save the date - 12th of March

if there was ever a time to watch me do something mad but cool and pushing forward in social media space with the eco, optimized edge i have been pushing forward on it would from the 12th of march.

on that day, i’ll take delivery of the smart fourtwo electric car for seven days as a trial in the hope that i can maybe raise some money to actually rent the vehicle and yet also at the same time, promotion, connect, network with and interview people while i’m driving around.  the plan is simple really.  i’m going to be spending my digital time mobile, out on the road for as many hours per day as i can testing out how well this electric car performs over the course of a week.

these are the things i’m pretty sure will be happening.. ..

streamed live
probably two, but maybe one.  i can definately do one on a stand in the car looking ahead with audio from in the car.  it could be two and at a total push it could be three.  but i have the connectivity, the knowledge and the technology to make it happen.

i’ll be using the cradlepoint mbr1400 for the first time and this badboy can have lots of usb dongles in to serve me up internet for me to stream with.

raising awareness of installation of charge points
let’s cut out the crap here, ideally i would love to be an advocate for raising awareness for businesses getting access to the funding help to put charging points around the east midlands for electric cars.  if there was ever a perfect fit for a project it is this one.

i need transport, eco as much as possible and i have a certain trip that i need to make three times a week at an awkward time (so no lifts or carsharing) and it involves an eco project at the other end.  it’s perfect.

i want this project to happen so i’m going to do what i can to see how many people we can get to download the pdf document and take up a conversation about providing a charging point for an electric car driver in and around the midlands.

testing 3g multi point internet with the cradlepoint mbr1400
i’ve been lucky to be blessed with the best sponsors, like really.  they are awesome.  it will be the first time out with the mbr1400 and i’m not even sure i can get it running in the car without some kind of converter block but i’ll work it out.  i’m pretty sure i can run a 4 way lead from the lighter socket and the draw for charging the phones and the router are fairly low.  we will certainly see how much power it will use from the onboard batteries and if that cause a great problem or not.

a custom website with videos and sponsors
i’ve not got long.  thankfully the website can be relatively lightweight will just being embeds and little blocks of refreshing content that i can include.  i’ve been secretly pulling together assets for the future streaming project anyway so i’m not starting from zero here.  i have a rough idea of the look of the site for the camera stream part.  it will require sketching out from inside my head thou and i need to move on that asap.

kickstarter (or other) fundraising over the course of the week
this will take the longest part to do and i’m not even sure if i’ll have time to push, get accepted and have all the things in the right place, i will for the ulule one because that’s nearly ready to go for the .tv student wordpress ten site project (yes, another part of the overall puzzle for social media deployment in nottingham but i’m going to push here.

i’m going to run two kickstarters for the ark project to see if we can raise awareness to getting funding for that and also another for funding for the car for the year.  if we can get at least the car funding for the year for the streaming project that will give us something to barter with for finding the five companies for finding the £5k from each.

surely, after this they will see the value of realtime social exposure - again, i need your help guys.  so spread the word, eco magazines, editors, social gurus, video people, streaming people.  dads that have daughters and must understand my pain of only seeing my daughter once a week.  ok, that was deep but it’s true.

getting to see my daughter three times that week
at the moment, when finances allow i get to see my daughter who lives about forty minutes away once a week on a saturday.  it’s never enough and i need my baby.  i love her dearly and these are formlative years.

i’m putting everything into this as those that have followed my blog over the last year will know.  having this trial will allow me to go and pick up ella three times or more over the course of the week.  i may even stay overnight locally to her and drop her into school in the morning to see how that runs like.

a ‘where has phil been’ tracking block
this might happen, all depends on if i can meet with my coder guy next week (that’s you dave) and we can pull something together, we have the code we just need to build it out on the site and make a cool little icon for the smart car.  i’m sure someone has one.

yeah, that’s quite an extensive list but i’m pretty sure i can get them things going.  i’ve got a tight timeframe from today until the 9th of march to make this happen and i have a lots of things happening before and after (TEDxNottingham anyone?!?) so this is tight.  i feel like this is another year for pushing the social media boundary of just what is possible these days.

the feels like a test bed to explore the idea of electric transport between nottingham and the ark and to test out the notion of charging and blogging for three hours while i wait for this car to charge (unless i go to a fast charger and then it’s only thirty minutes) - it’s going to be an interesting ride and test/trial and i’m super excited about the opportunity to make it happen.

the cosmos is just aligning for me on things at the moment.

i’m super thankful.  i need your social help thou team.  will you help?

