You can follow me (mostly) disconnected from Technology for a month
My expedition to Antarctica will be a month of reduced contact with the outside world. I’m trying to disconnect and go a month without technology flows.
Disconnected, or without technology flows…
During the 25 days I’m spending on that small sailboat in the most southern seas, I will try to limit my digital inputs. My mailbox, phone, texts, etc… will go unanswered for that time. I will not seek information the same permanent way I do that in New York for example.
The ship has -of course- some modern communication means. To optimize the experience down there however, I will try to refrain from connecting my device to the internet. Seeing how that works will probably be an as interesting experiment as it can be. I’ve been connected to the internet since the early ‘90s…
No mail, no google search, no games or apps that require communications. As I hope to edit video’s and pictures, I will take laptop and other devices. I will not connect them to my mailbox. Not because I strictly have to: the world has a nice coverage of satellite communications available. I do this to try to add to the desolate experience. It’s my choice, we might have other members of the team connecting and communicating more often. It is my call.
As I have had great support for the expedition over the past months, I will try to keep the blog and my Facebook fan-page updated. I feel I owe you that, and would love to share the experience. However, if I update the blog and so on myself, I will be exposed to the various feedback that goes with it. So, via the dedicated marine communications system, I will (try to) send updates every once and a while to a friend who will be in charge for updating the blog. There’s a strict policy that no information will be sent back. We’re also figuring out how to make sure those who helped the kickstarter project and subscribed to the newsletter, will get updates via that channel. Being without technology will probably feel a lot like writing a letter. That took a while to be answered, and we did’t felt disconnected form our pen pals.
The trip starts at the end of this month, so I have a couple of days to prepare. Being connected is so part of what I do these days, that I think of the month without technology, as to stop smoking. Quitting smoking was a permanent thing. No idea if quitting the reflex to go online for everything will be as hard to abandon, even for a month.
Koen Blanquart is a strategy consultant, journalist, and author.
Wanderlust is one of his driving factors, and he shares his travels here on Boarding Today. Koen is also the skipper of SV Bagabonda, a sailing vessel making a slow circumvention of the globe..
Koen recently published a book on how to manage a remote team: The Suitcase Office.
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