Investing in the legacy of the London 2012 Games - The Independent
Since day one, Cisco has anticipated with pleasure, the mammoth task of providing the network infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Not least because the legacy of this investment will benefit London and the UK for many years to come.
Part of this legacy is already under way in the form of the Cisco Networking Academies. This is a global, online education programme that teaches students how to design, build, troubleshoot and secure computer networks, giving them access to career and economic opportunities they would never otherwise have had. Between now and 2013 Cisco aims to open 30 new Cisco Networking Academies in East and South-east London, capable of improving the prospects of more than 4,000 students in the next five years.
Cisco will equip selected Networking Academy schools and colleges with technology, ITE and Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) online training and lab equipment. However, the academies are not restricted to traditional schools, colleges and universities. Cisco has run successful academies in places as diverse as community centres, football clubs, prisons, military bases and even homeless shelters.
To demonstrate the potential of the programme, Cisco is staging the Inspiration Roadshow. Roger Black, winner of Olympic silver and World Championship gold, will inspire young people to consider careers in networking, and encourage schools to become Networking Academies. With him will be Sean Kelly who, with the help of the Networking Academy, turned his prison sentence into a lifechanging career opportunity. Kelly is a perfect example of how Cisco’s Networking Academies can change the lives of young people in London.
In years to come, the 30th Olympic and Paralympic Games will be remembered not only for breathtaking feats of athleticism, but also for the event that launched a new era in education. Students in East London and across the UK will be able to create their own life changing experiences, through Cisco’s Networking Academies.
To find out how Cisco could help prepare your students for the future, visit: www.ciscolondon2012.co.uk/learn/cisco-academy
In association with Cisco, Official Network Infrastructure Supporter for London 2012
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Interest from local community is key to enduring legacy of Olympics Many organisations involved in the Games are already looking ahead to the legacy they'll leave behind.
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London Welsh appeal to block Premiership promotion delayed for seven days - Daily Mail
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London Welsh's appeal against the decision to block their promotion to the Aviva Premiership has been delayed by a week.
The case will now be heard on June 28 - it was originally scheduled for Thursday - under agreement by all parties involved.
The independent panel will compromise of James Dingemans QC (chairman), Ian Mill QC and Tim Ward QC at a venue yet to be confirmed.
Appeal: Welsh are hoping their recent victory isn't in vain
Welsh won this season's Championship after beating Cornish Pirates in both legs of the final.
But the Richmond-based club were told just hours before the first leg kicked off in Cornwall they did not meet minimum standards criteria set down by English rugby's Professional Game Board for entry to the Premiership.
The Exiles played the final's second leg at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford, which is thought to be their preferred venue should they gain top-flight status.
As things stand, Newcastle will remain in the Premiership next term despite finishing bottom by a point behind Wasps this season.
But should London Welsh succeed in overturning an original decision that went against them, then they will go up and the Falcons be relegated.
US watchdog hits at ‘risky’ London - Financial Times
Last updated: June 19, 2012 11:16 pm
London Games to be first social media Olympics - The Guardian
STEPHEN WILSON
Associated Press= LONDON (AP) — Tweet this: The London Games will be the first Olympics told in 140 characters or less.
The London Games will be the most tweeted, liked and tagged in history, with fans offered a never before seen insider's view of what many are calling the social media Olympics, or the "socialympics."
Hash tags, (at) signs and "like" symbols will be as prevalent as national flags, Olympic pins and medal ceremonies. Some athletes may spend more time on Twitter and Facebook than the playing field.
Mobile phones have become smarter, laptops lighter and tablet devices a must-have for technology lovers — meaning social-savvy fans, whether watching on television or inside the Olympic stadium itself, will be almost constantly online.
Organizers expect more tweets, Facebook posts, videos and photos to be shared from London than any other sports event in history. The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver offered just a small glimpse of what's to come.
"Vancouver was just the first snowflake," said Alex Hout, the International Olympic Committee's head of social media. "This is going to be a big snowball."
Twitter is already braced for a surge of traffic. Launched in 2006, it has become a key outlet for sports fans to trade messages during live events.
Users sent 13,684 tweets per second during a Champions League soccer match between Barcelona and Chelsea in April, a record volume of tweets for a sporting event — busier even than the 2012 Super Bowl. Chances are good that will be one of the records broken in London.
"It could be the 100-meter final or something unexpected," said Lewis Wiltshire, Twitter U.K.'s head of sport.
At the last Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, Twitter had about 6 million users and Facebook 100 million. Today, the figure is 140 million for Twitter and 900 million for Facebook.
