Decentralizing Parkour Jam Planning using Twitter

One of the major problems with parkour communities right now is jam planning and coordination. Currently, Rochester uses Facebook to plan jams. Honestly I wish it hadn't turned out that way. The only way to announce your jam was to post on the discussion boards (which no one checks with any real frequency in ANY Facebook group) or to send out a message. Only administrators of the group can send out messages though, so unless I made everyone an administrator, only a few select people could effectively plan jams.

I recognized how detrimental this was to the community and I made a push to start using the American Parkour forums. As it stands, almost all typical parkour communities use forums to plan their jams, and it works pretty well. Forums allow anyone to post a jam, they facilitate easy discussion and planning of the jam, and it leaves a public record of past events. The problem is people had no incentive to check APK because any event we planned was blasted to them through Facebook. Additionally, it's difficult to reach critical mass on a forum (as defined by the amount of activity occurring to keep it interesting enough for people to keep coming back and generating more activity). So short of the leaders of the community abandoning Facebook entirely. I had to find a way to solve this problem in order for the community to be sustainable. How could we decentralize jam planning without destroying the community?

Then the idea. Twitter. It all fell into place, and the solution is SO much cooler than you think it is.

A quick rundown on Twitter lingo in case you aren't familiar. A Twitter update is called a tweet. You can do something called "retweeting" which is basically quoting someone. It's typically used as a way of saying "hey. This guy is pretty cool, you (your followers) should hear what he has to say." Then there are hashtags, which is Twitters keyword system. You can end a tweet with #08DebateTopics, and then whenever someone who was interested in 2008 election debate topics searched for that hashtag, tweets about energy policy, Iraq, and the economy would all come up.

So here is how my solution works:

• Step 1: start a hashtag, #parkourjam. If I want to go train, I write a tweet like "Tuesday. Five PM. In front of the library. #parkourjam"

• Step 2: Run a Twitter search for the hashtag, and then save the RSS feed for that search.

• Step 3: write a perl script to scrape that RSS feed and republish it. (this is necessary because Twitter uses nofollow links, which will screw up the next step.)

• Step 4: run your new RSS feed through Yahoo Pipes. Apply some clever filters and regular expressions to strip out the data you want, clean it up a bit, and the republish that as a new RSS feed.

• Step 5: run that RSS feed through twitterfeed.com. This will check for updates every 30 minutes, then will actually update a Twitter account with the new information.

So what we just did is essentially create a retweet bot. It will automatically search Twitter for new tweets using the #parkourjam hashtag, do a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo back-end magic, then republish any tweet it finds under its own account.

This is obviously useful because now everyone doesn't have to follow everyone else, people only have to follow a single bot.

Cool right? Yeah. But we're not done yet.

Twitter is super phone friendly. You can register your phone with your account, and then you can actually text updates to Twitter. So I can be on campus, find out class is canceled, then without having to go home I can tell people to meet me outside the library in ten minutes to train.

Sweet, right? Sure, but then everyone else still has to be at their computer to see my update. And this is when the project REALLY gets cool.

Remember when I said that Twitter is super phone friendly? Yeah. SUPER phone friendly. You can actually set Twitter up to send you a text message whenever specific people update their Twitter accounts.

Yeah. So suddenly, I can tell everyone who follows this retweet bot that I'm outside the library and I want to train. Where ever they are.

So if your Economics 101 professor is droning on and on about the laws of supply and demand and it's an amazing day outside... You know there is someone who wants to go train. Or if your home alone watching television, or if you dropped the kids off at a birthday party and have a few hours to kill. Suddenly the entire community is at your fingertips. Anyone can plan a jam- either days in advance or minutes in advance.

I feel like this is what Twitter is going to be used for more and more in the future. With a bit of creativity, out of the box thinking, and knowing what tools are out there and what they're capable of, you can decentralize planning while centralizing community.

72 Hour Fast - Part 2

Here are the Twitter updates from the 72 hour period (and a little before). In a few days, I'll post up my reflections on what I learned, and plans for the future.

