iPod Giveaway #6: Renew Orleans

Political, philosophical, and logistical questions aside, one thing appears clear about the recent disaster in New Orleans: the city is about to undergo the largest rebuilding effort in the history of the U.S.

No one knows how the new Orleans will compare to the old Orleans, but clearly a lot of interesting changes are in order. What new technologies will solve the geological challenges of the area? How many natives will return? How will a new population mix affect the culture of the city? Will the tourism and shipping industries be stronger in the long term due to this disaster and recovery?

Nobody knows for sure the answers to these questions, but the purpose of the 6th monthly Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition is to try and find out; to explore what the rebuilt New Orleans might look like. Using your medium of mastery (web, video, audio, print, etc.), create a short marketing or educational piece for the new city. This could be a poster advertising the new Riverwalk, a narrative audio of the history of the city, or anything else which might be useful in attracting people to the New Easy. Humor is perfectly ok for this project but let’s please keep everything in good taste.

The barrier to entry for this 6th competition is admittedly a bit high considering the skills required to put such a piece together, but the topic is important and I anticipate a few really great entries… albeit not 500 of them.

Given the increased challenge of this month’s competition, I am upping the prize from an iPod Shuffle to an iPod Nano. Thanks also to my friend Loren Schwartz who, over dinner last week, suggested this contest and as a consequence won himself a Nano as well. And of course, iLounge will also be chipping into the prize pool as usual with a pair of $150 Etymolic earbuds.

There are only three rules which must be followed:

  1. The competition will be open for exactly two weeks… ending at midnight on Tuesday, October 4th.
  2. Please post the link to your entry in the comments below.
  3. Keep it clean. Questionable Mardi Gras photos are obviously fair game, but censor when appropriate. :)

Good luck!

Note: All proceeds from Dreamhost signups which occur during this competition will be donated by me to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. Additionally, Dreamhost will match that donation. If you’re thinking about switching hosting providers, now’s kind of a decent time to do it.

Total raised so far: $2304

49 comments on “iPod Giveaway #6: Renew Orleans”. Leave your own?
  1. I’m guessing you mean Tuesday, October 4. Looks like a neat idea!

    (Editor’s Note: Many thanks. Yes. Fixed!)

  2. Vladimir says:

    I must say Mike, this is probably the best contest yet! (they’ve all been good, but this one is a great idea). I’ll definately be entering this time around.

  3. Ralph says:

    Which nano is it?

  4. Oliver Zheng says:

    Very nice. I can’t wait to enter… I mean win.

  5. Phil Wilks says:

    That is a very tempting offer from Dreamhost! However, I am a bit put off making the switch due to the recent downtime of mikeindustries.com:

    Site Temporarily Unavailable
    We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact the webmaster/ tech support immediately to have them rectify this.

    error id: “bad_httpd_conf”

    Was this their fault or yours? I was receiving this error from about 9am to 1pm GMT yesterday.

  6. Jay says:

    What an amazing idea for a competition!

    Deffinatly looking forward to seeing the results of this comp :)

  7. Mike D. says:

    Ralph: Whichever one you want.

    Phil: Yep. Yesterday was actually the first bad day I’ve had in about a year and a half of hosting. I want to say it was a lingering effect of the massive power outage in L.A. but who knows… they swapped my server out and it’s fine now. In any case, they’ve built up enough goodwill with me that I’m fine with it. For $7.95 a month, one bad day every 18 months is acceptable to me.

  8. Collin says:

    Great idea, I have a good idea for an entry.. won’t win or anything but hopefully I can find tiem to create it. :-)

  9. Chris Hester says:

    Does the poster need to feature an iPod as in previous competitions?

  10. Mike D. says:

    Chris: Good question. The answer is no… entries need not contain any reference to iPods.

  11. Hello!

    Great to see a nice contest again, and looking forward for sure excellent entries!
    Well, here you will find my entry: Water is not strong enough
    I hope you like it!

