The
Be The Jam
Concept
objective
The idea is to set up a travel guide (called Be The Jam) and to sell advertising space on it to help fund Mission Improbable.
how?
Persuade people to send in stories, anecdotes and the like from their travels and to compile them in to some kind of order, trying hard not to contain too much useful information. Once there is sufficient readership / content start selling advertising space to, er, advertisers.
concept
To be in anyway successful in the overcrowded travel guide market a unique selling point is needed. Be The Jam will be, I believe, the world's first jungle based solar powered online travel guide. This should be enough to get attention, once attention has been got it needs to be kept through decent content. The content will predominantly be a collection of stories sent in by readers of the site, all completely subjective and hopefully lacking in useful information such as how much a hotel costs / were to get a bus to the airport. There are plenty of travel guides out there but they are mainly very dull. The aim is to have a guide full of stories that gives an impression of what a place is actually like rather than providing a dry list of "must do" activities.
jungle based
All equipment needs needs to be able to cope with 90 - 95% humidity, being regularly transported (probably dropped) and generally taking a pounding. The members of the expedition need to be physically fit enough to carry not only their own personal equipment but also the office. A good sense of humour is required.
solar powered
whilst the areas that Mission Improbable will be traveling to are close to / on the equator forest, and especially rainforests, have a canopy of leaves that can cut out virtually all sunlight. To be able to charge the batteries we will have to stay next to rivers in order to be able to see the sun.
Online
In order to operate online a satellite modem will have to be used. This could well turn out to be the biggest expense. It is vital then that the travel guide is in a position to at least cover the costs of running itself before we set off for South America.
