Archive for October, 2007
Lately Laneo organizers have been receiving a lot of sponsorship requests from expedition organizers. Yes, those organizations that zigzag the planet in an effort often related to some form of educational, social or scientific goal while visiting the most hostile and remote areas of our planet. Everyone ranging from small initiatives, made up of just a few outdoor adventurers to sophisticated organizations that have solid institutional backing and impressive CV’s has been asking us for sponsorship.
Since these virgin areas of our planet are fewer and fewer today, these expedition teams go to incredible lengths to plan often very complex and entangled voyages, that carry heavy price tags.
What do you think? Should we assist these types of projects and if yes, which type? Please use the comments function below this post – hope to hear from you soon!
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: community, environment
I’m really proud of the people behind the design and functionality of the Laneo Blog. Not only did they do a great job in my opinion, but I recently learned they make “eco-music”. Paul who runs TWO THIRTY (the agency that designed and maintains our Laneo blog) is an avid surfer and back country camper. He is also a very accomplished musician whose group MOJAVE has just finished recording a great new album called “Stories”.
Paul and I have often talked about the place music has in our outdoor sports experience. Paul says to me – “it brings background music to the dances of waves and the ballet of leaves” and even though I’m not a musician, I really understand what he means.
Everyone’s personal taste in music is different of course, but I’m sure you’ll find his approach to distributing it, a compelling story. You see MOJAVE is only distributing their music via on-line means, specifically because of all the waste and pollution associated with producing and fabricating CD’s, and they’re not stopping there. They also belong to the “1% for the PLANET” which means they donate 1% of their album sales to actions in favor of the planet.
In times of ultra competitive ambition and ruthless capitalism, we at Laneo find this outright fantastic. When you have a minute, pop over to iTunes and listen to a sample of MOJAVE. I believe you will enjoy the music as much as we do – and maybe even end up purchasing a copy for yourself.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: music, community, environment
These days, more and more outdoor enthusiasts are taking part in some form of outdoor event, whether it be a highly organized race or a simple friendly get together. I’ve tried a few hundred of these myself and have recently researched the wide variety of events out there, in the 40 plus sports categories that Laneo supports.
What jumps out at me most is the lack of initiatives put in place to balance out the negative effects of the hundreds or even thousands of people that participate in these, I must admit, fantastically fun events.
Yes of course there are some that promote wonderful eco friendly schemes, (for example the UTMB, X Games, Maverick Surf Contest events) but I’m sure you have heard of more, so help us promote them.
Please use the comment function below this post and send us back the names and url’s of events that have impressed you with their eco-friendliness and maybe describe a little what they’re doing that is special.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: races, sports, community, events
Today is “Blog Action Day”, an international initiative of bloggers with the aim of uniting thousands of blogging voices, talking about one issue for one day – the environment. To raise awareness major blogs have signed up to participate, including Lifehacker, Dumb Little Man, Lifehack.org, Get Rich Slowly, Web Worker Daily, GigaOm, The Simple Dollar, Zen Habits, Freelance Switch, LifeClever, Unclutterer, Pronet Advertising, Wise Bread and many more.
“For just one day, we’d like to unite as many of the millions of bloggers around the world and speak about one issue – the environment,” said Collis Ta’eed, an Australian blogger from FreelanceSwitch.com, and a cofounder of Blog Action Day. “We want to display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity. By bringing everyone together for one day, we can see just how much can be achieved, and how much we can be heard.”
We at Laneo think that this initiative is very powerful and perfectly illustrates the positive leverage the internet can have on important global issues. As we have always talked about environmental issues in each post, what I’d like to underline today is simply – the power of uniting people from around the world on urgent issues such as saving the planet. We’re all extremely busy people and “free time” is becoming a very sought after luxury, so even a small gesture, such as this blog post, when added to thousands of others can instantly become, the “tipping point” (which is a great read by the way). If you do read this post, please spread the word asking people to participate in whatever manner they choose and if you have a blog, join the Blog Action Day and do a short post – it might make a big difference.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: websites, community
I get a lot of emails from Laneo members who ask why everything on our blog is in English. Although Mandarin is the largest spoken language (it is spoken by 873 million people around the world), English is the most readily spoken by Laneo members and readers. And since it is our mission to share “our opinion” with the largest number of people possible – English seemed like a logical choice – especially since it is impossible for me to write every blog post in a number of languages.
