With less than seven weeks remaining before the beginning of my 12-month, 15,000-mile road trip, it's time to start spreading the word...

My seven-channel media combine is up and running -- albeit a bit low on content, but we're just getting started and I intend to begin "feeding the beast" on a more regular basis -- and there's plenty to talk about. I need some help with plans for what to do in Lodi for five days . . . help!

Meanwhile, we've begun planting seeds in the blogosphere and elsewhere and are confident that if we keep on priming and pumping, we'll be rewarded with cool, clear water gushing from the spout (gotta love those metaphors!).

This posting is being used, in part, to hook up with Technorati.com -- one of several conduits through which we hope visitors to Wandering Dave sites will flow. The following link should do the trick:

Technorati Profile

If you've found us, please leave a comment or travel tip -- we're working hard to attract a crowd and the only way to know we're reaching folks is for them to leave something behind when they visit.

So, ride along with me on this trip of a lifetime by logging in often to WanderingDave.com

Rolling out my mobile media conglomerate

With less than seven weeks remaining before the beginning of my 12-month, 15,000-mile road trip, it's time to start spreading the word...

My seven-channel media combine is up and running -- albeit a bit low on content, but we're just getting started and I intend to begin "feeding the beast" on a more regular basis -- and there's plenty to talk about. I need some help with plans for what to do in Lodi for five days . . . help!

Meanwhile, we've begun planting seeds in the blogosphere and elsewhere and are confident that if we keep on priming and pumping, we'll be rewarded with cool, clear water gushing from the spout (gotta love those metaphors!).

This posting is being used, in part, to hook up with Technorati.com -- one of several conduits through which we hope visitors to Wandering Dave sites will flow. The following link should do the trick: Tecnorati Profile

If you've found us, please leave a comment or travel tip -- we're working hard to attract a crowd and the only way to know we're reaching folks is for them to leave something behind when they visit.

So, ride along with me on this trip of a lifetime by logging in often to WanderingDave.com

Can one wander in cyberspace?

Some 800 miles later, I have new insights and a more clearly defined sense of mission for the upcoming trip around the United States.

I'm very excited about seeing the sights and meeting the folks; but I am now just as excited about "exploring" the virtual worlds that are visited through conduits with strange new names, like "podcasts," "blogs" and "discussion boards."

As I traveled along Interstate 5 and Highway 99 for a Christmastime visit with family and friends, I wondered, "Why would anyone care about "What I did on my "summer vacation?”

I finally had to admit that there's not much about me or my travel plans that would justify an expectation that people will choose to visit the Wandering Dave site off and on for a whole year.

Maybe if I committed a series of bank robberies and tried for a "Bonnie and Clyde" kind of following... NAH!

No, the compelling feature of my yearlong trip (if there really is such a feature) msut be the way I'll be reporting about the trip -- using multiple media channels.

This revelation about what the audience will find interesting leads me to believe I should focus some of the content on my role as ... now, get this moniker ... a "mobile media mogul."

All right, all right, I know that sounds more than a little egomaniacal. I'm just trying to make a point: Never in history has it been possible for average people (like me) to send messages to a worldwide (and potentially huge) audience.

Thanks to the Internet, I can now publish newspaper copy, broadcast radio clips, display images and even engage in a dialogue with a mass audience -- actually with several mass audiences by way of multiple media channels.

Move over, Joe Pulitzer, David Sarnoff and Ted Turner. Here comes Wandering Dave -- the mobile media mogul who is out to capture your audience!

If being on the road makes me feel THIS good about myself, I can't wait to start my trip.

Just seven weeks before the "go" date: Valentine's Day 2007.

Heading south

My first shakedown cruise begins Friday.

I'll be making a fairly typical "hop" -- about 170 miles straight down Highway 99 to Bakersfield. I will be able to have breakfast here at home, extending holiday wishes to my neighbors; and then I can leave before the Friday-before-Christmas traffic builds too much and make my way south -- perhaps stopping for lunch in Fresno or Delano.

I'll arrive in plenty of time to learn the lay of the land. Though check-in isn't scheduled until 4 p.m., I'll have little luggage and public facilities are available for freshening up after the drive.

Weather permitting, I may take a stroll around the neighborhood; if the weather is extra nice, perhaps I'll take a short drive -- to the Kern River Park. This historic venue attracted people by the hundreds back in the Roaring Twenties, featuring a big amusement park

The Depression and changing times led to the slow demise of the park. After WWII, the owners slowly sold off the rides to keep their heads above water and eventually the site evolved into its current status: a great communty resource for picnics, fisuhing, enjoying wildlife and just getting away for a family outing or -- in my case -- a chance to commune with nature in the middle of a 300-mile trip to Los Angeles County for Christmas.

If the weather and timing are both right, I could drive a few miles up river and around to the east shore of Lake Ming. The web-site description of this man-made lake suggests that sunset might be worth seeing:

"Hills surround the lake, and the Greenhorn Mts. stretch along the eastern horizon. From a hilltop picnic ground overlooking the lake, the view is soul-stirring."

