idea – Page 7 – Journeys of a Hybrid

April 14, 2010April 16, 2010

Tools of Revolutionary Change Are In Everybody’s Hands

I heard Ray Kurzweil speak yesterday at the NAB conference. His keynote address was titled: Acceleration of Technology in the 21st Century and simply put, I was knocked out by his insights and clarity on our changing world. The Wall Street Journal describes Kurzweil as the “restless genius” and Ray has been included in PBS’ list of “16 revolutionaries who made America”, along with inventors of the past two centuries.

To hear people like Ray Kurzweil speak, is exactly why I attend the NAB conference every year. Sure, it’s fun(and overwhelming) to walk the show floor and see the latest and greatest tech tools and toys, but my focus is always on listening to and soaking up whatever bits of insights I can from visionaries like Kurzweil.

In speaking about information technology and its affect on us all, Ray stated “There’s no way to establish the same business model and social contract and protect intellectual property if the public doesn’t embrace and respect it”. Just look at what happened in the early days of shifting from analog to digital, and how the recording industry reacted when it became easy to “share” music electronically. When they tried to hold onto their old business model and along with that bullied the “public” – it pretty much blew up in their face.

We all should have learned from that. But if you look back to when photography went from the analog to the digital world – many photographers made that same mistake with their clients. Ray goes on to say that “technology progresses in an exponential manner and if you measure the underlying trends in technology – it’s predictable”. “Our intuition is linear”. What that means is that this paradigm shift in information technology is only going to accelerate.

He went on to say that “once things become based on information technology, they progress exponentially”. This is happening right now in the world of healthcare and medicine. As it too becomes based more on information technology as far as research and development, it’s not hit and miss or trial and error anymore.

Information technology is democratizing our world. One could say that this is a prime reason for political systems like the old USSR to collapse. It’s hard to control a country’s people when they are open to information. ” The tools of revolutionary change are in everybody’s hands”. Kurzweil cites the example of the Chinese and Google. He says, “When you limit your own success like the Chinese with Google, ultimately you will strangle yourself”.

So what can photographers and other creative types get out of all this? We must recognize that if we base our business model on our gadgets and our tools – we will limit our own success or worse yet create our own demise because the tools of disruptive change are in everybody’s hands. But if we understand that and build a business model that is not based solely on technology but on our vision and it’s perceived as “fair” to our clients and the public – then we will thrive. We need to open our eyes and adjust as to how we distribute our intellectual content.

I’ll leave you with a simple analogy that Ray cites: In the early 1900’s if you saw yourself in the horse and buggy business, you should have been concerned. But if you saw yourself in the transportation business, then you saw opportunity as the automobile changed that paradigm. So, if you see yourself and define yourself by what camera you shoot with – you’re in big trouble as technology races forward. But if you see yourself as a visual communicator and embrace the opportunities made possible by technology – then you’ll survive and thrive.

March 17, 2010

Driveby Culture

Seth Godin’s blog post today “Driveby culture and the endless search for wow” really hit home with me. Godin writes:

“Should I write blog posts that increase my traffic or that help change the way (a few) people think?”

I think about this a lot – should I write about something that I know will get a lot of eyeballs or should I write about something that I’ve been thinking about that may make others think? Ironically, when I don’t think about what will attract an audience and just write from an open and honest point of view – I end up with a lot of eyeballs. And those are the eyeballs that I want to attract – the ones who I click with.

Godin goes on to say:

“More and more often, we’re seeing products and services coming to market designed to appeal to the momentary attention of the clickers.”

“Mass marketing used to be able to have it both ways. Money bought you audience. Now, all that buys you a mass market is wow and speed. Wow keeps getting harder and dives for the lowest common denominator at the same time.”

We live in a culture of “shock and awe” and sound bites. We don’t read anything lengthy – we want bullet points. Magazines don’t run stories anymore – they do survey pieces – the ten best………….. We want packaging and fizz – wowy zowy. We want exotic imagery and special effects. If it doesn’t grab our attention – we’re bored and off to the next thing. We’ve become so busy clicking around and multi-tasking we hardly take notice that we’re not getting satisfied. We’re left kind of empty feeling even though we’ve just been to a smorgasbord.

Every once in a while something comes along – a simple movie with a powerful message – an image that lingers in our minds – a story that took us to another place. Timeless thoughts, ideas and imagery that continue to resonate with the human spirit and every now and then we take pause and notice. Something makes us all stop and think – beyond the glitter, the eye-candy and the headlines.

Godin questions:

“What works to change mindsets, to spread important ideas and to create an audience for work that matters? What’s worth your effort and investment as a marketer or creator?”

