Formalities

I guess I can now start counting the days!

I have received my flight and hotel confirmations as well as securing an entry visa for China.
As a matter of fact, I never knew there were professional agencies who are specialized in securing assorted visas for individuals, groups and companies.
I chose to trust MerkurReisen (www.visaexpress.de) and I must say they did an excellent job within a few days.
So, Beijing here I come!!!

Preparations for Beijing 2008

So far my preparations are going well according to plan.
I guess I can now provide a summary on my role during the Olympics.
I have been assigned as IDS Assistant Manager to handle IDS Systems mainly at the Basketball venue.

IDS stands for Information Diffusion System and is made up of the following sub-systems:

• Commentator Information System (CIS) - to provide real time competition results for Broadcasters (TV, Radio and Venue Announcers).
  
• Info 2008 (INF) Beijing 2008 Intranet - to provide information for the Press, Broadcasters and the Olympic Family. Information includes results, biorgraphies and background data, medals, schedules, records, etc.
  
• Internet Data Feed (IDF) - to provide information for Internet Services Provider, Broadcasters and the international Press agencies.
• Print Distribution (PRD) - an application used to distribute sports specific reports on paper for the Press and competition management.
• Results Data Feed (RDF) - an application which facilitates report distribution (sport specific, cross-sport and general reports) to the World news press agencies.
• Central Repository System (CRS) - a data repository used to consolidate all information regarding the Games and also servers as a document generator to feed other systems.
  

In order to gain extensive knowledge on my roles and other activities during the olympics, I have successfully completed mandatory eLearning courses and exams covering areas like Systems Architecture, Incident Management, Security, IT Operations and staffing.