Related articles

• North East has most electric car charging points (bbc.co.uk)
• Network of electric car charging points will link major cities (telegraph.co.uk)
• Electric-Car Buyers: Free Home Charging Stations Offered By ChargePoint (greencarreports.com)
• Electric cars step up a gear for 2012 (bfreenews.com)
• Vancouver to expand electric car charging stations (canada.com)
• Rinspeed Dock+Go provides bolt-on solutions for small electric cars (InnovationToronto.com)
• Green light for electric car project to expand (scotsman.com)
• Revealed: There are more charging points than electric cars in UK as sales slump (tarpon.wordpress.com)

http://fibreca.mp/the-power-of-seven-or-how-many-epic-projects by posted email about save the date - 12th of March if there was ever a time to watch me do something mad but cool and pushing forward in social media space with the eco, optimized edge i have been pushing forward on it would from the 12th of march. on that day, i’ll take delivery of the smart fourtwo electric car for se …

i was super excited to be asked to go on the local BBC Nottingham Radio again yesterday to talk about the ark project that i’m trying to get funded in the heart of the national forest at conkers.

it’s been an idea that has florished into different stages as my need and obsession for this project has intensified. 

we recorded a show about all the reason for, why and what about the ark project and i think this makes it a little clearer for sponsors and investors to see the potential reach of this project.

i’ll be sending this out on this months newsletter as we reposition once again to look for funding to make this project happen.

don’t get me wrong here this has been a battle so far to make this happen. trying to get sponsoring for a project so abstract as this has been difficult especially in the economic climate we are in but the opportunity i am means this the way forward for me to and to leave something of substance for ella.

i want her to know that dad tried to do his bit to help her understand the world around her better, that she would be able to understand better where food came from and how we made it - to be respectful of how to use the technology and yet still be respectful of our local environment. 

being a brand advocate and blogger that was lucky to have been sponsored and flow to a variety of events across the world has made me see the world in a different light and made me look at resources (and often the lack of them) with more respect. 

as much as i can teach my daughter about technology and how to use this to mould her talents in and around the world i believe that the reflection time required to live in that digital world comes from understanding the place we are - where we sleep, the place we move within and our local surroundings.

only when we truly connect with the local environment and the people it contains do we start to understand ourselves and our own actions are reflected back.

taking time to reflect for me after this many years of living digital are something i’m looking forward to and after this years project is over i’ll be looking to purchase my own eco dwelling and live of the land and learn how to optimize on what i have. 

i was asked in the show if i was nervous or worried about the project but as i said in the interview.  i’m just super excited but i really want to get started - ella is at the perfect age right now to really understand this and take it onboard.

i think as a social media it really will be my signature moment to bring together all that i have learned and work with the low conenctivity and low power options that will only be available to me.

 

 

Related articles

• First tenant at Nottingham CleanTech Centre gives companies unique social media gateway (fibrecamp.tv)
• EvoEnergy Sponsors Nottingham GreenWeeks (evoenergy.co.uk)
• How to Get Useful Business Information Out of Twitter: Hashtags for Social Media Research (uber.la)
• Nottingham TV - let’s get started! (timgarrattnottingham.co.uk)
• #SocialMedia The Route To Your Next Gig [INFOGRAPHIC] (anisesmithmarketing.com)

looks nice right? - that’s the smart ebike.

