When AT&T sets up shop in Beijing at the 2008 Olympic Games next month, they will be showcasing the best of the best in telecommunications technologies and services. As the Official Telecommunications Services Partner for the U.S. Olympic team, they will be providing Team USA with the likes of OneNet® Services – the company’s integrated long distance, data service and audio/videoconferencing portfolio, along with a variety of technology platforms, managed services, VPNs, wireless, web hosting and much more.
These very services will provide the Olympians, coaches and support staff not only a means to communicate and exchange information with each other during the Games, but also the outside world- without having verbal or written communications monitored, censored or edited.
More than any other Olympic sponsor such as Coke, McDonald’s or G.E., AT&T has a very unique opportunity to elevate a message to the Chinese government and other developing countries that the right to express oneself and seek knowledge is core to the human condition.
While China continues to make strides in censorship policies it still has considerable progress to make. To its credit, and in agreement with the International Olympic Committee, the Chinese government has unblocked many global sites and most of the English-version of Wikipedia.
But that’s not enough.
U.S. Olympic Committee in partnership with AT&T, should train its athletes to carry a message to the global media that could help accelerate the rate of change in which China allows for a truly open Internet -- one that allows for freedom of speech, expression of the written word, and access to broad content.
It can do so by building a special landing page on its AT&T Olympic web site and adding content to it’s Team USA Blue Room site as well. AT&T’s PR team should counsel Team US on blogging, creating their own videos on YouTube, joining liked minded online communities, Twittering en route to their events, and creating their own FaceBoook profiles. AT&T should ensure these pages are available – and viewable in China and in provide translation of that content in Chinese.
AT&T could easily take the position that they are only a sponsor of the Games and cannot advise, let alone suggest foreign policy- especially in a country such as China.
I believe that more than Olympic sponsor such as Coke, McDonald’s or G.E., AT&T has the opportunity and an obligation to help foster conversation, raise awareness, and impact change- without the need to hire one domestic or international lobbying firm. (For the record, in 2007, AT&T spent $17 million in lobbying initiatives alone).
Winning at the Olympics is the ultimate combination of leveraging the power of ones body and mind. As a sponsor of the Olympics, the “new” AT&T has a unique opportunity to facilitate the process of sending a simple and powerful message to Chinese President, Hu Jintao: tear down that Chinese firewall.
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