whatleydude

Rejoining the ‘Notes from my Moleskine‘ series, we round up the final three pages from the first Lucozade Challenge: Sandboarding in Nambia.

—– Shofat, Manzoor, Sam, Me, Foyce and Suhel —–

Moleskine entry: July 12th, 2009

I’m home, at last…

We were all supposed to be back Saturday (today is Sunday), but early morning fog meant we couldn’t land in Walvis Bay and so we missed our connection. 24hrs in Windhoek, the Namibian capital, ensued. Forget the delay, the most hilarious thing I saw in those 24hrs was our pilot, Elsa, texting the control tower telling them she couldn’t see them

I digress, the important part is:

I am home.

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Learnings & Memories

: Four kids from Brum can be all the company you’ll ever need for an extreme sports holiday to Africa.

: The stars. They still amaze me.

: A midnight meteor shower over the plains of Damaraland – breathtaking.

: Shofat walking (and subsequently falling) into the swimming pool in Serra Cafeme.

: Dries. Sandboarding. Brilliant.

: Must buy a circular polariser for the camera.

: Satphones can be incredibly useful and yet incredibly infuriating at the same time.

: Lions. Outside the tent.

: Quad-biking at dusk.

: Taking so many photos – a joy.

: Power! She needs more power Cap’n!

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The winners for stage two have been drawn and the competition for stage three opens real soon. Between now and then however, I’ll be Cattle Ranching through Wyoming. I’ve never ridden a horse before, let’s see how that works out…

Before I close the book on stage one mind, I need to make sure I write something about Eric & Raymond.

These were the two guys that held our hands and showed us the way the whole time we were there in Namibia. Without them it would’ve a been very, very boring trip and probably quite rubbish too.

Gents, I tip my hat. Thank you, both of you. You made it all worthwhile.

Back in the Spring, I attended a launch party for a new free-to-air digital channel called Quest TV.

Unfortunately, due to some last minute complications, the launch was inexplicably delayed and is now scheduled to go live tomorrow instead.

What follows it the post I wrote on May 22nd. Most of the points still stand so I have no qualms about dusting it off and finally publishing.

Your thoughts and comments, as always, are welcome.

Enjoy.

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Hero Quest was one of my favourite board games when i was a kid. Yeah you had your Monopoly and your Cluedo, but when it came to getting your Wizard on (and if D&D was too complicated) then Hero Quest was the way to go…

Last night folks, I attended the launch party for Quest TV.

With previews of programs such as Heli-loggers, Rescue Me and the old school Mission Impossible, the whole package was delivered in a jaunty, rather tongue-in-cheek but seriously amusing way.

However, because of the trek down to London from my office in Marlow however, I was late and arrived just as they were showing the channel’s idents. These I thought were quite clever and the scope to expand on them is definitely there, but we’ll come back to this one later.

As the evening went on I was introduced to a couple of representatives from Discovery – the television company behind Quest TV, and we spoke about how/why the social media outreach had been done specifically for this Quest TV’s launch. Aside from the low-cost aspect (and subsequent potential ROI), they insisted it was mainly stemmed from their desire to try something different.

A courageous move for sure and one that should be applauded. What with there being no real case studies to point to (regarding successes/failures with new ‘old media’ channel launches), they have carte blanche to pretty much do as they please. New TV Channels are a rarity here in the UK, so it’ll be interesting to see how they move this forward; it was noted at the time that the worst thing they could possibly do right now, would be to reach out… and then walk away.

Social media isn’t a channel, it’s the nonsense term applied to all things conversational and online, (these days I’ve taken to calling it ‘the web’), however – sticking to that principal – the web isn’t just another channel either. It opens up a world of interactivity and engagement which has never been seen before, especially in the world of ‘old/traditional’ media.

The idents that I touched upon earlier, are a great example of how the web could be used to further their brand.

Here’s a selection of the ones they had on show last night:

Not bad at all.

