Design work trumps new technologies at Beijing Olympics

When Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officials promised to use it as a showcase for new technology and China’s economic development.

But the reality is that while the games will display the world’s top athletic talent, it will be using old, mature technologies.

A lot of new technologies, and even some mature ones, have already been cut from the roster. Microsoft Windows Vista, for example, won’t be the OS used on any of the PCs responsible for vital functions at the Olympics; its predecessor Windows XP will. WLAN didn’t make the grade either. All networking for the games will be done by wireline.

Officials have even prepared a mobile Web site for the Olympics based on WAP, instead of GPRS or 3G. The site is designed to provide up-to-the-minute scoring information, and it’s already online.

“We’re only using proven technologies at the games,” said Hou Xinyi, deputy director of the technology department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which has taken the acronym BOCOG. If China’s 3G system is up and running by the end of this year, the official Web site for mobile users will be more useful to people, he added.

So far, China hasn’t said when it will start issuing 3G licenses.

The nice thing about WAP is its reliability and usability. Most wireless networks can be used with it, including CDMA, GSM, PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), TDMA, and most OSes allow people to read information from WAP sites. It’s just not as fast as 3G, not by a long shot.

But while the technology may be lacking, attendees to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be treated to some spectacular design work. Not only are some of the stadiums being built for the games unique — and unusual for Beijing — the torch to be used in the round-the-world relay is also easy on the eyes. And it was developed by a PC vendor, China’s own Lenovo Group.

Lenovo won the design contest for the 2008 Olympic torch. The company’s PC designers came up with a 72-centimeter-tall, 985-gram aluminum torch in the shape of an ancient Chinese scroll.

The torch is two colors, split in half in the same manner as the Yin-Yang symbol, said Y. J. Yao, a vice president at Lenovo and head of the design teams. The upper half of the torch is silver with cloud designs outlined in red, while the lower half is red, covered by a special paint with a rubbery feel, a no-slip safeguard so that runners won’t drop it if they’re sweating during their 400-meter portion of the global torch run.

Originally, the company thought about using a dragon design on the top of the torch, but “the dragon is a symbol for the emperor, not for everyone, so we can’t accept the dragon,” Yao said. The cloud is for everyone, and represents the coming together of heaven and earth, he added.

The name of the torch is the Cloud of Promise.

The form of the torch — the scroll design — denotes paper, a useful item and a Chinese invention, Yao said. The color was chosen via a survey. “We asked, what color is China? Over 99 percent of respondents said red,” Yao said. The color represents fire and warmth, friendliness and luck.

People who like pictures of the torch might be interested in buying one of the laptop PCs Lenovo designed using the torch colors and styles. The company plans to auction off 2008 of them online and donate the proceeds to charity; eBay is helping with the auction, but it won’t be an eBay URL, said Yao.

“We have a passion for the Olympic Games,” Yao said. “You know, when it’s happening in your city, you have a passion for this.”

The other top Olympic-related design work has gone into the new National Stadium, referred to by many as the Bird’s Nest due to its unorthodox construction. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games will take place in the stadium.

The exterior of the 91,000-seat stadium resembles a bird’s nest, a steel exoskeleton wrapped around the outside of the site. The design is bold and striking. It’s hard to tell how it’s going over with local Beijing residents, though. Many complain that there’s nothing Chinese about it, and one of the best comments this reporter heard on a recent trip to the city was “I guess it will take some getting used to.”

Beside the Bird’s Nest is the National Aquatics Center, where all swimming and water sports events will take place. Based on the geometry of water bubbles and crystals, the center was nicknamed the Water Cube because of the design of its light blue and white outer membrane.

The Cloud of Promise, Bird’s Nest, and Water Cube are all attempts at innovative design. Unfortunately, the technology used at the games won’t be quite so bold.