we just tried to take a ride out to conkers this morning to have a chat with the guys about how far along any sponsorship monies are coming seeing as we have hit january and the new finacial year for a large sector of companies that are doing their budgets and spending for the year.  we are looking for £25k to build a zero carbon emissions eco ark in the heart of the national forest as a year long project that will be a pilot project for a much bigger eco site on the grounds.

today was mildly frustrating in that we took one of the major road routes to get to conkers, a road that leads up to the m1 and then we run down part of the outside lane of the m1 to get another another duel carriageway.  we had other routes we could take but we decided against it today.  it did really highlight the whole transport equation of this project and bring home about how packed the roads are. 

i’m looking at a hybrid solution of public transport, bus routes and electric bikes.  i’m pretty sure that i don’t really want to go back into the world of owning a car again and the added hassle it brings especially when you consider my awkward timing when i want to leave nottingham at midday/2pm to drive an hour to pick up my daughter from school.  i cannot really carshare either because i need to know i’ll get the lift to be able to say for definiate that i’ll be at the school to collect her on the days i have her.

it’s an awkward equation but one that i was expecting, all of this project is about optimizing and losing access to things that normally we take for granted and are indeed a luxury.  what we want, what we have and how that equals stress for someone that wants to live a lot more sustainable than i actually do now.  it’s been a real battle mentally about the car license too, having to have a residential address rather than a commerical address.  i don’t live anywhere i’m between addresses — it appears in the uk if you don’t live anywhere you simply cannot have a car.  it’s a bit of a grey area and one that has caused me pain over the last few weeks as i’ve tried to lift the restrictions i have on my paypal access card.

right, back at it.  lots of contacting and chasing up to be done!

quicklink | the nottingham cleantech centre launches!

The GreenTech Business Network would like to announce the launch of the Nottingham CleanTech Centre (NCTC), the first incubator in the region dedicated to accommodating and supporting start-ups and small companies involved in clean technologies.

exciting!

something very close to my heart is the merging together of social media, ethics, technology and enviromental issues.  we have the ability to make our voices heard, the ability to do the right thing by the products and services we offer and the technology processes advancing and superlative speeds that we can make subtle changes to the way we engage with our enviroment.

my whole ark project is focused around what a single person can do not only to live more sustainable but redefine what a new fresh life looks like whilst still utilizing technology to improve the relations and contacts around us to be able to live in a digitally connected world with those assets around us with the internet doing the heavy lifting between it.

indeed the ark will use a lot of technology but in an optimized way, it will look at power and need over want, utilizing elements of the cloud to interact with at a glance without too much thought of taking time out to focus on the creation of the content but more of a virtual intergrated element of my day to day life — taking social media and using it as a barometer or social ping to the people that lie between the studio and the off the grid enviroment. 

so it fills me with great pleasure to be in a potential hub of startups who are using clean, green technology focus to build out products, systems and ideas.  for me, it feels like a bit of a nirvana space and makes the last year of rounding out ideas with fibrecamp one the catalyst leading up to this new space.

what makes 2012 more exciting is the possibility quite quickly of fibrecamp III located in ghent in belgium as a european headquarters and makes spreading the idea of hyperlocal media based studios servicing the five or six blocks around it’s area a real interesting hot pot of digital outreach with the businesses being more than just a partner graphic on a website.

it sparks regular interaction bringing down the potential ‘head down desk’ mode i see from so many companies when it comes to building out services.  sharing, in the business space is as much a requirement as it is for the social realtime world we live in.

i have a really good feeling about the cleantech centre in nottingham, we are going in at ground level, at the rebirth of a space and a refresh for a building that is already bought, it’s owned — it’s not rented or has potential of being problematic — it’s a blank canvas of sorts with the potential to foster some fantastic green tech stars of nottingham and the midland arena.

best of all we get to help them understand the world of social media and create media around some of the exciting concepts and processes these green tech companies have which will obviously feed a foundation of topics for the ark project in 2012.

it’s a perfect fit.  we can’t wait to get started! :)

