So the Twitchiker’s journey has come to an end. For those of us who have been following, it’s been an interesting experiment to see unfold. For those of use who haven’t been following the premise is this: could a man travel from the UK to NZ in 30 days, with the journey paid for and determined solely by Twitter users, whilst at the same time raising over £5K for charity?
Of course he could. And it’s been fun to play along – getting involved in the voting, retweeting his exploits and asking my network to see if anyone could help progress his journey.
From an observers pov, the only way I can describe the experience of re-living the travelling exploits of someone I’ve never met before is that it is like watching a reality TV show: mildly entertaining, brief enough to encourage me to keep an interested eye on proceedings, but distanced enough for me to step away if things got too tough (which fortunately they never did).
Did we learn anything new? Not really. For generations, the capacity of a community to draw together to support the needs of an individual or individuals has been well documented (although usually for more charitable causes). In my Lloyds TSB days, one of the ‘negotiating skills’ tests for Senior Management was whether you could travel from London to a meeting point in Europe (that was determined on the day of departure) with no cash. And the truth is, if the need and determination is there, most things are usually achievable.
I suppose for me the big thing about this experiment is that it is testament to the prevalence of real-time community decision making. In older times, the proof of the honesty of intent would have come from sealed letters from respected individuals – I’m thinking Patrick Leigh-Fermor’s A Time of Gifts here; over the past 30 days this validation has come from Twitter users.
The difference for me is that in older times, the journey would have taken much longer and therefore the impact that such an activity would have had on the people he would have met and the communities he stayed with would have been deeper and more longer lasting. I’ve no doubt that the Twitchiker had an impact, but I can’t see the ramifications of that impact lasting well beyond this year.
At least until the book comes out…