geek tour: in search of internet

[chris raettig <chris@raettig.org>]

or; "technomadic adventures"

or; "from port to port with chrisr"

or; "he couldn't route his way out of a paper bag"



about a year and a half ago, i had an idea. inspired by
a 1996 issue of wired magazine which featured a mammoth
article by neal stephenson (a favourite author of mine)
on the subject of trans-continental submarine cable laying.
he focused on the development of 'flag', the 'fiber-optic
link around the globe'. which was at that time the longest
and most ambitious cable ever to be laid. he used this
central strand to go on and make a lot of points about 
geek culture and the internet in general. armed with a
camera and a gps receiver from which he recorded the
longitude and latitude of every place he visited so that
others could follow in his footsteps. 

neal described this pursuit as 'hacker tourism', and likened
mother earth to a motherboard. he advised that future 
geeks could do much worse than switch off their computers
and wander out into the wide and wondrous meatspace of
the world to inform themselves about the real nature of the net.

a year and a half ago, i decided to do almost exactly that.

'geek tour' was the project i conceived. it differs in some
important respects from neal stephensons adventure. 

the idea is for a bunch of geeks to go travelling around the
world, visiting places only of interest to geeks. i can
think of hundreds of such locations. the whole journey would
be documented as it happens on a slash-site, overseen by
some kind of ops-center of less mobile geeks. 

whilst travelling and visiting appropriate places the opportunity
would be afforded to make some larger points;

1. the importance of understanding the history and cultural development
of the network to anybody who uses it.

2. contrary to all the hackneyed cyber-punditry of late, the internet
*is* a physical thing, and you *can* go out looking for it. geek tour
is provisionally subtitled 'in search of internet'.

3. assorted points about geek culture, made increasingly valid by
the recent geek ascendancy and their much increased media position
and importance in the world generally. there are many references
to be made to the travelling tinkerers of old, and hopefully
the geek tour would include the modern equivalent; ad-hoc lan parties
and code jamming sessions en route.


i have thought about and made preparation for such an event
on and off over the last eighteen months. my problem has always been
one of timing. it would require between three and six months commitment
from myself and my travelling companions. during which time we would
not be earning money. this has always kept the project firmly on the
back burner (though never forgotten), whilst i'm occasionally asked
"what happened to that geek tour idea you had?". 


i was speaking recently with a few of my geekier friends when i was
persuaded of the merits in getting either a tv/radio production 
company on board, or a book publisher. though most of the geeks
i know would hate to turn a technical pilgrimage into a documentary
series, and shudder at the idea of being on television, it might
just be the necessary evil which makes the project feasible. 

if the actuality is even half of what i have in my head, the journey
would be large enough and profound enough to flesh out the loftiest
of pitches. 


i am currently in the process of resuming the geek tour discussion
and attempting to write a document which describes everything that
is in my head in a way that might be presentable to such production
or publishing companies. geek tour is off the back burner and snapping
synapses at the front of my consciousness. 


geek tour will happen. the only question is when. 


as soon as i've finished writing up the concept i will put that
online and invite review. however as i would like to get things
moving i would like to invite any geeks or geek sympathisers to
join in the discussion and help to make this real. whether or not
you actually want to don your backpack and join us on the road
your input would be appreciated. i would of course be interested
to hear from anybody working at a production company who would
like to hear more, or can advise on how best to go about this thing.


at warm company we run a usenet news server as a forum for ongoing
discussions, both internally and externally. i am proposing to setup
a newsgroup for discussing geek tour. (warm.public.geektour). 
if you would like access to this newsgroup i would be delighted
to hear from you, and will respond during the next week or two
with access details. 


let me repeat this in case anybody has any doubts: geek tour will happen.
the only question is when.


more to come.