The Luck of Seven
Noel Hidalgo, founder of the Luck of Seven project.
This week I’m in New York City to speak at the 2nd Annual Enterprise Open Source Conference. Instead of getting a room, I’m staying with Noel Hidalgo, a friend from the community. Besides being a great guy to hang out with, Noel’s wears an activist, an organizer, a blogger and a barcamper, a coworker, and many other hats.
Noel’s the subject of today’s post, or at least his new project is. I’m encouraging you to help him on a journey he’s about to undertake. Noel is planning a very unique trip around the world, open-source style. He calls the project “Luck of Seven,” and he’s preparing to depart on July 7th. That’s 07/07/07. He’s also trying to raise $7777.77 for the trip. Clearly, Noel’s got a thing for sevens. For seven months, he’ll traverse the seven continents, dive into the seven oceans, and attempt to visit the seven ancient wonders of the world. Using a new media voodo (blog, vlog, wiki, flickr, couchsurfing, twitter, myspace, dopplr, and facebook), Noel will harness the collective knowledge of the globe and report weekly on seven topics relating to freedom and the organic component of digital communication.
First he’s leaving New York for Spain, where he will run with the bulls during the festival of San Fermín. Barring a horrific goring, he’ll continue to Prague. To close out the first month, he’ll work his way along the Mediterranean and into Africa. Somehow, some way, he’ll traverse the deserts of the Middle East and hop into India and skirt the coast of the Indian Ocean. In a miraculous feat of cunning and skill, he’ll live off the ocean for a few weeks before jumping a jet airliner back to the states his brother’s graduation and Thanksgiving with his family. After some turkey, he’ll collect his gear and trek through South America in an attempt to make Antarctica before the summer ends in the Great White South. Then, if he isn’t absolutely exhausted, he’ll start the last leg up the eastern coast of South America, swim the Caribbean, and finally return home to New York City.
I know what you’re thinking. How is this not “Noel’s Fabulous Summer Vacation: the Movie?” What does this have to do with software? Noel’s using his trip to profile open communities that use open source. He’s going to create a voodo diary of his travels that should provide invaluable insight into global-scale open source use and communities that were built from the ground up on an open-source model. Some of these communities have no leaders, little hierarchy, and no traditional corporate structure. Now, on to the seven topics he plans to cover. Here’s what Noel had to say:
“This is a 21st century journey to the intersection of digital and organic communities. Communicating through a digital medium that has no borders, I want to share with you how this new world interacts.
Free culture. After a half-century of broadcast communications dictating the common perspective, people are now reconnecting—one-on-one, peer-to-peer, node-to-node—and proving that traditional copyright and patent restrictions need to be reformed to promote creativity.
Free and open-source software. Software should be a tool, like a shovel. With zero distribution cost, global, boundless open-source communities are competing in a world of co-opetition.
Couchsurfers and bloggers. People—from those who blog their souls to those who reserve their couch for strangers—are using technology to augment real-world relationships and bring modernism back to our post-modern world.
Barcamps, unconferences, meetups, and coworking. The online digi-world uses physical ad-hoc meetings to socialize, share, and advance ideas.
Agents of progressive social change. Inventors and concept peddlers—though not always leaders—change the way we think about the world through technology.
The environment. When we outsource jobs, we outsource pollution, waste, and other negative impacts of consumerism; we need to continue to use technology to educate the public on the true footprint of the products we use and lifestyles we choose.
Happenstance. Receiving a random e-mail, discovering a flickr profile, stumble-surfing across a facebook page, connecting in a café—the world grows smaller with every person we meet, and there is an art to discovering their stories.”
While Noel is working hard to pull this off, he can’t do it alone. Here’s the pitch: he’s raised $3173.24 of the $7777.77 he needs to complete his journey. Only 9 days from departure, he could use some serious help from the community to get this project off the ground. I’ve put his ChipIn widget on this page so that you can see where he’s at progress wise, and help him along. If we all chip in, Noel’s going to make that trip and bring the world to us. Make a donation, spread the word, post about Noel in your own blog or at the very least, visit his site and show your support.