"In Sydney (2000) there was hardly any fast Internet, in Athens (2004) there were hardly any smartphones, in Beijing hardly anyone had social networks," said Jackie-Brock Doyle, communications director of London organizing committee LOCOG. "That's all changed. Here, everyone has all that and will be consuming the games in a different way."
Later this month, at trials in Calgary for Canada's Olympic track and field team, athletes will even wear Twitter handles on their bibs — encouraging fans to send messages of support as they race.
Sponsors have also taken their Olympic campaigns online. Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Visa and BP are among those using Facebook to reach younger consumers. Samsung is even offering to paint the faces of Internet users with their national flag — virtually, of course.
"They key difference from four years ago is that now almost everyone has a smartphone, which means everyone can participate in real time," said Adam Vincenzini, an expert at Paratus Communications, a London-based PR and social media marketing agency. "You used to have to be sitting at your desk to access various social media platforms. Now you can have your phone or tablet on your lap while you watch, whether that's at the pub or the stadium."
The IOC, with 760,000 Twitter followers and 2.8 million on Facebook, will host live chats from inside the Olympic village with athletes, allowing the public to pose questions using social media accounts. It has already created an online portal, called the Athletes' Hub, which will collate posts from their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Under IOC rules, athletes and accredited personnel are free to post, blog and tweet "provided that it is not for commercial and/or advertising purposes" and does not ambush official Olympic sponsors and broadcasters. Social media posts should be written in a "first-person, diary-type format."
What about spectators using their phones and iPads to take photos and video?
"There is no problem with photo sharing," Hout said. "We encourage it. But monetizing is not allowed."
"People are allowed to film. They're allowed to do that on their phones," he said. "The thing that we ask is that content is not uploaded to public sites."
The reason is to protect the exclusivity of the broadcasters who shell out big money for the rights. NBC, for example, paid more than $1 billion for the U.S. rights to the London Games.
"We encourage the use of social media. We encourage athletes to engage and to connect," Hout said. "There are some rules to follow, there's no question about it. But we don't police the fans, we don't police the athletes. We don't do that. What we do is we engage."
Facebook launched an Olympic page on Monday that groups teams, sports, athletes, broadcasters and in one place. The site has pages dedicated to specific Olympic sports and links to Facebook sites for 60 national teams and 200 athletes, including Michael Phelps, LeBron James and David Beckham.
LOCOG also plans to announce new Olympic tie-ups with Twitter and Google.
But London Olympic organizers have drawn up strict rules for their employees and the 70,000 Olympic volunteers. They have been told not to share their location, any images of scenes in areas that are off limits to the public, or details about athletes, celebrities or dignitaries who they find themselves in contact with.
"We are not stopping people from using social sites," Brock-Doyle said. "We say there are lots of things about your job — procedures, places you'll be and do — that remain confidential. There are elements of your job you can't share with wider groups of people."
Athletes, too, will need to navigate the social media world carefully.
Australian swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk have already been punished after posting photos of themselves on Facebook in which they cradled pump-action shotguns and a pistol in a U.S. gun shop.
The Australian Olympic Committee ordered them to remove the photos immediately. The swimmers have been banned from using social media for a month starting July 15 and will be sent home the day the Olympic swimming program finishes.
The British Olympic Association has offered advice to its own athletes, suggesting that "a few smiley faces and LOL's (online speak for laugh out loud) will make you seem more approachable and encourage more people to talk and ask you questions." What not to do: "Don't get into disputes with your audience."
British swimmer Rebecca Adlington, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a leading medal contender in London, has spoken out about abuse she has received about her physical appearance from some users on social media sites. She has already blocked the worst offenders from being able to contact her, but insists she won't stop using Twitter, where she trades dozens of messages a day with more than 50,000 followers.
"I'm insecure about the way I look and people's comments do hurt me," Adlington said in a message posted on Twitter.
While some athletes prefer to tune out from social media to concentrate on their competition, others embrace the opportunity to interact with their fans.
"Letting people know what I'm eating, how I'm sleeping, what the venues are like — people want to know what we're going through," U.S. gymnast Jonathan Horton said. "They want to know what it's like going through the experience and what we're up to."
All in 140 characters.
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Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap
Follow David Stringer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/david-stringer
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AP Sports Writer Nancy Armour in Chicago contributed.
London 2012 Festival sells half of its 4m tickets - BBC News
Two days before London 2012 Festival begins, organisers have revealed that about half of the event's 4m paid-for tickets have been sold.