Related articles

• Predictions for Cleantech in 2012 (environmentalleader.com)
• A Cleantech VC Who is Unconvinced of Man-Made Climate Change (cleantechies.com)
• Nottingham City Council budget consultation phase 1 (seaadvocacy.wordpress.com)
• Invest in Nottingham train officially unveiled (rail.co)

quicklink | futurefactory

(sorry about the poor audio quality in the interview - lessons learnt)

today the team of myself, pcmcreative and ian dearman media were in an ‘ontheground’ capacity to document, tweet and garner attention for a fantastic talk about eco fashions from sass brown. we managed to get a brief interview before the session started about her travels, book and views on where sustainable fashion is today.

after the interview we shot some pictures with sass that she may be able to use on her website or facebook pages and we like to get this rounded media package on a half day or full day ‘ontheground’ project.  i thought they came out pretty good actually.

after our little photo shoot we managed to get access to the lecture hall and setup, we had already done a previous day reccy so we had managed to sort out the IT requirements for connectivity and a wired connection for the stream.  we ended up using wireless microphones from ian dearman media who was with us on the day because we could not really sort anything out with the AV team in time.

we had a few complaints about the screen in the stream but this was out of our control.  i had initially assumed that the wooden blinds on the side window moved but it seemed they are fixed and cannot be used as blinds and the AV team had already found the best setting they could for lighting and the screen.

we think that the projector screen contract and throw of the picture could have been adjusted but we were not able to get access to the projector controller or any help in improving that picture.  i should mention that we used flash media encoder in case we got any drop outs but it was absolutely perfect.  the audio in this stream was a really excellent thanks to ians sennheiser microphones we used.

overall a fantastic first outing for the new triple pack team in the form of myself, pcmcreative and ian dearman media working together on providing the ontheground live stream and after meeting a gentleman called ken this week we might have access to an outside satellite truck for those normally hard to broadcast locations that we sometimes get asked to go on.

if your a nottingham business and your looking to live stream your event with full social media coverage for under a £1000 for the day do get in touch as we have the perfect solution for you.

i’ve arrived!

currently writing this out from the ground base that is conjuncture - a fantastic mellow co-working space in austin texas.

arriving into austin around eight last night as i missed my 3:30 connecting austin flight from houston i got put on standby and did not get going until around 7:15pm - landing just after eight at the austin airport.

i then got chatting to a great guy on the information booth about austin - he gave me a bunch of places that i should check out over the course of the week. feels great to have a conference that i can go to and then explore austin around the edges.

for the first time i also braved out a different method of transport from the airport - the $1 flyer 100 from the airport was super simple. i’ll be using that on sunday to get back to the airport no doubt.

wandering over to the hilton last night to see if i could grab the mifi from the ups hosted at the hilton (it was closed too late) it was interesting to see a quieter southby.

the buzz of all my adventures of this city however remain with me so i was painting in the visuals of the crowds regardless. i feel blessed by my sponsors for making this happen.

i’ll be trying my upmost to get as much coverage out over here about our livingARK project but also learning a lot from the sessions and the speakers who are in attendance this week.

if your here to demo a product, project or service for sxsweco and we are not following each other on twitter do follow back and check out the ark site - ark.me.dm for more details of where my content from this week will be heading too.

right now, i’m heading out for lunch at the iron cactus i think. i love that darn place, a beer or two and a bit of a lay down in the park near the river till after 3pm when i’m hoping i have a place to crash for the week in downtown.

connected with friends local old and hoping to meet the new ones over the coming days - feels good to get a virtual break of sorts too.

feels like i’m back home.

last week really lit a fire underneath me.  then sxsweco said we had won a grant for a ticket (saving us $800) and so now i’m in full on ‘enable us’ mode to get us out to austin, texas to the very first sxsw eco conference in october.  we have a tight schedule for sponsoring so we have a lot of work to do in the next seven days to make this a reality.  we are doing an outreach to as many people as possible in the hope that people will help us make this happen.