For me the answer is just being myself – open and honest. There’s only one Gail Mooney and that’s what I have to share.

March 12, 2010March 12, 2010

Frozen Waves and Instincts

A couple of weeks ago I stood on top of a 10 foot frozen wave on Lake Superior. I was in an amazing place, both physically and spiritually. The next day, we had an 8-hour drive from the Upper Peninsula to Detroit. I pulled out my computer and I wrote a blog about my experience on the ice, the day before. I really didn’t think much of it at the time – I just jotted down my thoughts.

When I got to Detroit, I uploaded the blog to my wordpress site and didn’t check my email or look at any social media sites until very late the next evening. When I did, I saw that the hits on my blog had gone through the roof – over 2000! When I checked my email, I noticed there was one from a wordpress editor telling me that my blog had landed on their home page. No wonder. Judging by the dozens of comments people had written – I realized the blog has resonated with people. Not just the icy image, but my thoughts and feelings that I had shared. I had written from my instincts.

I’ve lived my life taking chances and trusting my instincts. You kind of have to trust your instincts when you take chances – that comes with the territory. If you don’t – most likely you won’t be putting yourself out there. I honed my instincts in my early years, when I was a 19 year old woman hitchhiking around the world. I had to make snap judgments about people when they pulled over and offered me a ride. Should I or shouldn’t I get in that car? I developed a sixth sense if you will – and to this day I go where my gut is telling me to go.

The funny thing is my instincts aren’t always right – not 100% anyway. Maybe only 70% or 80% of the time. So that means that 20-30% of the time – my instincts are wrong. When that happens – I fail. And when I fail – it’s really hard to trust my instincts again. But if I question myself (and I do) and I talk myself out of doing something – I know – I’ve guaranteed – that “something” has absolutely no chance of happening.

Sooner or later, I usually get another idea to pursue or an opportunity presents itself and I have to make a decision on which path to follow. And once again I need to trust my instincts. It’s scary – it’s always been scary. That’s why it’s called risk.

I’m pushing myself in a lot of new directions at this point in my life. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t get afraid – because I do. So I need to dig down deep inside myself and trust my most basic instincts and hope they serve me right.

March 8, 2010March 8, 2010

Funding A Personal Project

I have learned from past experience with other personal projects that getting funding for an idea is no easy task. But I have also found that with a lot of careful planning, saving and budgeting I have been able to self fund my projects and have been compensated on many levels later on – after the projects are underway or near completion. As I continue to blog and to talk to people about Opening Our Eyes, the documentary my daughter and I are creating which involves us traveling around the world, I get asked a lot of questions. One question that is asked quite frequently is “who is funding your project?” The short answer is – we are self-funding our trip and our documentary.

I had managed to save up about 330,000 miles with Continental Airlines and another 329,000 points with American Express over the years. I was saving them for something, just didn’t know what until a few months ago when I decided to cash all my points and miles in to subsidize our journey around the world.

So far, I have exhausted all but 4,000 Continental miles in ticketing my Round The World plane ticket as well as getting my daughter and I to, from and around South America. My husband Tom donated his Continental miles to my daughter Erin for her Round The World fare. I will still need to pay for airplane tickets to Iquitos, Peru from Lima as well as for flights to Nepal from Delhi, India. That still leaves picking up the costs of air or train tickets from Istanbul to Warsaw and Moscow. I will use about a third of my Amex points to pay for the flights from Lima to Iquitos, Peru because those tickets are costly.

I’ll use the rest of my American Express points to fund some of our accommodations, along with any hotel points that I have. We’ll be staying at guesthouses, people’s homes and budget hotels whenever possible. We’ll use public transportation for getting us around once we get to our destinations because renting a car isn’t in our budget.

Of course there’s food and miscellaneous expenses on the road like Internet and admission fees. The vaccinations for the two of us have cost more than $1500 and the visa costs may reach $1000. And we’ll both need backpacks and other personal needs for the trip.

My biggest expense will be for photo/video gear but that is the purpose of the trip. I have pretty much figured out the gear that I’ll need: read my blog entry Putting Together a DSLR Video Kit. When all is said and done, including buying an additional laptop as a backup, I’ll have spent about $12,000 on equipment needs.

So, how will I pay for it? When my mother died about six years ago she left me a little money. I never really wanted to spend it and was fortunate that I never had to – so I will use it for this project and this trip. Somehow, I think she would love the idea of what her daughter and granddaughter were doing. And if she were still here she might very well have wanted to join us.

