By Sree Sreenivasan
DNAinfo contributing editor
Media observers point to the porn industry as a place where digital innovation often happens first. But I want to make the case that the sports world, especially during this World Cup, is filled with interesting new and newish attempts at digital presentation.
Not all of the examples I cite were created for the World Cup itself, but taken together, they bring digital storytelling to a whole new level. Many of these are also models for non-sports coverage as well - especially for complicated stories around elections, natural disasters, etc.
Events like this year's Winter Olympics and this week's Wimbledon offer opportunities for news and sports sites to showcase their websites, but no other event offers a month-long festival of games that are of interest around the world.
Another way to look at it is that this particular tournament requires better coverage than other events because of its length, the number of matches and wide range of countries involved. Because of the huge amounts spent on television rights, most sites don't have access to live video (ESPN3.com and UnivisonFutbol.com are welcome exceptions) and have to rely on other ways to keep their audiences engaged, including via social media. So here's a collection of links worth checking out as you prepare for the finals in two weeks.
* FIFA.COM: Let's start with the official site of the tournament. It is the best organized and most informative of any sports league or tournament that I have seen. Bold, clear graphics and easy navigation are just the beginning. The MatchCast feature, which provides play-by-play text coverage and live stats from the game, is a good way to keep up with games when you are away from the TV.
* MASHABLE WORLD CUP HUB: Mashable, which covers social media better than anyone else, has put together a must-visit collection of its stories about the World Cup. See its collection of good apps for various mobile platforms (each link takes you to the relevant list) iPhone; Blackberry; Android. It also looks at how you can watch the games live online (or at a nearby bar) and how social media has evolved at the tournament since 2002.
* TWITTER: There are several interesting ways to follow the matches via Twitter, starting with Twitter.com/worldcup. That page brings you live tweets from FIFA, as well as folks around the world, including tweets about a single country's performance. I also like what others have done with Twitter. The UK-based Guardian's Twitter Replay shows you how the Twitterverse was reacting to games in progress - and how emotional soccer fans can be.
* THE TELEGRAPH TOOLBAR: Another British newspaper has created a useful piece of technology. A toolbar you download and add to your browser that brings you news, live scores and more from the World Cup.
* WALL STREET JOURNAL GOAL TRACKER: The Journal, which knows big business when it sees it, has stepped up its sports coverage and has being doing a lot around the World Cup. Its goal tracker is fun and ambitious: "The Wall Street Journal is going the full 90 as it tracks every goal scored in the 2010 World Cup. Sort by player, country, club team and more."
* MARCA MUNDIAL 2010: Madrid-based Marca offers a lot of multimedia features, but the fact that some of them are both in Spanish and English (such as its calendar and its guide that tells you about each of the 736 players and lets you compare them to each other) shows the amount of energy and resources they've invested in the coverage.
Of course, this list is just a start. What high-tech features did I miss? Let me know in the comments or via Twitter @sreenet.
Every week, DNAinfo contributing editor Sree Sreenivasan, a Columbia Journalism School professor, shares his observations about the changing media landscape.
