Sochi Olympics 2014: What's Really Going On?

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It's that time again: Winter Olympics, this time in beautiful Sochi! By now, you've probably seen a variety of reports ranging from strange bathrooms to stray dogs to rampant hacking of foreign visitors in Russia. However, there are now more tools than ever to determine what's REALLY happening on the ground at one of the biggest international events to happen since...well, the last Olympics.

The US State Department hosted a Google Hangout covering travel advisories for foreign visitors to the Olympic Games in Sochi.




However, they didn't mention the rampant "hacking" of tourists that NBC News says they uncovered while visiting Sochi.



You can see coverage of the events on television or streaming online provided you have a cable account - or at the Sochi 2014 Youtube page




However, if you'd like a more unfiltered look at what's happening in Sochi, you'd best turn to social media. Here's one popular Twitter account. Not ALL of those terrible bathroom reports are real, however.




So with millions of posts tagged every day, how can we make sense of the huge amounts of social information on significant events? Some companies, like DigData, are tackling this very problem - for the Olympics, and beyond.




Thanks!

@anniegaus