British Columbia

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Cathleen Griffin usually feeds her passion for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race through the Internet, but next week she'll travel to Alaska for the first time to see the winner cross the finish line in the old gold rush town of Nome.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - What if the Miracle on Ice players had Twitter accounts? Or if the sprinters who raised their gloved fists on the medal stand could have shared their thoughts on Facebook? Thanks to laptops, cell phones and other new technology, social networking could be the route the next transformative Olympian uses to get the word out.

An online search of any major North American city will yield a flood of blogs, advertisements, and diarists' musings.