Safe at Home – Fan Generated Images at Sports Events
Posted on 23. Sep, 2009 by Mike Olaski in Networks, Promotions, Teams, The Connection, The Fans Perspective, The Sports Perspective, Websites
Definitely the best action shot of the night. This play was featured on Sports Centre later that night. It’s always fun to see something on TV you are so familiar with.
One thing that quickly became obvious was how many people have cameras. Of course you might be thinking that was obvious already, and it was, but when you are there to recognize opportunity and trends, it becomes so even more.
So how can sports and fans alike be benefiting all of the photos that are being taken. Often the photos are uploaded directly to the internet now, with Twitter, Flickr and other Mobile Blogging services and video goes right to YouTube on some video cameras.
What I realized is that I would like to be able to access the photos that the crowd is taking, while they are taking them. When this play happened, I would have loved to have seen an “instant replay” by fan generated images, accessible by my iPhone or any other smart-phone. Who took the most interesting shot of that event? Was there an angle that was unique and tells the story a little differently?
And besides, it isn’t just the game events I am interested in. In fact, it might be that “Random Acts” (see this post) during the game that are even more interesting and would likely be not only better told by the fans camera, but also would not likely have been caught otherwise. This could mean a game could essentially be broadcast by the fans via social networks like Facebook, Twitter and more. You could watch all the action of the game from outside the arena. This is emerging now, and some services have features like that, but in time we will see it accelerate into a more consumable game experience
What do you think? Do you think all those cameras provide opportunity for an interesting in-game experience or does it cause problems for the privacy concerns of the fans and the copyright of the teams?