I’ll be reaching out to Canon, Apple and others as potential sponsors. I’m also reaching out to my friends and connections that I have made over the years for donations in kind. If you have any hotel points that you may not be using and would like to donate those points to our trip it would be greatly appreciated. Or any other type of “in kind” donations you may provide.

Please email: gail@kellymooney.com or call 973-543-6868

February 15, 2010February 15, 2010

Booking a Round the World Airline Ticket

I am embarking on a personal project with my daughter this summer. Our goal is to create a feature length documentary on “people who are making a difference”. Ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things. Ultimately we will end up with 7 stories on 7 continents – each story standing on its own as a 10 minute web video and becoming a part of the whole – a feature length film. I’ve set up a website just for the project: Opening Our Eyes. But I’ll probably talk about parts of this project on this blog as I proceed with the logistics – certainly the photographic/video filming logistics.

I spent the better part of last week on the phone with the airlines creating our round the world itinerary and ticket which wasn’t all that easy given the fact that there were two of us traveling and we were using airline miles – 160,000 miles each to be exact. As a side note – the fact that I had so many miles piled up is one small thing that prompted this trip, and when Erin became a part of this – Tom gave her his miles so she could come. That should tell you something about Tom – that he would do that for his wife and daughter.

Our initial plan was to depart from the US in mid-June, heading first to Namibia to visit a friend and then on to Uganda for our first story. Our first hurdle was that the Star Alliance airline partner that went from the US to Africa was South African Air and there were no award seats into or out of Johannesburg for the entire month of June – Johannesburg is hosting the World Cup and everything is sold out. I was told that we couldn’t connect through Europe on another carrier like Lufthansa because that would mean going back thru Europe after leaving Uganda and the rules didn’t allow this. I’m broken hearted that we can’t get to Namibia because it means that another opportunity is lost in connecting with my friend while she is living there – but it wasn’t meant to be.

The airline agent could get us to Entebbe, Uganda but in order to make that work, we had to move up our departure date to May 25th giving me a slight panic attack knowing how much I still needed to do before leaving for this journey – vaccinations, visas, lodging arrangements, not to mention getting my gear ready for filming. I’ll talk about my gear in another blog, but essentially since I want to shoot both stills and video – I’m opting to use a hybrid DSLR system because I need to pack light and can only bring one camera format. If it doesn’t fit on our backs – it’s not coming. But I digress.

Our next challenge in ticketing was going from Uganda to our next destination on the European continent. I was aiming for Warsaw or Moscow but we settled on flying from Entebbe, Uganda to Istanbul, Turkey. We’ll figure out how to go to Warsaw and Moscow on our own – that will be a piece of cake. Incidentally, there are a lot of rules on these round the world award tickets – you must keep going in the same direction (can’t backtrack) and you’re only allowed so many segments – I got answers anywhere from 12 to 16. And you can’t go back to a continent more than once – that came in handy going to Istanbul when the airline agent and I had a lively debate as to which continent Istanbul was on. I think the agent liked my creative way of solving the problem and gave me a little leeway.

In the end after many hours on the phone – we created an itinerary: NY > Entebbe, Uganda > Entebbe connecting in Cairo to Istanbul, Turkey > Istanbul connecting thru Frankfurt, Germany to Delhi, India (somehow that was ok) > Delhi to Bangkok, Thailand > Bangkok to Melbourne, Australia > Sydney connecting thru LAX to NY. The agent told me to call back the following day because all the carriers needed to make confirmations. She also told me our reservations would only be held for 48 hrs till they needed to be ticketed.

The next day, I called the airline and was told that there was a leg missing on Erin’s itinerary – Istanbul to Delhi – she corrected it and told me everything looked in order but to check back that afternoon. I did and found out that we were still waiting on Thai Air to confirm our flights from Delhi to Bangkok and then on to Australia. The agent said, “don’t worry – Thai Air is slow – call back tomorrow”. Being the worrier I am, I knew that “tomorrow” was the day the tickets needed to be purchased or our reservations would be dropped, so if there was a problem I needed at least to know about a plan B. So I asked what other airlines flew that route – Delhi>Bangkok>Melbourne. I was told that Singapore Air flew that route but connected through Singapore.

The next morning – the day the tickets needed to be purchased – I called the airlines and was told that all my Thai Air flights had been canceled but Erin’s had been confirmed. I didn’t freak out – instead I suggested that the agent route us using Singapore Air – which he did. He put a rush on the confirmation process and told me to call back that evening.

To cut to the end of the story – I literally purchased the tickets right down to the deadline hour. I didn’t get everything I wanted – but I did get what I needed. We’ll be leaving May 25th and returning August 3rd. We’ll have to purchase separate tickets to get us to and from our destination in South America sometime in August and we are still trying to nail down those story ideas and dates.

