichborne and the Tories responsible for emptying his bins, but Barnet town hall should still welcome him. It should welcome anyone prepared to sit through deliberations in its democratic chambers and convey these to a wider public either live or later and whether by blogging, tweeting, audio recording, filming or standing on a street corner waving semaphore flags. So should every town hall in the land. In recent weeks public galleries in London and elsewhere have been filled with hecklers ritually denouncing Labour councils in particular for passing on “Tory cuts” in their budgets. Many of the outraged were ignorant, boring and stuffed with cost-free piety, but at least they were there. Mostly, those galleries are close to empty. The same often goes for the press seats. Councils slammed for publishing their own freesheets often plead that their local papers take little notice of what they do. Often, they have a point. Citizen journalists can help to fill the void. Councils wary of licensing the amateur hordes should look to the top tier of local government in the capital. At London’s City Hall, the Thames-side glass bauble that contains London’s mayors, the main debating chamber enshrines in its very seating plan the non-recognition of any amateur-professional distinction. There is no special section for the press. Instead, anyone at all – the Guardian, Mayorwatch, Adam Beinkov, CyberBoris a school student on an educational trip – can liveblog or tweet, and lots of people do. Still photography is discouraged after the first 20 minutes of each session and the use of flash banned, but in both cases the restraints are simply to prevent noise and other distractions. All proceedings are webcast, but if I wanted to point my digicam at Boris Johnson or the assembly members I’d be as free to do so as BBC London’s camera crews so long as I created no disturbance. I’m told a simple principle applies: “It’s a public meeting. It should be public.” Town halls should take Bob Neill’s advice, and do the same. Who knows, the more open their policies, the more numerous, civil, varied and well-informed those in their public galleries might become, to the benefit of the voters they serve. How could they lose?

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March 11 2011, 9:25am | Comments »
I posted to distributedresearch.net

Swine Flu in London, UK

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2009/04/30/swine-flu-in-london-uk

More cases of Swine Flu in London Two more people in London have been diagnosed with swine flu virus H1N1 type A, the UK Department of Health confirmed on 30th April One is a 23 year old man from Islington, north London, and the other is a 29 year old man from Westminster, central London. Both have only mild symptoms said a spokesperson from the DH. Treatment of Swine Flu in London Both the new patients with swine flu are being treated at their own homes and the third, earlier case - a 22-year-old man from Barnet, north London, was responding well to treatment for the virus according to doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead . Eight people in the UK are now known to have caught the H1N1 virus which causes swine flu, a type A descendent of Spanish Flu which cause the outbreak after the first world war, and all eight so far are associated with recent travel to Mexico, the epicentre of the current epidemic. How to avoid infection with swine flu Swine flu is a respiratory disease, caused by influenza type A, which infects pigs. Until recently it has not normally infected humans, but the latest form of the virus which also contains genetic material from both human and avian flu, is able to spread amongst the human population.

The man from Barnet also caught the virus during a recent visit to Mexico and was admitted to hospital on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust said he was “brought to the trust in a secure, specialist ambulance. Staff are scrupulously following infection control procedures to ensure no other patient or member of staff is at risk. In Mexico itself, the signs are that the swine flu numbers are stabilising, but the economy has been devastated for workers in catering and service industries. As usual the advice is to wash hands thoroughly and regularly, restrain coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues and stay at home if you have flu symptoms. Keeping generally fit and healthy will also help immunity. London’s Tamiflu stockpile to be surrendered

London is apparently well geared up for coping with a flu epidemic, having been primed for the last 5 years in preparation for bird flu but Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, said on Tuesday that “tried and tested plans” were in place to combat the threat of any outbreak of the swine flu virus and then offered to donate the entire Greater London Authority’s stockpile of Tamiflu over to the UK as a whole. The Tamiflu drugs were purchased by Boris Johnson’s predecessor, Ken Livingstone, at a cost of £1m as a precaution to help keep London’s public services running. Swine Flu masks spotted in London Twitter Search realtime results for Mask in London

UK can expect two waves of Swine Flu Epidemiologists believe the UK will get two periods of increasing swine flu cases. Because of the time of year in the temperate northern hemishere, it is likely that the exponential spread of swine flu will come in two waves. The first trickle beginning now in May will probably see numbers double every few days and then level off as the warmer drier weather dampens down the rate of spread. This should happen before the majority of the population has been exposed to the virus. But a reservoir level of virus will persist throughout the summer months and then flare up again as the cold damp autumnal flu season begins in October or November. The whole process of a swine flu pandemic should have run its course by late spring 2010.

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April 30 2009, 2:23pm | Comments »

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