Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some actual questions that we’ve been asked, sometimes frequently. Feel free to ask us some others here.
Q: What does Uncornered Market mean?
A: Like anything in this world, the meaning is ultimately up to you, the reader. But here’s what it means to us:
- uncornered - “no corners,” implying boundless or endless possibilities
- market – a place to trade ideas on life, culture, travel, personal development, food and technology
- A play on the phrase “to corner the market,” which means to have a monopoly or to control the supply of something. We don’t wish to control the market on any of our experiences, but rather share them with a larger audience.
Q: What’s the tagline - measuring the Earth with our feet - about?
A: The source is Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Part II, Chapter VI).
In the novel, Don Quixote explains the difference between knights errant and knights courtier to his niece and housekeeper. He suggests that courtiers “range the world over by looking at map,” never leaving the comfort of the King’s court. On the other hand, knights errant go out into the world and experience and understand its joys and sorrows first-hand, thereby “measuring the Earth with their feet.” Both types of knights are necessary.
Q: What do you hope to achieve with this site?
Have fun.
We’d also like to help transform the regions we visit from shapeless splotches on a map into places with personalities and collections of people with stories to tell. We hope our readers respond to our experiences on this site and find a connection with people and places they might otherwise disregard.
Q: Who are you?
A: Wow, how much time do you have? More info at About Us. Otherwise, invite us to dinner to find out more.
Q: What are you doing?
A: We are taking a mid-career break to travel around the world. We view this journey as a creative sabbatical and an exercise in personal and professional development. Our aim is to develop new skills and sharpen old ones as we explore new cultures and pursue and produce creative projects on the road.
The more we travel, the more we realize we still have much to learn – about people, culture, food, history, work, environment, life, humanity. As we travel, we’ll share our experiences on this weblog in a multi-sensory way (text, photography, audio, and video).
We also view ourselves as citizen diplomats. We repeatedly find ourselves representing America and answering questions about our complex and diverse country. Through these discussions, people come away with a different view of America than what they see in the news, at the movies or on television. Call this our small contribution to public diplomacy in today’s complicated world.
This is our personal approach to learning and personal growth through travel. We’d love to hear about yours.
Q: Where are you going? What’s your itinerary?
A: We have a general trajectory, but we’re staying flexible. As a result, our itinerary will likely evolve as new opportunities and contacts arise. World events, good and bad, will also change our course. There are more countries we’d love to visit, but current events prevent us from doing so without keeping our mothers awake at night.
Phase 1: Europe to Asia, going through the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan).
PHASE 1 UPDATE: 25 October 2007 - We exited Central Asia from Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar, China over the Torugart Pass.
Phase 2: Asia - Mongolia, China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, Laos, Japan (if we strike it rich)
Phase 3: Australia, New Zealand
Phase 4: Southern and Eastern Africa, West Africa (time permitting)
Phase 5: Central America and South America
Phase 6: Anywhere else we missed along the first five phases
Q: How long will you travel?
A: Our current plan is about one year to 18 months. The actual amount of time depends on…how long we continue to have fun and learn…how long we can afford to stay on the road…how long we can tolerate each other day after day after day.
Q: What were you doing professionally before you traveled?
A: See resumes (Dan and Audrey), LinkedIn profiles (Dan and Audrey) and Our Services. Please contact us if you have a question or are interested in working with us.
We are generalists, meaning that we can apply our portfolio of experiences and skills in a variety of environments and organizations.
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: We both reached a point in our professional development where we required a new and different set of challenges. We were also interested in having experiences and acquiring skills in disciplines that we might not otherwise have access to along a traditional corporate career path.
If you look at our resumes, our professional experiences speak very much to left-brain activities. If you explore our website, you’ll find that we’ve migrated to the right-brain. We seek beauty in balance.
Q: How are you able to afford to travel for this long? Did you win the lottery?
A: No, we didn’t win the lottery, nor are we living off a trust fund. We made conscious choices over the last few years and saved in order to make this trip a reality. We avoid debt and don’t have any major obligations such as a house (or children, or dogs for that matter).
It’s also important to understand that we are traveling on a budget, so the cost may not be as high as you imagine. This not only makes the journey lighter on our pocketbooks, it often makes it more interesting. Finally, we hope to sustain our traveling ways through freelance work along the way (see Our Services).
Q: I think what you are doing is pretty cool. What can I do to help or get involved?
A: We sincerely welcome your involvement. There are a number of things you can do:
- Be part of our regular community - share your thoughts and experiences by commenting on our blog. There’s a comment form at the bottom of each active article/post.
- Be our unofficial marketing department - tell your friends about our site
- Let us know of an interesting person or organization we could meet with or interview on our travels
- Send us a note with your thoughts
- Help the people and organizations we’ve talked about by letting other people know about them, supporting them financially, or getting involved directly
- Buy your Amazon products by clicking on the Amazon links on our site (the price to you is the same, but Amazon gives us a small percentage as commission)
- Make a donation through Paypal (see the bottom right-hand side of our site)
- Buy products at Our Store
- Invite us to dinner : )
Q: I like something I see on the site. I’m interested in purchasing some of your work. What do I do?
A: Contact us with your request or suggestion. Or, visit our Our Store (for photographic print products)
Q: How do you prepare for a trip like this?
A: Well, if you have infinite amounts of cash, it’s not so difficult – get a good travel agent and enjoy the ride (a la Michael Crichton’s Travels).
If, like us, you don’t have infinite amounts of cash, you maximize your experience and your money by planning – reading travel books, getting advice from friends, researching online, gazing at maps – and staying flexible. More information here.
We also took an unconventional approach. We strategically decided to take a pre-trip to Southeast Asia for four months to cut our teeth and test out some of our ideas. We used this time to develop a website, a framework and a process we could use for the duration of our trip. We also opted to decamp Prague before the cold and darkness of another winter set in and headed for a location that was warmer and generally less expensive. We learned a lot in these first few months and had a great time in the process.
Q: What are you bringing with you?
A: Too much. The more you travel, the more you realize how much you don’t really need. Click here for the details.
Q: What technology are you using on the road?
- Laptops - Sony VAIO and Mac PowerBook G4
- DSLR camera - Nikon D70
- Digital camera with video capabilities - Casio EX-Z750
- GPS device (for geo-tagging photos) - Sony GPS-CS1
- Apple AirPort Express base station (portable wireless router)
- iPod outfitted for recording sound and a lavalier microphone for interviews
- Mobile phone - Palm Treo 650
- A host of other software and hardware bits and bobs that we’ll write about at length in a future blog post
There’s a lot of equipment to haul, but we’re using it all. Our goal was to adequately equip ourselves to be able to capture, produce and publish photography, audio, video, and text while on the road.
For an updated list of our equipment and how we use it, check out this post.
Q: What technology are you using on your site?
A: The underlying technology for our website/blog is a heavily customized version of Wordpress. We also use a variety of technology extensions (known as plug-ins in blog parlance). We host our photographs on Flickr, and our videos on YouTube and Blip.tv.
Q: How do I use the technologies and features on your website?
A: For how to best to view and experience this site read this.
