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Scott Clark asked a question on LinkedIn earlier this week:

I’m putting together a magazine article about how arenas/venues may use social media, such as blogs, twitter, facebook in innovative ways.

I’ve discussed some of these issues in previous blog posts, which I’ve listed at the end of this page. So I wrote a response and posted it to LinkedIn on Tuesday.

Scott has published an article about live events and social media, so I am reposting my response to his LinkedIn question:

Live blogging at a conference makes more sense to me, simply because computer usage and Internet access are much more common at academic and professional events than at performances.Many performance and sporting venues have posted rules about mobile phones and cameras, partly because of intellectual property issues and contractual obligations. Mobile blogging through smartphones and PDAs is the only practical way to implement social media interaction at these events.

These restrictions are also in place to minimize disturbances and distractions for the audience and the performers. It might be interesting to see a real-time Twitter display of comments during an event, but would everyone want to see that information? Would the performers want to limit access?

Because “big name artists” tend to use established business models, including the recording industry and concert venues, these artists have limited room for innovation with social media.

Artists who use a more open license such as Creative Commons might welcome and encourage audience interaction and moblogging as part of the event. As more musicians decide to release their own music online, some will embrace social media as an essential part of their marketing and community-building plans.

Another exception might involve visual and performance art. Event sponsors could invite and encourage attendees and exhibitors to moblog their comments, as long as the participants accept the event’s licensing scheme. Social media can provide a means for real-time transcribing and recording an audience’s reaction to a gallery opening or museum exhibit.

I’m assuming that in all of these examples there are some content filters in place. Event sponsors usually don’t want guerrilla marketers to post or send comments that promote a rival brand. Local regulations might punish event sponsors if the moblog included indecent or illegal content.

Collegiate sports are a case in point. During the current basketball season, mainstream journalists and sports bloggers have student sections at several universities for rude and unsportsmanlike behavior. Taunting, intimidation and name calling happen at sporting events and on social media every day. While most collegiate athletic departments hold themselves at arms length from Facebook groups and blogs, these departments always have some interaction with student sections at the actual events.

Related posts

• 25 February 2008: Social Media 101
• 10 August 2007: Forty-somethings flock to Facebook
• 4 June 2007: Illinois high school holds diplomas after crowd celebrates
• 5 August 2006: Isolated Americans are trying to connect

The Honolulu Advertsier reports that after two months and US$50,000 in review expenses, the Honolulu Marathon has posted the 9 December 2007 race results.

Only 1798 Honolulu Marathon runners received accurate times on race day because SAI’s electronic timing system failed. These Advertiser articles from 12 December and 14 December describe the early efforts to identify and resolve the issues, as denial turned to grudging acknowledgment of an unprecedented failure.

A total of 22839 finishers were recorded and confirmed. Organizers used video and image files recorded by third-party vendors, spending an average of four hours to analyze each minute of video.

So when Ryan Lamppa of Running USA, says “They didn’t have to do it, but to their credit, they did,” he’s missing the point. Accurate timing is a key success factor in road races. Every road race that uses electronic timing can report the overall and group winners within a few minutes of their finish. Some participants need their results to qualify for other races, including the Boston Marathon. After running or walking for several hours, most participants want their timing results.

Early in 2007, Honolulu Marathon organizers decided to replace the ChampionChip system that was used for seven years with a paper-based RFID system. Like the Great Aloha Run, the Honolulu Marathon had been renting plastic RFID tags and recording equipment. Dozens of volunteers stoop down and clip the chips from runners shoes after the finish line, so the marathon could get its deposit back.

I’ve been involved in distance running for over 30 years. As far as I know, Hawaii is the only place in the US that uses a comprehensive chip rental system in its races. I’ve got my own ChampionChip, but I’ve never been able to use it in this state because of this rental policy. I stopped running marathons in 2001, but I run shorter, slower races during the year. I’ve obscured the serial number on the top portion of the chip.

Here is a picture of a ChampionChip, courtesy of McBadger. The chip has been opened to reveal a small RFID transmitter. There’s no battery, because the transmitter grabs power when the runner passes over a charged timing mat.

