Easy Does It
Slowly but surely this crazy idea is growing into something realistic. So far there are seven steemians interested in playing (since @wuji and @ecoknowme turned out to be the same person) and with 0.125 SBD, 0.115 SP from the first post, plus 0.335 SBD, 0.245 SP from the second one, we have a total of 0.460 SBD, 0.360 SP, all stored safely in my steemit wallet, ready to be transferred to the first person (whomever that may be) to kick off the Homesteaders' Steemit Around the World Challenge. Granted, with still just around a buck, this hypothetical kickoff wouldn't reach much further than a literal football field, depending on the shipped item. Also, with merely seven points in the world, so far, the distances to cover are still far from achievable.
Shipped Items? Money Collected? What Crazy Idea Is This Again?
The idea is to connect crafty steemians with each other, by having each one send some of their products to others, and thus create a chain that spans the world. The only two requirements I'd like to set are:
- the item should be a home-made gift, meaning it should come from the personal effort of the person sending it and completely free of charge. Note: although @nerd-minion's offer of sending an object found with his metal detector does technically not constitute anything self-made, I'd still like to include it as it was his personal effort of finding a unique and abandoned object.
- the shipping fees should be covered collectively by all participants, by publishing and upvoting steemit posts dedicated for this purpose (like this one).
While each item is just sent to the next participant, a paper notebook and a USB-stick will also be included with each shipment to gather personal messages (pictures, songs, etc.) from each member, which would make it all the way around the world.
Care for an Example?
Other than my two requirements, I'd like to leave a great deal of flexibility in organizing this project. What item to ship, to whom, by which means, or even the order in which participants are linked, I'd like to leave up to all of us. The following example of how this could take shape is just one of many, many possibilities I've just dreamed up. Please note that the actual places, items, and participants I mention only serve the purpose of illustrating the general idea. The people in question don't actually exist. At the end of this post you'll find a list of real, actual people interested in joining.
Deciding on the Sequence
After many preparation posts, enough steemians have expressed their interest in participating, and the number of posts have generated sufficient funds to pay for the first leg. In long, drawn out debates the participants decided to cover shorter legs first, before snowballing into a project that can pay for shipping across oceans. Since most members are located in North America, that's where the chain would start. Everyone agreed that it makes most sense to ship to the person in closest geographical proximity. However, there are many other factors determining the fees, including the size and weight of the item, as well as the means of shipping. So each participant offered something they were willing to send, and others expressed their interest in receiving them. Soon everyone knew what they would send to whom, and who would send them what, so were ready to compare prices.
The First Leg
In the end, the cheapest leg everyone agreed on would be ideal to start with, was to have @watercolorist from Long Island send one of her paintings to @beewhisperer in New Jersey. The money saved up from previous preparation posts was almost enough to cover the shipping, but not completely. So @watercolorist wrote a post about the sunrise that inspired her to paint that particular piece, and @beewhisperer posted a photo of the frame he wanted to use for this painting, and the wall he was going to hang it on. Everyone else got busy upvoting these two posts, and in the end the payout was more than enough to cover the shipping fees by regular mail.
The Details of Paying
The authors of these two posts, as well as all the previous posts tagged steemaroundtheworld, transferred the SBDs (once they powered down from SPs) they generated to @watercolorist, so she could pay for mailing her painting. Since @watercolorist is a keen minnow steemian, wanting to grow into a whale some day, she never even considered changing the SBD into USD (via BTC). Instead, she paid for the shipping directly out of her pocket, calculated how much that would be in STEEM according to the current exchange rate, and used that much of the SBD she received to power up. The rest she transferred to @beewhisperer, whose turn it would be to keep the chain going. And there was already the next participant lined up: @junksmith from West Virginia was looking forward to a small jar of organic raw honey from him...
Now it's Your Turn!
Okay, this little example should illustrate the basic concept of how this challenge is supposed to go down: Everyone posts, upvotes, raises money and interest for the project, then uses the rewards to execute the plan, one step at a time. Simple enough, but there are still many questions and possibilities for explore alternatives. This is where I would like to challenge YOU, who are already on the list of participants (and even more so if you're not, but would like to be) to write a similar story, illustrating one leg of the journey. What is the object in question? Who would be sending it to whom, and how? Does the shipment cross borders or oceans? Are there any possible obstacles to this? How would they be resolved? Any unforeseen events, adventures unexpected occurrences?
Let's Make This a Proper Contest:
The idea is to start raising money for the first leg (wherever that may be). So I'd like to ask you to:
- Write a made-up story of how one leg of this journey could take place. You can continue the story with @junksmith, or pick it up somewhere further down the line, or maybe think about the last leg that would send something to @watercolorist. You could even write about some of the actual participants from the list at the end of this post. I'm sure they don't mind being featured in a fictional account of the project we want to realize. (Note: if you ARE on that list and you DO mind, please let us know in a comment!)
- Make it interesting by thinking up a possible setback, obstacle, or difficulty, and how it could be resolved.
- Illustrate your story with at least one picture.
- Include the tag steemaroundtheworld.
- Write a comment to this post with a link to the post you're submitting.
- Dedicate the reward for your post to financing the first (or subsequent) shipment, once we get around to determining its details. Until then you'd keep it safe in your steemit wallet.
- Deadline is Monday, September 4th at 12:00 noon CDT (UTC-5).
In a decent contest there has to be a winner and a prize. I am going to evaluate all submissions according to originality, details, problem presented and solved, as well as any additional quality, such as something funny, surprising, or completely new idea. Okay, I know, this is waaaay subjective, so I hope you don't mind competing at the mercy of my judgment. :-)
Oh yes, the prize: Since I believe the accumulated rewards for all participating posts of this contest will outweigh what the preparatory articles have raised, I'm willing to offer everything raised so far to the winner of this contest. Plus, I'm also going to include the reward from the very first article I wrote, that spawned the idea for all this, which got me 0.027 SBD, 0.025 SP. Together with the amount mentioned above, that totals 0.487 SBD, 0.385 SP, and at the current exchange rate of 1.53 STEEM for an SBD (according to Steem Dollar Ticker) that makes total of 1.08 SBD. Well, I realize that is not all that much, so let me add the generous donation from @ecoknowme precisely for this project, and round it up to a grand total of 5 SBD! Much nicer, right? With enough participants we'll not only raise enough money to make up for it, but attract more interested participants for the overall challenge, not to mention the fun we'll have reading each other's stories.
Here is the list of all the people who have expressed their interest in the Steem Around the World Challenge so far:
- @ecoinstant --- Tolima, Colombia 371048 --- 1lb hand picked and finely roasted organic coffee (mmmhhh).
- @stortebeker --- Mexico City 11850 --- a bottle (750ml) of home brewed mead or a jar of spirulina pesto.
- @nerd-minion --- Missouri, USA 65742 --- a lost treasure, found with his metal detector!
- @greenacrehome --- North Carolina, USA --- a hand-made soap or an item from his woodworking shop.
- @spaingaroo --- Southern Spain 23670 --- medicinally modified extra-virgin olive oil (or, depending on the local laws, maybe another non-food item).
- @ecoknowme --- India --- soap, oil, and spices that you would expect from South India AND COFFEE.
- @overthewait --- Queensland, Australia --- a handmade steempunk item.