Web searches will provide lots of ideas like these for points of interest that are well-known to area residents but a bit off the beaten path for tourists. But I'm hoping that visitors to the Wandering Dave sites will also contribute ideas for places to go -- and particularly for events to attend and people to meet.

On the eve of Christmas Eve (Saturday), I'll head on down the the Southland and a few days with family. This outing will even include a 200-mile side-trip to sunny (hopefully) San Diego, the city of my youth where I'll connect with my mother and more.

The trek home will begin on the 27th with another stopover in Bakersfield (another sunset?) on the rebound.

I'll be taking three of these shakedown tours before casting off all lines and beginning my "year before the steering wheel." Next stops: Antioch and Santa Rosa.

Join the fun, drop me a line, post a message in the forum or make a comment here on the blog. Remember, it's your trip, too -- if you'd like to ride along as a virtual passenger.

Power to podcast proves elusive

Since returning from the Southland with my new laptop, I've been struggling to assemble the rest of the equipment needed to create podcasts and radio spots.

That process proved much more challenging and time-consuming than I expected. When I sought help, I discovered only two extreme categories of help-providers: those that knew way more than I think I ever need to know but who can't bring their explanations down to my level of ignorance; and those who are pretty much in the dark, as I am -- or, hopefully, as I was.

My first failure was deciding that I needed a “mixer” when what I needed was a "preamp." A couple of trips to Radio Shack -- including purchases and returns -- followed by a rather interesting and enjoyable visit to a nearby pawn shop got me what I needed at a pretty good price.

Cables became the new problem and I finally managed to cobble adapters together and found a way to transfer input from both my new microphone and my cassette recorder into the computer.

And what have I learned from this?

Well, one thing I've learned is that I have neither the ear nor the brainpower to become a sound engineer or electronics expert. My output will hopefully be of acceptable quality; but it won't rival that created by real professionals.

But the other thing I discovered while seeking help is that this process of assembling audio messages and then disseminating them using only personal computers -- in my case, a laptop -- is part of a brave new world of personal mass media.

Personal mass media? I may have just coined that phrase; but I think it may hold up. Individuals with limited resources are suddenly able to transmit information to diverse audiences through several channels -- including podcasts and radio spots.

Even as I make my way around the country next year, hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of “amateurs” world wide will be learning to use one or more new channels and will add their voices and messages to the mix.

“Mass” media is being redefined in the 21st century. To many of us, the result is a cacophony of nearly random noise; but new audiences will emerge with new skills for selecting channels and filtering messages. The new media moguls may be “mini-media-moguls” like me, working out of their bedrooms and their cars.

And to think I have been able to enter two of the seven channels I’ll be using by buying a new laptop online and then making three trips to Radio Shack and one to a pawnshop.

Meanwhile, Jesse is making amazing progress with the Wandering Dave sites and I'm committed to filling all seven channels with new material every week from now through the end of the trip.

Stay tuned.

Finding my focus

Would you believe Johnny Appleseed?

I've had a few recent experiences that have been quite helpful in the process of clarifying the mission, so to speak, of the Wandering Dave Road Trip.

One of these is a real pain in the rear: I've been starting the transition from my desktop computer to a laptop. The desktop is set up with two big monitors and has been wired not only to some useful peripherals like a printer and scanner but also to the wall and a high-speed cable that transferred data at lightening speed.

I got used to lightening speed, believe me.

My new laptop is more powerful that the desktop and has much more memory. But I'm now experimenting with a wireless connection to the internet and it's reminding me of the bad old days when computer hobbyists sat for hours watching their screens fill with data -- one pixel at a time.

My calls to the Internet service provider (a cell phone company) and to the computer manufacturer have revealed that I am pretty close to the cutting edge as far as going mobile is concerned. It has been interesting (albeit frustrating) to listen in as the technical support people huddle in their call centers and brainstorm about how to make my machine work with the hardware and software that's available today.

The focus coming out of all of this fuzzy systems management has clarified in stages. I've realized from the start that using several media channels (blog, newspaper column, podcasts, radio spots, maps and photos) is unusual. But I'm only now beginning to see how far out on the new wave I'll be riding -- "hanging ten" in the surfing vernacular.

I hope that what I'm doing with technology will attract attention and that I may leave a trail that's populated by folks who've become more aware of and perhaps even used to new media channels.

Another exciting development resulted from my notifying correspondents of changed email addresses. One of these was a favorite professor from grad school. His enthusiasm for my project has been very encouraging. This is the man who introduced me to the history of the mass media and who made it possible for me to recognize the significance of technology changes over the past few decades that have transformed the media in magnitudes we couldn't have contemplated.

While on the road, I'll be demonstrating the most amazing features of this new media -- it's portability, ease of use and availability to people of ordinary means. 25 years ago, one had to be rich enough to buy a radio or TV station, printing presses or recording studios. Today, we can create output of amazing quality with a laptop computer -- while on the road -- and we can theoretically reach billions of people instantaneously.

A brave new world, indeed.