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09.12.09
How are they updating the website from Antarctica? - Guest Blog by Tim Moss
Every day we are seeing new blog entries, PodCasts, Twitter updates and photographs on this website but how are they doing it? Today we have a guest blog from Tim Moss who is the team's UK Support. He runs adventure website The Next Challenge and is responsible for keeping this website updated (and, thus, is writing this paragraph in the third person - do you see how this works!?).
Tim Moss (UK Support)'s Guest Blog:
"It's not uncommon in this day and age for an expedition to carry a laptop with an internet connection that they can use to update their website, check their emails and even log on to Facebook (a great example of this is Ed Stafford who is walking across the Amazon).
Not this trip though.
The girls have enough to worry about without carrying a computer and keeping their fingers warm as they try to edit a web page. Instead, we have a whole host of other gadgets and behind-the-scenes activity to keep all of our friends and supporters informed. Here's an explanation of how some of this works:
Satellite Phones
All of the team's communication is done through satellite phones. These look like a mobile phone from about 10 years ago and operate on the a network of global satellites called Iridium. For all intents and purposes, they operate just like any other cell phone.
PodCasts
Each day, one of the team members phones a special voicemail number from their satellite phone. This gets converted to an MP3 audio file and emailed to me. If I'm lucky, it also gets converted into text so I don't have to transcribe it too. This is done with the help of a company called Vox Sciences.
I then upload these to a website called HoundBite (like YouTube but for audio) and that's what gives you the little blue boxes which you can play.
Photos
All of the amazing photographs you see on this website are taken by freelance photographer Robert Hollingworth (except for the photo of me above - that's taken by my friend David Tett).
Rob has followed the team from the outset and even flew out to Antarctica with them. For the start of this blog, I've been using Rob's photographs from the training trips. As soon as Rob got out of Antarctica and onto an internet connection, I was able to use fresh images from the ice.
The girls also have a number of smaller digital cameras and camcorders with which to track their progress and record video diaries. This equipment was very kindly provided by John Lewis.
You can see more of Rob's photography and book him at - www.roberthollingworth.co.uk
Charging Equipment
Although it may be the subject of much cursing during sleepless nights, the 24 hour daylight provides the perfect medium for charging equipment. Using solar panels supplied by Applied Satellite Technology they can charge, in theory, anything from their satellite phones to the iPod Touches that Brunei Accenture Group (BAG) Networks gave them!
Twitter
The scrolling updates you can see on the right hand side of your screen come live, directly from the girls' satphone. They simply write a text message on the phone and send it to a special number which updates their Twitter account automatically.
You can see all of their Twitter updates at: www.twitter.com/KCAE
The Website
I update this website with a nifty bit of software written by Estates Today who are the ones responsible for designing and building this website (I take no credit for that - I just do the blog!)."
And all of this means that we can follow the expedition as closely as possible as they make their way towards the bottom of the world. So, until the next update...
Tim - UK Support / The Next Challenge
Top photo by Robert Hollingworth