Brian Sawyer

The Ragnar Relay Show

This weekend, I’ll be part of a Ragnar Relay team, running from New Haven to Boston (with a generous margin of error for location on either end). I know I’ll be missed while I’m away and that everyone will be very jealous of my running a total of 20 miles across three legs within 24 hours (or so) without sleeping, bathing, or leaving a van of five similarly sleep-deprived and sweaty teammates to do anything but run. To ease the envy of those who won’t be participating, I want to capture and broadcast this experience as well as I can for anyone who won’t be able to make it, and I’ve decided to do so in real time. You’re welcome in advance.

For tools, I’ll be using only my Android phone and free apps that are readily available in the Android Market (all of which are also covered in my forthcoming book).

First, and most obviously, I’ll be tweeting from the road. My Twitter app of choice is Twidroid, with the additional google maps 4 twidroid plug-in to add my current location into each tweet and allow all fans to pinpoint our team’s progress on the course:

This app combination uses my phone’s built-in GPS to insert a Google Maps link to my precise location:

Anyone following along from home can click the link in my Twitter stream to go straight to the map:

So, that’s how you’ll know where I am, but I know you’ll still miss my smiling (hopefully) face and still want to hear from me about what and how I’m doing. So, I’m going to try to stream live video from the race course using Qik. It’s pretty easy to use. Just launch the app, go online, and start recording. The video feed will start streaming to my personal Qik page, and I can configure my settings to post an update to Twitter when I go live. Here’s what it will look like on my phone:

And here’s what it will look like on the web, all nicely geotagged and everything:

But I won’t be just a talking head. You can participate too. See that “Share your thoughts…” box in the previous screen? Whatever you type there will show up on my phone screen, allowing me to “take calls” during the show. Finally, if some episodes are good enough to save or publish for posterity, I’ll tweet its archived URL or embed it on my Facebook wall:

For other media (audio, photos, or video I don’t intend to stream live), I’ll use Pixelpipe (okay, the free version gets you photos only, but the Pro version is only a dollar):

I’ll send media to my blog, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever, so keep an eye on all outlets of my online media empire for minute-by-minute updates (for as long as my stamina holds out).