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Tuesday 23 November 2010

Mobile broadband experiment - Land's End to JOG

On the motorbike in Scotland
It is difficult not to find the exploits of @Documentally completely compulsive "viewing". Which may mean my mobile beeps constantly for two plus days as Twitter updates come in on his progress from Land's End to JOG (John O'Groats), and the twittersphere shows why social media is a comms mechanism of huge potential.

This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com



As an internet marketer, I've already blogged about using new tools (inc. Twitter which for many is still a mystery) as a branding exercise, as a quick win, as guerrilla marketing, for press releases etc. (Quick Tip: Put RT in your headline!) I have already blogged @Documentally's jaunt to JOG for a client, but I'm not sure they get IT!

As a broadbandIT person, I'm interested in how @Documentally is coping with mobile coverage, data transfer, info overload, juggling devices etc. To date, it seems we have videos, audioboos, photos, texts, tweets and a level of automation to spread the word that implies he is managing jes' fine. And keeping up interesting in-car conversations, sightseeing, verylastminute.com accommodation solving, as well as hitching the length of the country using only a mobile phone.

I'm also rather fascinated at how slowly traditional media are picking up on these type of stories. To the extent that I have resorted to trying multiple routes in to them to get this story coverage. The only one which seems to work is the phone - I got an answerphone on my last attempt.

It may seem a mental escapade and one for which @documentally is well suited, but if it doesn't show Big Society at work, I doubt anything does. At some point, tradmedia will pick it up, by which time, at this speed, he will be either in JOG already or on his way home!

I sort of wish he could have taken longer. Highlighting people's plight around the country for different issues, holding impromptu social media surgeries (@cyberdoyle wins for holding the first one on a bridge with council divers and diggers!), bringing new personal interest stories to light which revolve around technology, IT, broadband etc. But you can sort of understand that would need to be funded as forcing @Documentally to stay on the road without a bean in his pocket would be more than unfair, and far beyond the Big Society ethos.

In the meantime, he has reached Edinburgh from LE in 2 days - an incredible achievement. Now, who can get him to Inverness tomorrow so he can enjoy the slap up meal promised by Vodafone UK?! And I hope someone has warned him JOG is not what it used to be and provides him with a wee dram to drink when he gets there?!

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