People ask me why I didn’t use a travel agent. I have been handling my travel logistics for over 30 years and my answer is – I’m the one who will be doing the flying and I want to have control over that. Even if it looks doable on paper to have a one-hour connection in Frankfurt when flying from NY to Lagos, Nigeria – even for an optimist like me – I know better than to tempt fate like that.

All total – flying 7 different airlines, 12 flight segments and traveling across 5 continents I managed to get us 2 tickets for $263.44 each – that’s for the taxes. Now I need to look into vaccinations and visas. Yesterday I discovered that my passport, which is still good for another 4 years, has only two pages left in it for visas – and India requires that you have two empty pages for their visa. Another thing to add to my “to do” list.

February 11, 2010February 11, 2010

Cultural Context and Photography

I became a photographer because of my passion for people and the cultures of the world. Photography has given me access to all sorts of people from various cultures and backgrounds. My camera is my tool – my means to my end. And that is to tell peoples’ stories through my images – whether they be still or moving.

I was going through some images this week that I had shot in Easter Island a few years ago. Easter Island had always been a destination high on my list of “must sees” and it lived up to my every expectation. It was remote and wild with a constant wind that energized me. A place in the world that somehow felt untouched, unlike so many other destinations in the world that have suffered from the negative effects of the onslaught of visitors due to their own intrigue or beauty. In Easter Island the culture still felt real.

The first few days my partner and I spent driving around the island, which isn’t hard to do because of the virtue of its size. In the main town, I noticed that most of the people I saw out and about were men. Men with exotic looks riding through town bareback on horses with their long black hair blowing in the wind. It was quite a provocative sight speaking both as a photographer and as a woman.

After attending a dance performance one evening I made arrangements to photograph one of the dancers – out in the natural environs of the island. I wanted to capture the spirit and the feeling of the people and the land. Tom, my partner and I met up with our subject who was in typical “western” attire and not made up. He asked us if we would transport his “weapons” in our vehicle as he couldn’t manage that on his scooter, and we obliged.

He followed behind us on his scooter to the location that we had previously scouted and then he proceeded to strip down to nothing. Here we were in this incredible wild environment between an extinct volcano and the sea with a native man totally naked standing in the road – applying his makeup, using the side mirror of our car. I instinctively knew that even though these were not the images that I had planned in my head – these were images that told the story of his culture in a unique context.

We went on to photograph a wonderful array of environmental portraits and at the end of the day we took a “crew” photo of our little group. And then he got back on his modern day scooter, in all his tribal glory and I took a few parting shots. It’s days like this that is why I became a photographer.

January 27, 2010January 27, 2010

Video – Hot Medium for Higher Ed Marketing

Last night my daughter forwarded a link to a blog entry she wrote for Lipman Hearne, the marketing firm that she works for. Lipman Hearne specialises in PR and marketing for non profits and institutions – many of their clients are colleges and universities.

She wrote about a new trend, “LipDub” that is quickly being embraced by universities and becoming part of their marketing and communications strategies. “LipDub is part virtual campus tour and part music video that showcases a college’s campus and student life in a creative and entertaining way.”

This MTV type video trend apparently started in Europe when students decided to create a video to “show the world” that studying doesn’t have to be boring. The idea quickly caught on in Canada and the US and has moved beyond its grass-roots beginnings and is being adapted by marketers who find the approach uniquely appealing in this niche.

The videos that I have seen remind me a bit of the popular “Playing for Change” – Stand By Me video that went viral on YouTube last year. They are clever, well executed and very engaging. Check out what John Hopkins created. Definitely not your run of the mill amateur video but rather a very entertaining and professionally produced web video.

The big point here is that video is the medium of choice when targeting this demographic and quickly making those glossy brochures a thing of the past.

January 7, 2010

The Power of Social Media

My last blog entry, I wrote about the DO’s and DON’T’s of Social Media. The next day I put some of some of those tips to work.

I am embarking on a personal project, Opening Our Eyes. The idea behind the project is to make a documentary that features people who are making a difference around the world – people who have followed their dreams, passions and ambitions and started their own personal projects that help make the world a better place. Ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things.

In looking for these people or subjects of the documentary, I wanted to utilize the power of social media and my connections and friends, to not only find “leads” but also to make the entire project an interactive experience from the start. So, two days ago I launched a simple website and blog and gave the idea a name, “Opening Our Eyes – Global Stories About the Power of One”.

