1000 km Offshore RIB Race accross the Red Sea
Recently I found this video about offshore powerboat racing by coincidence typing Red Sea into my Video Search further below. Having a passion for travel and sports I started a bit of research about RIBs, Rigid Inflatable Boats and it's amazing what kind of highly specialized active community has built around RIBs.

The Red Sea usually is known for strong northern winds and rough choppy waves which make it an excellent place for extreme water sports like windsurfing or kite surfing so I wondered why they took the Red Sea as destination of choice, but participating RIBs powered up to 2 x 300 horse powers are special, they can also cope even with rougher seas like the Red Sea and due to their low weight RIBs often out-perform other similarly sized and powered boats.

The 2006 Red Sea Rib Rally seemed to have been such a success - it was broad casted by Sky News and EuroSport - but I could hardly find any blogs or flickr photos, I hope the 2007 remake will provide a better coverage, best coverage provided Google AJAX search, a combined YouTube/GoogleVideo search further below (Red Sea Rib Rally).

The race from Sharm-El-Sheikh to El Gouna (Abu Tig Marina) to Marsa Alam (Port Ghalib) then north against wind and waves to Soma Bay and back to Sharm also reminded me a bit of the famous Paris-Dakar Off Road Rally.

There will be a repeat in October 2007 (starting on Oct. 27th - Nov. 4th 2007) and since there is no other comparable event around I think that it could become the water equivalent of the Paris-Dakar Off Road Rally for RIBs.

Labels: events, red sea, rib, travel, videos

  ¶ '1000 km Offshore RIB Race accross the Red Sea' posted by eA : 1:10 PM  2 comments links to this post

  World Cup Aftermath Challenge Part 5 Since the word of the FIFA World Cup 2006 still spreads over the web distributing TV clips and other forms of video over the Web has become a hot topic. There's been plenty of speculation on the convergence of TV and the Internet and I think it is becoming more and more a reality as new technology evolves. Business Week reports about a new venture codenamed 'The Venice Project':

'Serial entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are at it again, this time with a venture for distributing TV and other video over the Net'.

Apple iTunes has impressed how copyright, contract and digital rights management schemes successfully shape it's business model and balance the divergent interests of consumers, artists, the entertainment industry and technology.

The technology behind the recent success of digital video distribution networks like YouTube, the use of Flash which allows users to easily embed videos onto their own web pages demonstrates that simplicity is anothertime a competitive advantage, but it's a long way to go to reach and to compete against the quality of TV and the question of monetization despite advertising is still unclear.

Convergence enables growth through new services that benefit from converged technologies, increased customer intimacy and content that meet needs of evolving audience segments.

Clear is that online video services and the increasing web viewership will generate new streams of revenue over the next months and years. Media companies should (if not yet done) be able to form an attention loop to gather continuous feedback and establish a converged, flexible environment to optimize value for an on-demand world.

• World Cup Aftermath Challenge Part 4
• World Cup Aftermath Challenge Part 3
• World Cup Aftermath Challenge Part 2
• World Cup Aftermath Challenge Part 1

Labels: events, worldcup2006

  ¶ 'World Cup Aftermath Challenge Part 5' posted by eA : 6:26 PM  0 comments links to this post

  World Cup as a Global Web Arena As in the new media many interactive opportunities and alternatives have emerged in a World Cup tournament just one can win. Congratulations to Italy! It's been an outstanding and thrilling final match last night and reflecting a live participation in a World Cup's atmosphere it's been an experience I will remember during the coming years.


Il Divo, feat. Toni Braxton, Time Of Our Lives

The power of live sports competitions, expressing one's talent on the biggest stage of all produces stars, pulls in the mass audiences and immediate reactions can best be shared and monitored in blogs and user-generated multimedia presented as moblogs, vlogs, photos, podcasts and videos, the Internet audience itself has become video-obsessed during the last months.

Labels: events, worldcup2006

  ¶ 'World Cup as a Global Web Arena' posted by eA : 12:10 AM  2 comments links to this post

  World Cup 2006 Kick-Off ShowCase The biggest sporting event of this year the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany with the world's best 32 football teams to compete and to determine the tournament's winner after 64 matches in 12 stadiums has nearly taken-off. It's funtastic weather here in Germany and I think topclass players and passionate fans from around the globe will make the cup a world class celebration during June/9th and July/9th.

• 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany (Official Website)
• 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany (Current Wikipedia News and Links)
  

After an opening ceremony and a speech from the german president Horst Köhler I'm exited to watch the german team tomorrow at 6.00 pm playing against Costa Rica in Munich's Allianz Arena. Stats say 'The World Cup hosts have never lost their opening match', although the fascination of football has a long and rich tradition it's everytime an opportunity to participate in a World Cup's atmosphere especially when it takes place in one's country.

Immediate reactions on World Cup matches and atmosphere can best be monitored in blogs and other user-generated media like web pages, newsgroups, chat lines, forums and message boards. I'm also expecting lot's of user-generated multimedia presented as moblogs, vlogs, photo sharing and podcasts.

• Simplicity Will Win in Web 2.0

As the fascination of football the slogan 'Made in Germany' has a long tradition, too. Top model Claudia Schiffer presents the new campaign for the initiative, “Invest in Germany – Land of Ideas”, it's worth to have a look at:

• Germany - Land of Ideas (Claudia Schiffer promotes Germany)

Labels: events, worldcup2006

  ¶ 'World Cup 2006 Kick-Off ShowCase' posted by eA : 4:15 PM  1 comments links to this post