As the London Olympic games approached, much talk was of the Olympic Athletes' Hub and how athletes would be more connected to their fans than ever before thanks to social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook.

Do you remember the fear of chaos in London before the Olympic games? The transport congestion and lack of hotel availability? It was predicted that enormous lines would snake around train stations forcing commuters into a 45-minute wait just to get onto a station platform.

The first time volunteers were used at the Olympic games was at London in 1948 so it's only appropriate that at the London 2012 games over 70,000 volunteered to help out. Olympic volunteering is coming home.

Sometimes the line between patriotism and nationalism can seem paper-thin. When I stood in the crowd at the Rebellion punk festival in Blackpool last month, the St George's flags and swastikas were clearly visible, yet the same crowd roared with approval when a Jamaican, Usain Bolt, won the 100m sprint final.