My daughter Erin is teaming up with me on this project. She lives in Chicago – I live in NJ – but with social media we can bridge that divide as well as get the involvement of all our separate “friends”. Using a company called SquareSpace and their amazing publishing software, I was able to set up a simple blog and website and get it online in less than a day. It site will grow as we both continue to add content and relevant links and information, but by getting the idea “out there” and providing a way for feedback and dialog to take place – we are building our own community at the same time.

After the site was created, I created a fan page on Facebook with information about the project and links to the website. I also registered the blog with Network Blogs and inserted a “follow this blog” button on the fan page. And then I tweeted about project on Twitter, which automatically shows up, on my own personal FB . I also sent out about 50 emails to people I know.

The response has been overwhelming. Within a day I have received over 50 ideas about people and their projects. We’ve had well over 300 hits on the site and almost 40 fans on Facebook. Now that might not seem like a lot to some people – but to us it was an amazing response in such a short time.

As the project takes shape fueled by the interest and eagerness of our participants we are building a community and opening others’ eyes to the “power of one”.

January 1, 2010

Change or Frustration?

Seth Godin writes today about what he picks as the two most important trends facing us in the decade ahead – change and frustration.

He points out that “the infrastructure of massive connection is now real”. The first Internet generation has grown up and is eager to change everything. Baby boomers, like myself need to come to terms with reality. He says, “boomers” are getting older, our dreams are fading and that we’re starting to realize that were are not going to live forever. He warns that our frustration will be acted out in public. And then he reminds us that we all get to pick one of these two alternatives – but “being frustrated about change doesn’t count as doing both”.

I’m a baby boomer and my choice is to embrace change – but then again that has always been my “outlook” of choice. Maybe because I work hard at not letting my dreams fade away. Sometimes old dreams have changed into new ones – but I always have at least one dream on my horizon. Sure, sometimes I get frustrated when things get in the way of my dreams, but that frustration usually awakens an even more determined spirit inside of me.

Isn’t that what us baby boomers have been doing all of our lives? – turning our frustrations into effecting change? Just look at the last 40 years of boomers bringing about change – some good – some not so good. But we certainly can’t be accused of being an apathetic generation – choosing to stay static and follow the status quo.

I don’t equate being open to change, with age. I’ve met some pretty rigid people who are 30 years younger than I am. I think it comes down to choice of outlook and just knowing that most of us have the power to make that choice. For me, on this New Year’s Day, I choose embrace change – create change. I feel energized about the year ahead. Does that mean that I’m not acting my age? I think it just means that I’m being myself.

December 13, 2009December 14, 2009

Reconnecting with The Ancient Ones

What started out as a mileage run to the West Coast on Friday, turned out to be a day of interesting connections. My plan was to fly out to San Francisco on Friday morning and return the next morning. I needed one more flight – the cost of a cheap ticket – to reach the next level of my airline elite status. I have a pretty full travel schedule next year and the upgrade in status will be beneficial.

Since I had the time, I decided reconnect with an old college friend whom I hadn’t seen in over 25 years. He picked me up at the airport and from the moment I got into the car until we parted company later that afternoon, it was like we hadn’t missed a beat. Both older, yet fundamentally the same people we were back in college. There was a comfortable feeling being with each other even though so many years had gone by.

Later that evening I had drinks with a colleague whom I had met a few years back at SATW’s (Society of American Travel Writers) conference in England. During the evening I mentioned a personal project I was embarking on “People Making a Difference” and queried him about story ideas and people he may know. That conversation led us to talking about the travels we’ve each had over the years. We quickly discovered that we had made similar backpacking odysseys back in the early 70’s. We began to retrace the paths we had each taken – I spoke of traveling from Cairo to Beirut, then on to Damascus and through Iraq to Kuwait. He followed with a nearly identical itinerary and picked up the journey from Kuwait by boat to Abadon, Iran and overland to Afghanistan. We soon realized that we had been to the same places during the same period of time.

We both commented on the fact that we never come across people in our lives that have had that kind of parallel experience. He then told me a funny story. He had traveled back to India with his grown son when a young traveler came up to him asking for money so he could get something to eat. My friend told the traveler about his own journeys when he was his age. The young traveler responded by saying “Whoa – you’re one of the Ancient Ones”. My friend relayed this story to me and pointed out that traveler’s comment had been spoken in a manner of respect, the same manner of respect with which native indigenous peoples refer to their elders or “ancient ones”.

It was an unusual day where I set out to take a trip for the sake of miles and ended up reconnecting with my past on a couple of different levels. I tend to look forward in my life rather than at the past but sometimes reconnecting with your past connects circles and reminds of us who we really are. I kind of like being an Ancient One.