Three months has passed since I went back to UWS and I’m about to submit my 1st official document for the PhD. A lot of things have changed from my original proposal (which I was expecting) but funnily enough, much of my original gut feelings about digital media haven’t budged much. I’m being cautious about admitting to having had any great thrills or experiences from a supposedly “democratizing medium” – I’ve always stood in the position where for every skeptic, there is an evangelist ramming their iphone down your throat.

In fact, the bulk of my reading for the last three months hasn’t been about digital technology at all. It’s been about the history of the Olympic Games, about the media coverage and the changing nature of media events. Finally, a historical, cultural and political context I can start applying all this new media stuff to.

Then again, there things that can just blow you away – no matter how jaded nor blindsided by online technology you are or can become. 2010 is going to begin on epic proportions as plan to spend 5 and a half weeks in Vancouver, Canada to cover the Winter Olympics as a staff writer for Culture @ the Olympics (and as part of my PhD research- you may notice a new blog category soon!)

As some of us who are going (as writers, journalists and volunteers who will be working at the Games themselves) have been talking on Skype about our plans, I realised it would be worth putting together a map of potential and confirmed locations where we might be during the time.

Firstly, before I even get to the Games, I’ve managed to make a few connections with people who have a few connections etc – definitely twitter’s Goldenboy attitude coming to play (Not that I’m doubting the fact that people managed to meet other people on the Internet before social media came along to spoonfed contacts to them, but hey!)

Secondly, we’ve managed to all connect on Skype to discuss our bigger plans – having not met most of them yet, and won’t be meeting them until after I’ve already got there, Skype has allowed for us to develop regular contact about particular things that may or may not happen during the events and transfer local knowledge.

Thirdly, I can make a map of all the places I know I need to be, to get an idea of how much movement will be happening through the city – and to see how exactly the Games has started to affect the structure of the area. This can then shared with others and we can help each work out the best routes, the best places to go and the best ways to get close to venues.

Fourthly, and the coolest techy bit is Google Street Map – I have not yet had the joy of planning a trip to somewhere I’ve never been before in the time that Street Map has existed. Ok, scanning around Nottingham (not Leicester unfortunately) is fun – and waving at the Street Car is a novelty, but getting to see the Olympic Stadium (and the yet-to-be-finished social media and arts centre, W2 Woodwards) before we arrive is amazing. Is this a first for the Olympics at least? (Remind me to do the same for London 2012)

This is context at work, and it really does work. I’ve spend the last couple of years documenting and sharing information on a whim, this is probably the first time I’m getting to use it as a traveller and as a native, adding to it as I go. My goal is to be as embedded as I possibly can be, trying to make sense of something from the cultural assumptions I have from participating within online media clusters in the UK. Perhaps it’s just down to the fact that a small island makes it easier to have a different event, with the same people, every day? What’s the hashtag?

It’s the subtle things that seem to be mattering more and more. The stuff that I don’t really want to show my nan on my smart phone when we’re having xmas dinner (google goggles tastes better than an iphone I believe). The ability to maintain a phd progress chart on google docs, which I can update as much as I want, knowing that those who need access can get it, can add to it and keep tabs on ideas. Being able to use Zotero to manage my referencing database, which syncs to its own server – allowing me to swap between computers – without having to stop, save and transfer what I’m doing. Storing the majority of current .pdfs that I’m reading on dropbox – again, so I can tap into them wherever it’s using my netbook on the train, skipping through things on the work computer or working from home, using my desktop and actually doing the hard graft. It’s nice – it’s synced and more importantly, it’s invisible. You don’t need to hear about for it to work.