I'm anxious about fasting for 72 hours. I have 4 hours and 57 more minutes of foodtime left, and then nothing until Saturday. 7:03 PM Oct 28th

Just set up my phone. I will be constantly updating this twitter with how i feel during my 72 hour fast. Visit www.zaccohn.com to find more. 7:17 PM Oct 28th

is hungry and tired already... and he hasn't even begun his fast yet! This is going to suck. 9:30 PM Oct 28th

I'm home for the night. It's timeto pee, then start making the last supper. One hour and five minutes. 10:55 PM Oct 28th

I'm starting to eat dinner now... Cutting it a bit close 11:54 PM Oct 28th

Here we go... 12:00 AM Oct 29th

First morning: Woke up on time, showered, and ready for class 25 minutes early. I forgot how long breakfast takes to prepare. A bit peckish. 7:35 AM Oct 29th

Just finished his first bike ride to class. Current weather: hail. Good game, Rochester... Good game. 8:16 AM Oct 29th

I'm feeling the first urges to eat. It's been eight hours and fifty five minutes since i last ate. 8:50 AM Oct 29th

I just made it through my first hunger headache. Nothing special, I get these all the time when I skip breakfast. Signs of things to come... 10:10 AM Oct 29th from web

Twelve hours down. Sixty to go. No real issues yet. 10:10 PM Oct 29th

Perhaps going to lunch with my friends was a bad idea... That's an awful good looking bowl of pasta. 1:09 PM Oct 29th

i just turned down free pizza. Other than that, 16 hours in and so far so good 3:36 PM Oct 29th

Is at Denny's. Not eating. Coming here was dumb. 23 hours in. 10:34 PM Oct 29th

One third done! Not bad so far. We'll see how the first night on an empty stomach goes. 12:16 AM Oct 30th

I am awake. 33 hours in. I feel pretty normal, not as hungry as I was expecting. A little lightheaded, maybe. 8:54 AM Oct 30th

Biking is getting increasing more difficult and tiresome. That's the only real symptom so far. 10:04 AM Oct 30th

36 hours down. Halfway there. I'm at a constant one out of ten on the hunger scale... Nothing too bad. 12:08 PM Oct 30th

Getting very cold. The hunger is amplifying stress from work and I'm definitely getting a bit irritable. Little things are getting to me. 1:52 PM Oct 30th

My face is two inches from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Le sigh. 8:13 PM Oct 30th

Going to bed. 49 Hours down, 23 to go. Pocketchange. 1:31 AM Oct 31th

48 hours in. I'm feeling no different than normal right now. My sense of smell is definitely heightened though. 8:02 AM Oct 31st

Just woke up. Still very three but can't seen to fall back asleep. 56.5 done. I can stubborn the rest of this out. 10:24 AM Oct 31st

I wonder if using toothpaste is cheating? 11:35 AM Oct 31st

I've seen more free food, drinks, and candy today than ever. Torturrrre. 6 hours left though. Stay the course! 2:05 PM Oct 31st from

I have walked part so much free candy today... I an truly being tested. Just bought chicken to grill for tonight. 4:50 PM Oct 31st

just finished taekwondo. Less than three hours! I'm going to have broccoli and grapes first, then some nuts, then maybe some chicken. 9:22 PM

One hour and sixteen minutes. I'm going to start cooking in about 45 minutes, and then spend about 3 hours savoring a very small meal. 10:43 PM Oct 31st

My dinner is ready. Just counting down the minutes... 11:55 PM Oct 31st

Victory is sweet. Sweet and tasty. 12:00 AM Nov 1st

72 Hour Fast

My name is Zachary Cohn, and I have never been hungry.

I don't think I've ever gone more than 18 hours without food. Even during religious holidays when fasting was encouraged, it was only sun-up to sun-down (and I'd sneak food throughout the day anyway). I've wanted to eat before, my stomach has told me it was empty and needed more food to sustain it. Even right now, my stomach is growling a bit, even though I ate less than 2 hours ago.

Food is actually a fairly significant part of my life. I eat healthy and I love to cook. I pride myself on having never drank a soda. My roommates and I regularly cook our own dinners, ranging from calzones (made from scratch!) to oven-baked chicken with a homemade alfredo sauce. We eat healthy, and we eat a LOT.