I can totally see an online campaign which involves viewers at home producing their own Quest TV idents. The ones shown above are short, fun and relatively easy to make. Why not further the conversation by reaching out to your own ‘users’ to help build the Quest TV brand?

Or, maybe ask viewers if they are on some kind of quest themselves. I’m reminded of the Britglyph project which famously had a mad Scotsman take part by placing his own rock in the rain in the middle of the night.
Hilarious, but awesome.

If that was online, what kind of scope do we have with TV?

Like I said the channel launches tomorrow and it seems Quest have already dipped their toes in, let’s see if they’re ready for a swim.

Cross-posted with my new Posterous website, set up purely for #ClimateVoice.
Normal service will return shortly.

(I have many more Moleskine travels to write up and, fingers crossed, I’ll have some other things to talk about by the time I get back too)

In the meantime, here is the first post from said Posterous.

Please remember: I’m not deserting My Happy Place, I just felt that for this one week-long gig, I should take my work elsewhere. I guess when you read some of the things we’re getting up to here, you’ll see.

See you when I get back.

James.

PS. A few commenters have remarked upon the irony of yours truly helping out with the #ClimateVoice project, given the amount of traveling that I’ve done this Summer and my continued response to them has been: I was asked to help and, after my Summer of travelling, I felt it was the least I could do.

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So, the Lucozade Challenges are at an end and I find myself not at home, in London…

But here, in New York.

Why?

Back in February I was part of the team that helped the G20Voice blog get up and running through my work with SpinVox; working with Alfie Dennen of Moblog we were able to set up phone lines all over the world that allowed anyone, anywhere to call up and put their question to the G20.

When Oxfam heard I had some free time at the end of the Lucozade project, they asked if I’d like to tag along and assist with their livestreaming of the event; interviewing attendees and bloggers and generally doing what I do, but for them.

So a trip to NY, working with a charity I love?
Oh go on then..

So for the week that I’m here, I’ll be blogging at this new posterous blog, just for this one project, as a container for all my Oxfam/G20/ClimateVoice content.

Let’s see how it works out.

Thanks for reading,

J.

We’re off to New York City!

After a long, long Summer of travelling, my last stop over before I finally come back home to the UK for good, is right here in New York City (arrived yesterday – neeed sleeeeep). So, to celebrate – I figured I’d throw a Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ event right here in NYC!

Thanks to the combined efforts of Chanse Arrington over at Nokia HQ and Will Sisti over at the S60Users.com the very first MGoNYC event is happened this coming Tuesday, September 22nd starting at The Nokia Flagship Store on 57th and 5th.

I say ‘starting at’ as we do have a limited number of people that are able to come. However, to combat this, as soon as we hit that number we’ll up sticks and go find a nearby bar for us all to hang out in. I’m reliably informed there are a fair few in this part of town.

For the uninitiated among you, the MGoL does exactly what it says on the tin. Whether you work in the industry or not, if you like to get geeky when it comes to all things mobile then MGoL is the place for you.
We have a facebook group that you can join to stay up to date with each event and the current base has recently broken the 500 mark (and still growing).

Read more about the Mobile Geeks of London

Join the Facebook group

We had our seventh meetup a little while back in L.A. and it was actually quite awesome.
With about 50 or so people turning up for the giggles, we had a ball.

I digress.

On the evening of Tuesday September 22nd, at The Nokia Flagship Store, NYC, the Mobile Geeks of London or should I say the “Mobile Geeks of NYC” (#MGoNYC), will be meeting for an evening of Big Apple-based mobile chatter, sharing of across-the-pond knowledge and of course, general mobile geekery.

The Time: 6:30pm onwards
The Date: Tuesday September 22nd
The Place:

Nokia Flagship Store
57th and 5th
New York
NY 10022-2556

Coming? Sign up on the dedicated MGoNYC facebook event page

AND FINALLY!

I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in New York City.
But some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone… You get the idea!

Either way – Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

J

PS – I’m back on the 27th. Expect a MGoL announcement soon after…