Honolulu Marathon organizers chose SAI’s paper-based RFID system for the 2007 race to save money, time and manpower. Runners could keep their SAI paper tag after the race as a souvenir. No retrieval or rental fees were needed. Additional RFID readers could be deployed on the race course to record split times. A large-scale test of the new timing system before the race would have been a good idea, though.

Ingredients for failure

The Honolulu Marathon failed to test or implement the paper-based system properly, and were unprepared for thousands of finish line questions regarding the results. Some runners found the chip time posted on the bulletin boards in the finish area did not match their own stopwatches. Soon, the bad news spread throughout Kapiolani Park.

1. Poorly trained race volunteers told runners that the RFID tags could be folded or kept on their race number. Turns out the SAI paper tags were so fragile that even one fold may break the tag, and printed instructions were provided on the race number.
2. The tags must be detached from the race number or bib, and placed on the runner’s shoe, so that the RFID sensors on the road can find the tag signal. Many runners left the tags on their number. I wonder if the instructions were printed in English only, and not in Japanese?
3. The electric generators that powered the RFID timing system on the race course flooded and failed in heavy pre-dawn rain. The RFID readers deployed on the race course were not weather-proofed, according to FinalSprint.

Coach Joe English reported last December that other races did not encounter problems with SAI’s paper RFID tags, but the Houston Marathon canceled its 2008 SAI contract when Honolulu’s problems emerged. However, I’ve seen posts on some running web forums that indicate there were SAI-related timing issues in the 2007 Las Vegas and Philadelphia marathons.

Organizers are hoping that Japanese runners, who are a large part of the annual event, will participate in the 2008 race. ChampionChips will be used, and the Honolulu marathon may sue SAI to recover costs. Perhaps all they’ll worry about in the 2008 edition are Race directors usually have other things to worry about headphone bans and baby strollers on the course. But the 2007 Honolulu Marathon will go down in road racing history as a lesson in race mismanagement.

ESPN announced yesterday that it was shutting down its mobile virtual network, Mobile ESPN, at the end of 2006. See these articles in Forbes and Gearlog for details.

I was wondering if anyone was buying these phones or using this service. I’ve seen their advertisements on ESPN all year, but I’ve never ever seen anyone who used these phones.

The target market had to be 21 to 30 year old men, but most of them already have a cell phone.

One analyst noted that ESPN should have marketed the service for a few more months, at least until the end of the college and professional football seasons. Every additional month would bring ESPN more opportunities to promote the service, and provide more potential customers who were at or near the end of their mobile phone contracts.

Very few people want to pay for two cell phones, especially from two different carriers.

Granted, the target market I’ve identified includes a lot of gamblers. Gamblers will buy almost anything if they think it will provide them an edge. Mobile ESPN is an attractive service for these men, as the service delivered text and video content from ESPN’s television networks directly to the customer phone.

Keep in mind that ESPN didn’t operate the mobile phone network. It bought minutes and network management from Sprint, and resold the service to its customers.

Now ESPN plans to license its mobile applications to other carriers. Good luck! There are other mobile virtual network operators in the US such as Disney Mobile, Amp’d Mobile and Helio.

Helio is a joint venture between EarthLink and SK Telecom, led by EarthLink founder Sky Dayton, and partnered with MySpace as its core content source. It’s hard to argue with the man who built the second-largest ISP in the United States, or with the News Corp social networking juggernaut.

But Helio seems to be in trouble. I haven’t seen anyone who uses their phone or their service. Quite frankly, Helio’s teenaged target market has even less disposable income than the Mobile ESPN crowd. Helio does offer a tradeup program that lets customers sell their handset to Helio, but the rules are seem too complicated for most 16 to 25 year olds to follow.

Helio’s latest announcement is a combination EVDO-WiFi card, combining the fastest cellular data service in the US with 802.11 b/g access. Helio is also developing devices with built-in EVDO-WiFI access for release next year. The card is just a stopgap measure.

Imagine a Helio branded PDA or laptop that can access MySpace wherever there’s a decent cell phone signal.

I could imagine an ESPN branded device - but ESPN has thrown in the towel for now.

Sports: Cleveland 22, Yankees 0. I love this country.

Sports: The Tampa Tribune discusses Tino Martinez’ great season with the Rays. Twenty homers and .270 already. I hope they can bring him back next season, but the losing is weighing on Tino.