I live in an upper-middle class household where there have always been cans in the cabinet, apples on the table, and milk in the refrigerator. I've made enough money so if I'm out, I don't have to deliberate and decide if I can afford to eat out somewhere or if I should just hold out and wait until I get home. Food has always been an arm's reach away.

I was sitting in class last week when my stomach growled and I decided I was hungry. This time though, for some reason, I thought about my last thought. "I am hungry." Four hours before, I had eaten a 3 egg omelet with cheese, turkey, and peppers. There was no way I was "hungry" again. This is when I realized that I've never truly been hungry. Starving children in Africa, to use the cliche, have gone days without food. People tortured in POW Camps have been deprived of food for days at a time.

Running out of peanut butter and jelly that morning suddenly seemed like not as big of a deal.

That's when I made my decision. I was going to fast. Not for any religious reason. Not for health or weight loss or purification. Just to see if I can do it. To see if I have the willpower to not eat for a full 72 hours.

I hope this will do a few things for me.

First, I think it will ultimately be satisfying. My training for Parkour goes beyond simply running and vaulting over stuff. I train Parkour so I can be ready for anything that happens. Parkour alone won't do this, which is why I do a variety of activities (Parkour, martial arts, rock climbing, lifting, slacklining, even swing dance and juggling). When called upon to act, I want the ability to perform and meet the demands of the situation. If the situation is not having food available... I want to know what it feels like. I want to be ready.

Side note - I'm interested in deprivation training. In the coming months, I hope to spend a full 24 hours with various disabilities. I want to go one day without sight, another without thumbs, with only my non-dominant hand, and without my lower body. But for the next 72 hours, I'll be going without food.

Second, I think this will allow me to control my desire to eat better. A lot of times I find myself eating just because there's food around, or because i have nothing else to do, or because it's "that time of day" when I usually eat and I feel obligated to eat. I want to break that habit. This will hopefully give me a frame of reference. Which leads into the next reason...

Two point Five, this will also be a test of willpower. I am not removing food from my life, I am just not consuming it. I will be around food fairly often. I will be going to the dining hall with friends, I will be eating dinner with my roommates, perhaps even cooking food with them. Being around food, but not eating, will probably be the hardest part of all. Several people have said it would be cooler if I went into a jungle or into the desert and did this... but at that point eating is simply not an option. In my case, eating IS an option, and yet I choose not to eat.

Third, I want to know hunger. It's an experience that most people in society never know. zNo one I interact with knows, has ever known, or will ever know hunger. I'm not kidding myself, three days is nothing. People can go 15, 20 days without food. I'm not willing to sacrifice and damage my body to that intensity, but I feel like this will at least be a taste of what true hunger feels like. To really understand what I mean, please read this short story (it's 7 paragraphs, and it does an excellent job describing what I'm talking about).

Because of these reasons, because I consider this experiment "training," I'm not going to be changing my daily routine. In fact, I'm going to become more strict. I am going to wake up and get up when my alarm goes off. I will continue biking to and from school each day. I am going to get to every class on time. I am going to get to work on time. I will also be attending the activities I usually participate in those evenings. Wednesday is juggling night, Thursday is swing dance, and Friday is Taekwondo (although this one I teach in, so I won't be actively participating in all of the drills). I will not be eating a huge dinner tonight, just my normal meal. I'm not going to prepare for this at all, I want it to be as though eating was suddenly no longer an option, yet I had to continue on as normal, as if I was fighting in a war and we ran out of rations (although slightly less intense).

I'm publicizing this for a few reasons. I hope I make other people to think about hunger. I don't necessarily want everyone to join me in my fast or in a fast of their own, but I do want people to recognize that they probably have never truly been hungry in their life.

I've posted a link on Digg to my Twitter, where I will be making regular updates about how I'm feeling. I hope this will help the information get out, but I also hope this will hold me publicly accountable and be added incentive to stick to it.

I'll be updating twitter pretty often, and on Saturday, after my fast is over, I will be posting here again with all the twitter updates, and a "wrap up" summarizing how it went and what I learned.

[Edit - Read Part One and Part Two of my twitter-logs from my fast]