Seriously. In the great Scio unConference tradition, this is something of an unTour. Combining two interests, I will take you around some of the nuttier elements of the Raleigh stormwater system -- and yes, that means underground ... ish. That is something I know a lot about -- my book,
On the Grid, went into great detail about infrastructure, and Raleigh's infrastructure especially. The other interest is videography for reporters, which I'm learning more and more about. So I'll take up to ten(ish) people on a tour of the Raleigh storm drains that crawl around beneath the city, and then before the conference is over I'll finish a video of our tour. I'll encourage everyone on the tour to do the same, and we'll see what we come up with, and we'll discuss what worked and what didn't -- hardware, software, technique. Or, I don't know -- maybe we'll all collaborate on one video, using all our footage. Or maybe not. Whatever -- that's the un part of the thing.
You'll need to bring your own flashlight and a camera of one sort or another (if you like), and given that many of the places we'll be walking will have a couple inches of flowing water, you'll need to either put plastic grocery bags in a pair of hiking boots (my solution) or bring waterproof boots of one sort or another. Or just get wet feet, if you promise not to complain. Note -- this is NOT SEWAGE -- this is storm water. Which, what with the fertilizer and the brake dust and the pet waste and whatnot I wouldn't drink, but I wouldn't worry too much about splashing around in either.
You will be provided with your own souvenir hardhat!
Obviously, if the day is rainy, for safety purposes we'll have to stay away from underground and will satisfy ourselves looking at -- and shooting -- above-ground-but-still-cool elements of Raleigh's storm water channels.
