Watching the Open Championship (aka The British Open to us Yanks), I thought I spotted an unusual mode of transportation being used by one of the roving camera positions. A quick search of the wires found the image above – a television cameraman operating a steadicam rig atop a Segway was in fact following the golfers. Having chased the likes of Tiger, Norman, Els and the rest of them in the past, I know how heavy all that gear can be – seems like a perfect application of Dean Kamen’s technology. In the image above by AP Photographer Alastair Grant), you can see the driver has the rig aimed backwards at the group walking down the fairway – probably a lot easier this way than fast-walking backwards into one of those pot bunkers! I’m pretty sure this is a custom version of the XT model – while they do sell a version of the scooter adapted for the player with more money than sense that also carries their golf bag (the GT), I don’t see a camera-ready version on their site.
Unlike back in the day when I was with CNNSI.com, real-time biometric and GPS data on the competitors in the Tour de France is now apparently being published into the public domain. Typolis/Ubilabs have created an amazing mashup between Google Maps and data being published by SRM. Here is the result – realtime tracking of the riders, complete with heartrate, speed and similar metrics. Very slick – and better than what I’ve seen on the ‘big sites’ – including ESPN.com. Too bad we can’t see Lance or his disqualified heirs to the yellow jersey.
As an early Father’s Day present, Jonathan hooked me up with BoSox tickets for their interleague series against our hometown Atlanta Braves at nearby Turner Field. Yes, I’m a Braves fan, but I’m a bigger Red Sox fan, and jumped at the chance to let Sam see them play. This was Sam’s third MLB game, the first at six weeks, and then again last Fall. As in the past, he was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd noise and the sheer number of people, but soon began to enjoy himself. The BoSox won, of course, pushing Atlanta further into a downward spin they have been in lately, this being their 16th loss in 19 games, and their worst record since 1990. In better news, this win – along with the Yankees loss today – put the Red Sox into a tie for first in the AL-East. Woohoo. Photo gallery is here.
Editor and Publisher has released the 2006 EPpy Awards (full list here), an annual competition in some 32 categories chiefly focused on new media in the print industry, and several buddies of mine can claim a part in some of the larger awards. My old friend from his AOL Sports days Jim Brady led Washingtonpost.com to Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Internet Service (>1M uniques) as their executive editor and vp. Former Augusta Chronicle photographer Natalee Waters current newspaper The Roanoke Times took home the same award in the under 1-million unique visitors category (one of her audio/picture stories can be seen here). In the Best Internet News Service under 1 million category, The Naples Daily News took the honor where my old boss John Fish and his director of new media Rob Curley won that award. Last but not least my old buds at SI.com took home the award for Best Internet Sports Service over 1 million.