Another 2.3m free tickets, out of a total 10m, have been snapped up for the 12-week arts festival.
Speaking on Tuesday, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he didn't think the "penny had yet dropped" with the public regarding the scale of the endeavour.
The festival launches on Thursday with five headline events across the UK.
“Start Quote
End Quote Culture Secretary Jeremy HuntI don't think the penny has yet dropped with the public”
These include an inflatable replica of Stonehenge by artist Jeremy Deller at the National Botanical Gardens in Carmarthen, and a pyrotechnic display in the sky above Windermere.
Other events take place in Stirling, Londonderry and Birmingham.
There are more than 130 events during the opening weekend and more than 25,000 artists from all 204 Olympic nations will take part over the 12-week festival - which is billed as the climax to the four-year Cultural Olympiad.
Tony Hall, the Cultural Olympiad chairman, said the take-up of tickets had got off to a "really strong, positive start".
More than 2m people have already bought tickets for the London 2012 Festival and countdown events such as the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Hall also said that many arts organisations had won new audiences through the Festival programme. Some 80 per cent of the audience at the recent Globe to Globe season at Shakespeare's Globe were new attendees.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt described the London 2012 Festival as "a huge moment" in the UK's cultural history.
"I don't think the penny has yet dropped with the public," he said.
"I think they are beginning to appreciate the scale and the excitement of the Games, but the scale and the excitement of the biggest cultural festival in our history is still something that people have yet to appreciate."
He added: "Hopefully it will excite culture vultures but also excite lots of people who haven't previously engaged with the riches that we have."
The festival begins on Midsummer's Day, 21 June, and runs until 9 September - the end of the Paralympic Games.
Other highlights in the first week include comedian and musician Tim Minchin performing at The Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall, and Jay-Z and Rihanna headlining the Radio 1 Hackney Weekend.
Festival director Ruth Mackenzie said she hoped the £55m cost of the festival would prove to be "pretty good value for money".
New money brightens London auction picture - The Independent
London copper drops on Spain worries; Fed hopes limit fall - msnbc.com
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - London copper slipped on Wednesday in thin trading, with worries lingering over Spain's debt problems and as some investors looked to cash in on gains made the previous day.
Spain lurched closer to being shut out of credit markets when it had to pay a euro era record price to sell short-term debt on Tuesday, stoking fears the global economy could slip into recession and crimping demand for metals.
But falls were limited as many investors are hoping the U.S. Federal Reserve will boost liquidity in financial markets by announcing the extension of its bond-buying program at the end of a two-day meeting.
FUNDAMENTALS
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange had fallen 0.5 percent to $7,570 a metric ton by 0126 GMT, after rising 1.3 percent on Tuesday.
The most-active October copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.7 percent to 55,070 yuan ($8,700) a metric ton, catching up with prious gains in London, after losing 0.5 percent the session before.
Spain's soaring borrowing costs showed that a euro zone deal to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($126 billion) for its banks had not solved the country's problems or restored investor confidence and suggests more aid may be needed to fix its finances.
Some economists think that with economic storm clouds gathering abroad and signs the U.S. recovery is flagging, the Federal Reserve may feel compelled on Wednesday to launch a new round of monetary stimulus - a move that may boost commodity prices.
In Greece, conservatives and socialists edged towards a deal on a new government on Tuesday that would seek concessions from the country's lenders on its punishing austerity program, and the euro zone signaled it was ready to negotiate.
Europe won support from world leaders on Tuesday for an ambitious but slow-moving overhaul of the euro zone, even as pressure built in financial markets for quicker solutions to its debt crisis.
A group of senior Chinese advisers have called on the government to relax property market restrictions to ensure brisk growth in the domestic economy, a state-backed newspaper reported on Wednesday. Such a move will likely boost base metal prices in anticipation of more demand from the real estate sector.
China's central bank could rely on cutting the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves to bolster growth but reserve further interest rate cuts as a last-resort policy option, economists familiar with Beijing's policy-making process said.
For the top stories in metals and other news, click
MARKET NEWS
World stocks rose and the euro gained on Tuesday amid optimism the world's major central banks will provide more economic stimulus as the euro zone debt crisis worsens.
The euro rallied against the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen on Tuesday, buoyed by positive news out of Greece and as a run-up in Wall Street stocks encouraged investors to take on riskier positions.
