Content contributed by an ardent follower and fan of TGDC and IIM Outdoor - Joshua Karthik!

========================================================

Also called “The Great Shopping Challenge”, as you’re all aware. 

The first truly interactive part of the selection process this far, was fun for me for one simple reason: I was transported to the mad dash between Goregaon and Linking Road and back, by the magic of twitter, the passion and enthusiasm of Team IIM Outdoor and the possibilities opened up by the GDC, all while at work in Jaipur the whole day!

Twitter works. And how. Webcasts don’t work on phones; online video viewing is frowned upon at work; even if this was broadcast live on TV, I wouldn’t be able to catch it during work hours; blogging is great to get the point across, but I don’t see the teams blogging on the road as the drive is on.

Team I/O wants to “save our souls” from the drudgery of work, and if this is how they want to do it, they have my backing! I’d much rather be “in the moment” with the team as things happen, than to just read about everything that happened hours and hours ago in a blog post at the end of the day.

Back to today. The first I got to hear of it was this morning, as I booted up twidroid (http://twidroid.com/) on my phone.

I was greeted with this:

@jumpinjehosofat: How useful is twitter? Time to find out today!
#tgdc Discovering Mumbai as Great Shoppers - catch us here or catch us live in person!about 16 hours ago from web

@namrata2211: Queen of Sheeba wishes us luck as v embark on d Gr8 Shopping Chall. Catch us@Bandra betw 11-2 pm, Live.TODAY!! Check outhttp://is.gd/21vHb

This led to a couple of quick phone calls and post confirmation, I settled into my work day, with one eye on twitter.

Tweet Count: 32

Through the four hour dash, Team I/O tweeted some 25 times, with roughly one tweet every 10 minutes (tweets with errors count too, just to show that they’re alive and kicking atleast!) and this was backed up by CediaGDC which added to the madness with 7 tweets of their own.

Photo Count: 24 (Plus 1 ducks-and-dog video)

And the on-the-spot pics were right on the money! 4 pics on twitter + TWENTY pics on flickr, all accessible via mobile phone, got me right to the action.

At the end of the four hours, I’d run through the battery of my phone by hitting refresh every minute or so but I did get to be “in the car” as they completed the task! :D

Today, for the first time, I’m guessing a lot of us followers got a taste of what the ten-day driving challenge can offer, if all the tech tools at the teams’ disposal are used well. As a fan and follower , I’m gunning for Team I/O ofcourse, but I just hope that every team that makes it to the top three will be able to “get us in the car” with them, every day of the way.

ATB to the remaining 10!
Peace.
=========================

THANKS Joshua! Though the experiment did not work entirely as planned, lots of followers tweeted, posted on FB, called us to put in updates!

Cheers!
Joe