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The UnConference

Armstrong Center for Professional & Continuing Education, Grand Lobby

Savannah’s new media strategists, visionary entrepreneurs, traditional journalists, bloggers galore, and local interesting characters gathered publicly, in real-life flesh and blood, at the 2nd annual BlogSavannah UnConference yesterday.

Although I couldn’t partake in all of the breakout sessions, my favorite panel was on GPS and Geocaching led by Marvin Heery. I hadn’t ever heard of geocaching, and since me likes to learn, it provided the biggest opportunity to do so. Geocaching is like a digital scavenger hunt, described as “an adventure game for GPS users” on the most prominent geocaching website, (uh, duh) Geocaching dot com.

From my limited understanding on the subject, it seems players all over the world both hide “prizes” in various “secret” locations, as well as hunt for these “prizes”created by other players. Through any number of various geacaching websites, players list the coordinates of a specific spot. Various items are left in the spot by the player that “hid” the treasure, many times a tupperware container with found objects, little toys, etc. There is usually a note in the box explaining the interest of the location, items in the box, etc. Geocaching is also used to bring players to points of interests in an area that perhaps no one else knows about, much like a childhood secret spot in the woods.

While the idea of Geocaching was being explained, it reminded me of the hyper advanced way Trent Reznor and Nine-Inch-Nails promoted their (then new) album, Year Zero. With cryptic messages hidden in a concert t-shirt, USB drives left in concert venue bathrooms, and the slow reveal of unannounced shows, the artform turned out to not only be the album itself, but the interactive discovery of a message created to connect the fans to the band and their music. This speaks volumes of our human and innate yearning for discovery.

Mostly, all of these technologies deliver some truly interesting modes of using the online environment to actually interact offline. Thus, my favorite part of BlogSavannah’s UnConference; Joining with others that have blogging (at least) in common presents the rare opportunity to learn from and meet the real life people behind their online presence and the opportunity for new discoveries.

Words of the day:
Podfade
Geocoding
Peyote Buttons
Libsyn

***DISCLAIMER***My link to BFG Interactive is not unbiased. My other half started and heads the Content Department there.

The Journal of Nomadic and Popular Culture

Pre-order the journal for a hard copy

Every two months, Polar Inertia rolls out extraordinary photographic installments via a magazine (and website) documenting “the story of the highway, mobile home, fast food chain, suburbanite, truck stop, and industrialized landscape.”

Here’s their manifesto:

Polar Inertia journal is an outlet and a resource for on going research into the networks that define the contemporary city. The journal began with the idea that an understanding of the conditions of post war urbanism requires immersion into the technologies and instruments that have molded the growth and image of the city. Using Los Angeles as a primary research laboratory, Polar inertia works under the belief that by exploring and documenting the infrastructure and land use patterns we can begin to understand the contemporary and future city. The research in the journal provides a basis from which to explore the potential for alternative proposals for urban development informed from the daily realities of the city.”

Some pretty heady stuff, with amazing photo’s to match. Check it out!

The Righteous Olympics

With the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver come an estimated 1.5 million attendees, creating a mammoth-sized footprint.

Thanks to VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, sustainability is written into the mission/value statement of this enormous effort.

In 2005 and 2006, VANOC established a set of six corporate-wide sustainability performance objectives. These objectives are based on Bid commitments, best management practices of other Organizing Committees and input from sustainability experts, key partners and stakeholders. They are now an integral part of VANOCâ€™s strategic and business plans.

Accountability, Environmental Stewardship and Impact Reduction, Social Inclusion and Responsibility, Aboriginal Participation and Collaboration, Economic Benefits, and Sport for Sustainable Living are the six objectives. Some of the poignant goals are:

To behave ethically, set measurable performance targets and communicate openly about our progress and challenges

To conserve natural environments and manage, mitigate and offset negative impacts

To care for our workforce, protect human rights, and ensure health and safety

To demonstrate that sustainable innovation and practice makes good business sense

To use sport, and growing athlete and public interest in living more sustainably, to inspire action on local and global sustainability challenges

Vanoc is going for LEED certification on many of the building’s that will be constructed, as well. Imagine if all corporations, business ventures, governments, and individuals sat down and mapped out their intentions like this. Imagine.

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