(Reporting by Carrie Ho; Editing by Joseph Radford)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
London 2012 Olympics: Games legacy corporation chief Andrew Altman exits 24 hours after new chairman starts job - Daily Telegraph
Altman’s departure comes as the LLDC’s focus shifts to construction post-Games and he will be replaced by Dennis Hone, his counterpart at the Olympic Delivery Authority. Hone will do both jobs until a full-time successor to Altman is found, a role that Hone will be favourite to fill.
The LLDC has consistently struggled with the fundamental flaw of the stadium – the retention of the track makes it unattractive to football clubs – but the problem is clear from the calibre of the bidders in the last tender process, all four of whom can be revealed for the first time.
As well as West Ham, the only serious player, the LLDC has received a bid from the University of East London, which included some interest from Essex County Cricket Club.
Telegraph Sport understands that there were also bids from the University College of Football Business, an arm of the Bucks New University, as well as a company claiming to be bidding on behalf of Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One.
The bid was lodged by an east London company called Intelligent Transport Services Ltd. Ecclestone did not respond to queries as to the nature of the bid, but it is not thought to be being taken seriously by the LLDC.
The first tender process, in which West Ham were selected as preferred bidder over Tottenham, was derailed by legal challenges from Spurs, and the second foundered on a challenge from Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn.
The tender process was launched for the third time last month, with the deadline for bidders July 12. West Ham remain favourites to occupy the stadium. They have huge leverage and the LLDC’s position is weak.
Rather than do a bad deal with West Ham, Moylan may consider proceeding without a football tenant, relying on concerts and one-off events to cover the £10 million-plus costs of running the stadium.
Income from the stadium is crucial to paying for the upkeep of the entire park, however. There is also the problem of finding a use for the vast broadcast centre, which could be an even bigger headache than the stadium.
Vauxhall launches new 195-HP turbodiesel Astra GTC together with refresh - Autoblog
2012-06-15
- Brit-built Astra Hatch and Sports Tourer get new, bold look
- New GTC BiTurbo diesel becomes most powerful non-VXR Astra model
- All Astras now available with range of new options, including Front Camera System
- Underpins Astra success as best-selling British-built car in UK
Luton – These are the first official pictures of the new-look Astra Hatch and Sports Tourer, along with the latest addition to the GTC range, the 195PS BiTurbo diesel model.
Available to order now, with first deliveries in September, the refreshed design of the Astra Hatch and Sports Tourer – both of which are built at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire – gives the cars a more bold and aggressive appearance. Both body styles get a new front grille, with repositioned logo-bar in the upper section and a re-styled lower section too. New front indicator lamps and a new design of fog lamp (where fitted) complete the front-end revisions.
The rear of both models has also been refreshed, with new rear-panel styling complemented by a chrome lower moulding.
New-look Astra pricing remains unchanged from the previous model.
Also available to order from today is the Astra GTC 2.0 CDTiBiTurbo, which will become the most powerful non-VXR model in the range, producing 195PS and 400Nm of torque. And while the extra power and torque give it a healthy lift in performance with 0-60mph arriving in just 7.8 seconds and a top speed of 139mph, the BiTurbo still achieves a combined 53.3mpg and C02 emissions of 139g/km. All BiTurbos receive Vauxhall's Start/Stop system as standard.
Uniquely in this class, the GTC uses a sequential turbocharging system, with the smaller turbo accelerating quickly at lower speeds to eliminate 'lag', providing 350Nm of torque from just 1500rpm. In the mid-range, both turbochargers work together providing maximum torque of 400Nm between 1750-2500rpm.
The Astra GTC BiTurbo enters the range at £23,925 – a premium of £995 over the GTC 2.0 CDTi 165PS model – but in addition to extra power and torque, receives: bespoke 18-inch alloy wheels, Electronic Climate Control, 6mm lower ride-height, a new body-kit and 'Track' interior trim, with a flat-bottomed leather steering wheel.
Enhancing the appeal of all Astra models still further is the introduction of a raft of options previously unseen in the range. Customers can now order the Driver Assistance Pack, which for £750 includes features like Forward Collision Alert, Lane Departure Warning, Traffic Sign Recognition and Following Distance Indicator.
Other new options for the Hatch and Sports Tourer only include a Rear View Camera Pack, Winter Pack (heated steering wheel and seats for £345) and LED daytime running lights (£145). Three new colours – Sculpture Bronze, Phantom Grey and Deep Sky – have also been introduced, while the Astra's standard DAB radio has been upgraded to a DMB (Digital Media Broadcast) system across the range.
As with all Vauxhall passenger cars, Lifetime Warranty is standard, giving first owners the peace of mind of a warranty that literally lasts the car's lifetime, up to a maximum 100,000 miles.
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