Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
As mentioned in my previous post, I’m having a slow day thanks to the side effects of yesterday’s batch of vaccinations. Nevertheless, here’s a video, recorded around 7.15am.
(If the video isn’t working, try over at Viddler.)
A video with Gnaomi and a cat? What a bonus!
Yesterday I was given a, erm, flowchart for diarrhoea, if you’ll excuse the phrase. I’d never realised that diarrhoea needed an instruction manual.
I was also given my vaccinations, as foreshadowed. And it’s all on video, to be published later.
Speaking of video, my diary entry is rather subdued today. Yes, vaccinations do make one feel crap. But I manage to talk about diarrhoea, and about how the online conversation about this project is already taking on a life of it own.
I’ll get that video online as soon as Viddler stops spitting the dummy.
ActionAid face an interesting challenge in taking on this project.
Their message is no longer being delivered through what the estimable Bronwyn Clune calls control media or what I usually call industrial-age media. They’re now participants in a social media conversation. Everyone in that conversation is a free agent, capable of saying what they wish — including myself.
ActionAid will have to overcome the fear of losing control.
Of course, as I explained in The Importance of Authenticity, they’ve never had control over what other people might say. It’s just that now all those ephemeral conversations are visible to everyone on the Internet. It’ll be interesting to see how a traditionally-structured organisation like ActionAid handles this new environment.
The plans for Tanzania are coming together slowly. Meanwhile I’ve been told to get my vaccinations sorted.
This afternoon I’m off to The Travel Doctor to get vaccinations for Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Typhoid, Rabies, Cholera, Malaria, Yellow Fever, Tetanus and Influenza. And I just get told about Dengue Fever, because there’s no vaccine.
(If the video doesn’t work, try over at Viddler.)
’Pong is filming the whole process in glorious HD TV, so we’ll be able to post some of that footage down the track.
Meanwhile, let’s all be thankful for western medicine!
In last night’s post there was a typo in the specific RSS feed for “Project TOTO”. That’s been fixed. The correct URL for the feed is here: Project TOTO feed. If you subscribed before 8am this morning Sydney time, you’ll want to resubscribe to get the right stuff.
[Update 28 May 2008: This post began as an announcement of my Project TOTO trip to Tanzania. But a comment by Archie Law triggered a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion about whether topless garden gnome Gnaomi is a harmless presence in my videos or degrading to women. I responded on 27 May in Look, about that damn topless gnome… Do feel free to continue the conversation.]
If you’ve been following my Twitter stream or read a certain recent blog post, you’ll know that a SEKRIT mission was being plotted. Tonight I can reveal… Project TOTO.
Late this afternoon I received my first briefing note, and it’s reproduced in full over the jump. However in summary, it appears that I’m going to Tanzania on behalf of ActionAid Australia (from 1 June, that’s the new name of Austcare) to report on what I see, and to establish a blog outpost in the local community.
Amongst other things, I’ll be posting daily video diaries. Here’s the first.
(If the video doesn’t work, try directly at Viddler.)
As you see, I’m only just starting to get my head around this. I’ve never been to Africa, and certainly not to the kinds of places that ActionAid operates. That’s challenging enough — except that I also have to set up a training program for people I’ve never met from a culture I’ve never encountered.
And deliver “media product” from locations where… well, where Internet bandwidth might not be as plentiful as I’m used to.
My head is exploding.
Continue reading “Project TOTO: the #secretmission has begun!”
Here’s my 5-minute presentation from WebForward@CeBIT last week, on the importance of authenticity when using social media for business.
It’s recorded on a Nokia N80 phone by Mike Seyfang so it’s a bit rough, but you’ll get the content. You’ll also hear me swear a few times because, well, that’s apparently what I’m now expected to do.
One key theme is that if businesses try to micro-manage every aspect of the communication between their employees and the rest of the world — denying that there are mistakes, or that some people don’t like them — they’ll end up becoming paranoid psychotics. I hope to expand upon that in due course.
Mike also recorded the presentations from my co-panellists Hugo Ortega, Kate Carruthers and Nick Hodge, but not Laurel Papworth for some reason.
I did see a “proper” video camera on the day, so I think CeBIT will place higher-resolution video online in due course. I’ll let you know if and when that happens.
[Update 22 March 2014: Since the Qik video service will cease to exist on 30 April 2014, I’ve embedded a YouTube copy of that video instead.]