Bill Bowles, Interactive World Traveler
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Hello. My name is Bill, and I’m traveling around the world on an open-ended interactive journey that’s more of an experiment than it is a plan. Starting February 19th, 2007, I’m publishing a new video blog every weekday on this site. I have a satellite modem, and so will be able to upload reliably from anywhere in the world. My schedule is still pretty open, and I’m not sure what to expect. But at this point, I’m open to almost anything. Yeah!!
I grew up in California, did some university study in Massachusetts, and moved back to San Francisco in 2001. Since then, I’ve worked freelance crew jobs in film and television. In San Francisco that means working on all sorts of projects; commercials, industrials, the occasional feature, and yes, wedding videos. San Francisco has been great to me. I got strangely and wonderfully involved in the cabaret theater scene, consumed a lion’s share of excellent burritos, and enjoyed the sunny California weather. But it’s time for a change.
Globalization isn’t a new phenomenon. But it’s moving really fast these days. As of about a year and a half ago, we can now carry in our backpacks a satellite modem the size of a hard-back book that can connect to the internet from any location on the planet. We carry digital cameras on our mobile phones, and when world events happen in front of us, we capture a short video and make headlines. We belong to a handful of social networking websites, and can meet people in far away lands without stepping outside our door. What a World.
It dawned on me a few months ago, that if you had all the right gear, (camera, laptop, sat. phone, solar panels) a person could be a new sort of independent journalist; uploading video stories from anywhere in the world, while maintaining one’s creative freedom. I figure that within a few years, most travelers and bloggers will have this sort of gear, and we’ll have thousands of un-affiliated reporters roaming the globe, sending out news as part of a diverse open-source media network. I don’t really consider myself a journalist, but I’m interested in trying out the concept to see what happens.
It’s all very exciting. Drop me an email if you have any ideas for destinations or topics. Lets Ride.