Moblogging Jokkmokk 2004

This weekend in Jokkmokk has been a great experience. We have had an opportunity to take part in numerous activities and to meet several interesting people (probably more so than one would have as a ?normal? visitor to the market). We have learnt much ? both about S?mi culture and about the affordances and limits of technology.

Before we left, Anton had warned us that it would be impossible to get wireless access throughout the whole market area. Still, it was a bit frustrating to not always be as mobile as we would have liked to have been. Also, all the multi-media content needed to be uploaded through the lap-top. Even though lap-tops are portable, they are not easily carried around in -20 and typed on simultaneously? Instead we had to walk back to a hotspot (preferably indoors) to upload things to the blog, and as a result many of the posts became less immediate. For a future project of this kind it would be useful to be able to create different types of multi-media content (audio, video, still images and text) with one and the same device (preferably a small, easily portable one ? is there such a thing?), and to be able to upload it from there immediately. Also, making better use of GPRS technology might be a solution to the mobility issue, as long as the telephone network doesn?t crash.

As far as the coverage of the market activities is concerned we didn?t really plan in detail what each person should cover. Had we done that we might have been able to get a better exposure of the whole market and all the different activities. At the same time, I would say that we almost had too much planned at times ? instead of taking the time to write entries and reflect on what we had just been doing, we ran off to the next activity. One important thing which should differentiate this type of reporting from traditional media coverage is the way in which the writers themselves participate in the different activities and report on experiences. The pressure to be immediate and to send updates continuously may lead to less personal/reflective and more journal style reporting. Also, had we planned things more in advance many of the spontaneous reports from activities that were suggested to us by other visitors would have been lost.

If we were to carry out a similar project in the future it would be important to keep in mind that experiencing things and delivering those experiences is more important than taking part in each and every activity. It would also be valuable to have more bloggers on the team (locals, other visitors) to be able to cover larger parts of the market and to get a wider perspective on things. Also, I think it is important to consider the audience of the blog when planning for potential future projects. If we want international readers, in order to spread information about the market outside the borders of Sweden (which I think is a good intention), we need to find a way to attract that audience. If a majority of the audience is going to be Swedish (as was the case this year) I think we should reconsider the choice of writing all posts in English.