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  Readers, social networking sites are springing up as fast as it takes to say ‘lawsuit’ which makes it timely that this will be a hot topic of discussion at Sport and Technology: The Conference next Friday (29 June at Inmarsat’s headquarters in London. Note – please don’t go to BT Centre this year as we won’t be there, although they do have a lovely staff restaurant and could probably furnish you with a nice cup of tea.)
Boxing website SecondsOut.com is reported to have joined the likes of Viacom, the Premier League and various French federations in suing social networking supremo YouTube, following claims that it showed the WBO World heavyweight boxing title bout between Vladimir Klitschko and Ray Austin from Mannheim, Germany on 10 March. Despite the pugilism site having the exclusive streaming rights outside the US and Germany, SecondsOut.com’s boss Robert Waterman says that 100,000 people were able to view the fight action free. He’s not happy.
Other sizzling areas of discussion next Friday will include ‘Convergence’, ‘Stadia as Television Studios’ and ‘Technology versus Referees’. Dr Paul Hawkins, inventor of Hawkeye, told S&T that he believes technology will never take the place of human referees, but will our panellists agree with him? You’ll have to come along to find out and also hear keynote addresses from Mickey Charles, president and CEO of The Sports Network and Doug Gardner, FIFA World Cup Programme managing director of Avaya, who are both lovingly crossing the pond to join us.
Particularly thrilling for S&T will be the chance to mingle with Exeter City’s director of football, Tottenham Hotspur legend Steve Perryman, who will be drawmaster at this year’s popular charity raffle. His prize bag will include a FIFA World Cup football signed by Pele (generously donated by Avaya) and an Ashes Tour signed Australian bat (kindly donated by the ECB). Plus there will be the usual array of tenuous prizes that have been rescued from the car boot sale pile, including a very collectable retro-style Bromley Common Football Club tracksuit donated by S&T as proud sponsor (and chairman) of the said club.
Down with the kids  In terms of gossip over canapés and a glass or two of vino next week, S&T is sure that the recent London 2012 logo debacle will no doubt be on the agenda. Bless London 2012, not only are they managing to go stupendously over budget with the Games but they, after much fanfare and hype, unveiled a logo that triggered the largest number of TV-induced epileptic seizures ever seen in the UK. Oops. There’s a story for the grandchildren.
Recently in Beijing at SportAccord, Lord Sebastian Coe promised the audience that London 2012 would be making a great effort to get down with the kids by appealing to them through technology (you know, the interweb, MyTube, YouSpace, Second FaceBook and all that gubbins. Wasn’t like simpler when it was all about roller skating and conkers?)
S&T was shocked to overhear an industry peer saying that hearing Coe talking about technology and the ‘yoof’ of today was a bit like “watching your parents dancing at a disco”. S&T strongly disagrees with this because only recently we watched our mummy throwing some excellent shapes to a bit of Snow Patrol at Beckenham Cricket Club and was rather proud of her moves, bearing in mind she’ll be 60 later this year (well done mum).
But back to the logo, which for those of you too scared to look at it without protection (warning, it is pictured to the above right courtesy of Getty Images Sport/Daniel Berehulak. Don’t blame us if you start foaming at the mouth), is a brightly pastel-coloured affair which has been described in a whole manner of ways (although not by us of course) - from a broken window through to Lisa Simpson doing something naughty. S&T’s favourite comment on this subject was sent into The Times newspaper in the UK that pointed out that, as the logo was copyrighted, were parents to be worried every time their children now stick random pieces of paper on a page? Oh well, like the yeast-based spread Marmite, when it comes to the London 2012 logo, you are either going to love it or hate it, but you certainly aren’t going to forget about it. (But how it tastes on toast of course still needs to be tested, so don’t try that at home. Unless you are really hungry.)
Pressing bench matters  Before S&T signs off for another month and gets our hair coiffured for Sport and Technology: The Conference 2007, we thought we would share two unrelated bench stories with you, highlighting the important juxtaposition of technology and street furniture.
Firstly, as part of its efforts to renovate the run-down Goute d'Or district in Paris, France, the city council has installed WiFi on a public bench in the street. Access, supplied by Neuf-Cegetel, is entirely free of charge with the WiFi signal being radiated from a module on the top of a lamppost overlooking the bench. Coverage is about 50 metres around the lamppost and the bench has been fitted with two electric power outlets, so that people surfing can recharge their laptop batteries. The power output of the outlets is limited to 100 Watts, which will effectively prevent other uses, such as electric heaters for tramps sleeping on the bench. All sounds good n’est ce pas? (And we love the fact that tramps in France are affluent enough to have their own portable heaters). However, two young local resident women told ezine Advanced Television that they would not feel safe surfing the web in this particular manor with a costly laptop on display. (But that’s okay because all the tramps probably have PDAs anyway.)
Meanwhile, in other staggering coincidental bench-cum-technology-related news, the South Devon village in England of East Prawle has been in the news for having such terrible mobile phone reception that villagers have been forced to make calls while standing on a particular bench at the village’s highest point and facing west. Queues are often in place at the bench while people take their turn to make calls (thus making S&T feel nostalgic for the days we all used to wait outside phone boxes for the local chatterbox to run out of 10 pence pieces and then run in to see if they had left any behind. In those days, 10 pence was enough for a bag of crisps, a Curly Wurly and an issue of The Bunty comic after all).
The village’s parish council has been forced to take action after an elderly resident complained that the bench was no longer being used for its original purpose - and was often covered in muddy footprints. Councillors have voted to move the bench to the other side of the village green and put a special ‘phone podium’ in its place. And after 1 July in England, all the smokers will be able to join them too. It’s a win-win! See you next week!
Rachael Church-Sanders
Editor Do you have any bench-related tales that have a technology-slant or do you prefer to make mobile calls from the comfort of your own sofa? It goes without saying that we would adore hearing from you, so send all your comments and stories to the editor (rchurch@sportandtechnology.com) tout suite.
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