i was in two minds about actually flying to an eco conference but after a reality check with a bunch of people the fact is once the ark is built chances are for a year i’ll not be flying anywhere as i’ll be committed to the project.  sxsw eco might be the last southby until after the project.  i’ll be insanely jealous of people going in march but you know in the grand scheme of things this project is so much more than a week away at a conference.  it’s huge.  it has massive potential.

i just hope people can see the potential of what the year in the heart of the national forest will bring from me and my daughter as we discover and encounter the many different nuances of the ‘off the grid’ life - after this i’m never going back to bricks and mortar.  this is it, the blueprint and starting point for my future life of living in a more sustainable way.  for once in my life i’m gonna be committed to something and discover a new side of me that needs to be kept alive by living not existing and in the process preparing my daughter for a different future world that she may live in her lifetime.

possibly when i’m not here.  this is a memory archive too, a year when we spent time together in the ark, a media archive to look back on and discover what daddy and daughter did and for me to prepare her with her own ark that she can live in or sell or just reflect on the time when she was. ..

. . off the grid, but in the clouds.

quicklink | ulule donation

i’ve been debating this when i should have just been making decisions about it. i’ve been debating if all that flying was worth it and a good idea.

southby the main sxsw event is something i’ve been going to since 2008.  it’s the only really big event that i definately always want to go too.  it would be my fifth year in 2012 but i’m not sure i can make it if i’m going to do the ark project justice so this sxsw eco event is perfect timing on many levels - one to talk about the ark project, two because i’ll miss the march event, three because it’s a platform to connect the ark potentially as a live stream to sxsw remotely.

i’ve cut down my travelling to maybe around 2 flights a year this year so far when in previous years for a variety of projects i’ve said ‘yes’ too a lot more than that.  i know that by simply not flying that’s not really enough to lower my own personal footprint - the ark thou is and cutting out the car for the last few years and walking everywhere has helped that too.

i’m a geek thou so trying to keep to these things and spreading that message about watching your footprint and consumption can be hard when you work in this digital space as you tend to need to technology to spread a message.

one of the things about fibrecamp is about re-using empty spaces, getting the most out what you have, trying to squeeze the most out of kit that most people would just throw on landfill, heck we even had a discussion last week about the nomad jackets and the packaging for that - we got all the way to a guy that recycles bags from hoovers!

anyway.  i’ve had a fire lit under my backside via @jasonjarrett for this sxsw eco in austin in october.  i’ve not got much time to be able to pull this together so i thought i’d put this out there and see if people would be interested in helping me out to get there.  i’ve done the numbers and it’s looking like this.

at the moment i’m emailing sxsweco about some grants for registration because it’s $800 (we got it!!!) which is a heck of a lot of money for someone that’s been living without practically any for the last year (bit’s but not chunks like this) and then you have a flight. that’s gonna be around £680-£700 even from london heathrow right now and my place to crash is gonna be about $450 for the week - i could ask a friend maybe who lives in the city but i really want to be in downtown for this without having to travel back and forth and be dependant on anyone.

So, if i don’t get the grant i’m looking for a grand total of about £1500 £1250 to make it over there. i’m hoping that the grant might come through (it totally did!) - the extra £250 would be useful for the week for food and getting around and for an emergency fund i guess - otherwise i can use that toward ark admin fees or something to get started when i get back.

I’ve setup a ulule fundraising page because i’ve used them before and i love the guys.  they are based in france but i’ve used them before to raise money for the mac mini in the studio which we funded (thankyou)

*update* - i got the grant for the project! - woot! - saved myself the registration!

we got this great report yesterday morning from gerry and i’m managed to convert it into a pdf document for you all to view and share in.  i’m yet to fully read it in absolute detail but the elements that i did read make me glad that we have rangers onside and assisting us in this way.

without gerrys input the project would have stalled at many stages and we are very keen to get the wood cut and the process rolling.