And though the Laneo blog may be written in English, it covers a large range of news and events from around the world. For example, I recently ran across a great magazine this week called SALAMANDER. I’m sure our French members and readers around the world will recognize and appreciate the choice.
SALAMANDER was founded in 1983 by Julien Perrot, (it is based in Neuchatel, Switzerland) and has grown into a 17 person company that produces a bi-monthly magazine (for adults and children), CD’s, a very rich website, a boutique and even a yearly festival.
This unique brand strives to cultivate the SALAMANDER spirit. Its mission is to open the hearts of a very large audience to the innumerable gifts that nature offers us, and to increase knowledge and respect of the beauty surrounding us. Without advertisements, SALAMANDER is almost entirely financed by reader subscriptions. In fact, you cannot purchase the magazine in kiosks – specifically to avoid the paper waste associated with unsold goods.
SALAMANDER is a great example of how simple yet thought-provoking journalism can be at changing our outlook on nature.
The Laneo blog, regardless of the language it is written in, strives to achieve that same balance. And it is my sincerest hope that all Laneo members, across the world, in all the languages – are able to share and partake in what we are doing.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: websites, society
As we all know, for quite a while now, it was the “offer” that created the “demand”. Things have considerably changed in recent years and we’re now seeing those that are in charge of products and services having to invent new offers, more and more unexpected if possible; in order to surprise and seduce consumers. How can a company achieve this? Sure there are the classical tools in standard marketing like market research, comparative marketing or even tactical pricing but today the key is to become so different – that there is no longer a “comparison”. To do that takes a savvy dosage of creativity, intuition and emotion.
Brands are no longer just a range of products but increasingly “lifestyles”. This permits companies to use a growing number of tactics without being limited by the specificity of their products or their history. The only rule is to respect the values that have attributed to their brand. Another reason is that they no longer have to target “segments” but “lifestyles” that express themselves with “desires” that are closely related to tribal rites and signals. These criteria, you will agree, are very far from the standard assortment of; revenue, sex, marital status, housing, number of children, education etc…, that are used so often to describe our consumer habits. The consequence is that there are no longer “borders” and everything can become competition as long as it satisfies “desire”.
You’re going to see a lot of this happening shortly in the Sports industry, much like you might have seen (without knowing) in other industries. Take for example STARBUCKS selling CD’s and Books. They don’t want to become a library or a book store. They simply wanted to add to the reasons we want to get our drink from there. The same goes for LAND ROVER and HARLEY DAVIDSON with their “owner clubs & chapters” full of events and adventures that create “experiences” outside and around the purchase itself.
What I’m most happy about with this new trend is that Laneo fits right in. After all, if companies are increasingly more interested in our lifestyles, then my hope is that they will ultimately contribute to preserving them.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society
Ever wonder where all those words like “carbon footprint” or “carbon neutral” came from? As I had breakfast this morning, I asked myself; are we going to invent even more words as the whole world starts “talking about”, the planet?!
So we all know about “Green”, “Eco” and “Planet” but new ones like “Habitat”, “Species”, and “Ecosystem” are being used more and more by the media, even though at the origin they designed to describe the distribution and abundance of organisms, their relationships with each other, and how they influence and are influenced by their environment.
It isn’t “easy being green” today because installing energy-efficient light bulbs and showerheads in your home is no longer enough. You have to describe it in words. “Offsetting”, is that what you’re doing? This “new thing” (a compensating equivalent) has also become increasingly trendy recently (note: Laneo does not support these initiatives), and there are a number of sites around the world that have sprung up to answer demand, but where did that word come from? I ran across a blog post at The Guardian by Alison Benjamin on “Green Language” that’s worth a read as she develops this topic even further.
I think it’s interesting to see how we as a society “label” most everything we do. What I believe is most important to increase global awareness and action for our planet is that each culture and language maintain their own unique way of explaining their acts and beliefs.
Maybe one day that will come to be known as – “ECO-TRADITION”.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society, environment
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