Urbanista Diaries is an extensive three-phase campaign that engages bloggers, journalists, and everyday people to take photos of their adventures. The powerful Nokia N82 tags each photo to a specific location through location-based GPS, so users can instantaneously share their experiences with anyone.

For the first phase, four influential bloggers were sent across the globe to record their journeys and share it with guests on the site. For phase two, Nokia partnered with several top media sites such as Wallpaper, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Salomon and CNN to document major world events in real time via journalists, artists and scientists. Phase three opens up the experience to anyone with a GPS-enabled Nokia device. It’s another example of how Nokia is changing the way people share stories of their lives.

Storytelling Rediscovered

The Urbanista Diaries tracked a team of four global explorers as they undertook an eight week relay race across the globe using a Nokia N82 as the baton. The Urbanista Diaries website tracked their progress as they moved from New York to London including the 22 stops along the way. The urbanistas told the stories of their adventures through the lens of a Nokia N82.

Using Nokia Sports Tracker mobile application every element of the explorers’ progress was tracked via GPS so viewers could see where they were on their journey or look at images marked on a map in the place they were taken.

For people who wanted to follow their every move, Nokia created an urbanista widget. By following the step-by-step instructions to install the widget to a favorite site such as iGoogle or Facebook, people around the world could follow these intrepid travelers and share their experiences.

The travelers set off with only a Nokia N82 as a companion so all their stories were being told through its 5 megapixel camera, integrated GPS and advanced connectivity – from the images they sent to the blogs they post.

The Explorers

The urbanistas were four bloggers, chosen for their diverse backgrounds. They came from places as disparate as Texas and Curaçao–adding a unique global perspective to each leg of the journey.

From the island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles, Devin Balentina has a passion for photography, art, astronomy and meteorology.

West Glamorgan’s Jay Montano (a.k.a. Jose_R.A.M) splits his time between studying biomedical science and his interests include sketching, photography, video editing and playing football and tennis.

Web designer/developer Jenifer Hanen (a.k.a.Ms Jen) lives and works in California and is a lover of art and a graduate of science from Trinity college in Dublin. Jenifer’s masters thesis was entitled ‘Moleskine to Mobile: How Creative Professionals are Using Their Mobile’.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Ryan Gallagher’s interests revolve around the relationship between art, media, science and nature. He especially enjoys exploring interesting photography techniques with relatively inexpensive equipment.

In conjunction with the bloggers, Nokia also partnered with top media sites such as Lonely Planet, Wallpaper, National Geographic and CNN, providing guest reporters an opportunity to use the Nokia N82 to capture a variety of newsworthy events around the globe.

Additionally, the sports equipment company Salomon had a widget in its website where a free-skier captures his breath-taking runs around Europe and Alaska.

A Path through Urban Jungles

The journey began in New York and ended in London with 22 stops that include Washington DC, Las Vegas, Bangkok, Singapore, Mumbai, Goa, Berlin and Paris along the way.

Journey legs:
Leg 1, Delvin: New York – Los Angeles
Leg 2, Jay: Singapore – Chennai
Leg 3, Jenifer: Chennai – Austria
Leg 4, Ryan: Austria – London

Each urbanista travelled between the two places for two weeks, capturing their journey and uploading a photographic record of their stories to the website. After two weeks the Nokia N82 baton was handed off to the next urbanista in a key city and the journey continued.

Releasing Stories into the World

The urbanistas were tracked using the Nokia Sports Tracker mobile application installed on the device. This enabled the bloggers to log their positions and photos in real-time and upload the photos to the Internet straight from the device.

Visiting www.nseries.com/urbanistadiaries took you on a photographic journey across the world. From New York to Tokyo, adventures were discovered and spontaneous moments captured and shared via the Nokia N82 and Nokia Sports Tracker.

Installing the widget tracked the explorers’ location and marked the spot where they were and where each image was taken on a constantly updated map. The widget could be easily embedded in a blog or social networking site.

Now with Nokia viNe, everyone is able to track and share their own journeys, stories and media with friends – just like one of the explorers. A mobile widget is available, and it works with new and many existing S60-based converged devices.