    Paul

  12. Chris says:

    I have few ideas … will post later.

  13. Jack says:

    my entry:

    if only this could have been done sooner…
    disaster proof city

    original 3d artwork, background photo courtesy of marianello

  14. Larry says:

    Disaster proof? And if those booster rocket things fail? Meteor hits the dome?

  15. Ben Hirsch says:

    There are going to be some interesting discussions happenning over at Humid Beings about the rebuild. This forum was set up by a group of concerned and passionate New Orleanians who care and have much at stake in the upcoming decisions in that great city. I hope to hear and see all of your ideas over there as well!

  16. Jack says:

    I would guess that if something were to happen, they can always move the dome somewhere else :]

    it’s not to be taken seriously btw..

  17. SugaRaXie says:

    here’s my entry: http://www.deviantart.com/view/23233150/

    I know its not all that great but yeah — best I could come up with at the moment…can we only submit one entry or is there not a limit as to how many?

    (Editor’s Note: You can enter as many times as you want.)

  18. SugaRaXie says:

    oops, sorry — gave you the wrong link — sorry bout that — here’s the real one::

    http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/23233289/

    sorry again–!

  19. humid haney says:

    http://www.humidbeings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7

    props. and please feel free to join in the discussion.

  20. Jay says:

    Paul Santolaria’s entry – AMAZING!

  21. J Oxton says:

    I think Paul Santolaria’s entry is quite foolish and has nothing to do with this competition. It looks like some 14yr old kid photoshop’d a few old paintings and added some unnecessary ipods. Foolishness if you ask me.

    (Editor’s Note: I would agree that it’s not exactly what I had in mind, but hey… whatever :) )

  22. Thanks everyone for the constructive comments…

    Excuse me if the entry doesn’t fit the contest restrictions; of course I will comply with any Mike Davidson’s final decision about its validity.

  23. Micah Wylde says:

    Here’s my entry: The New Venice. Can we submit multiple entries as in the previous contests?

  24. Mike B says:

    Here it is after hours and hours of work I’ve finally completed my video that blends both the tragedy with hope on the horizon. I hope you like it!

    New Orleans Movie

    Just click on it and save it…..or maybe it’ll stream for you or something (depending on browser)….anyways there’s the file Enjoy!

  25. Andrea Marz says:

    Just a simple poster idea, hope you all enjoy.

  26. Jason Hews says:

    No one knows how the new Orleans will compare to the old Orleans, but clearly a lot of interesting changes are in order. What new technologies will solve the geological challenges of the area? How many natives will return? How will a new population mix affect the culture of the city? Will the tourism and shipping industries be stronger in the long term due to this disaster and recovery?

    I thought this contest was about the “future” of New Orleans, not a recap of all the destruction that has happened.

    Hm.

  27. skinzer says:

    Hello,

    Do we have to ask the permission for using every picture we take from the Internet for this contest? BTW, awesome video Mike B

    Thx

  28. Mike D. says:

    Jason: Yep, you are correct.

    skinzer: I would follow the same guidelines you’d normally follow.

  29. Anthony says:

    Here’s my submission:

    New Orleans 2010

  30. Mike B says:

    ahh man my web hosting company’s servers are down…..isn’t that just great. My video link above obviously won’t work cause of it so i’m sorry about that.

    It’ll be back up by the end of the day.

  31. Greg S says:

    No offense to Mike B (Not D.). But I really don’t think that his entry even relates properly to this contest, to me, the video’s just a complete recap of all the destruction and damage. It shows no insight on how the future of New Orleans might be. I’m not saying that it’s not good, but it just doesn’t click with the whole point of this contest.

    My 2 cents.

  32. Mike Mella says:

    Hi everyone.

    What do I expect the rebuilt New Orleans to be?
    …I expect it to be the same great city it always was.

    Here’s my entry:

    http://zenbug.com/renew/

  33. Nathan Apple says:

    The new Orleans will live on with old culture.

    The new Orleans

  34. Fred says:

    Mike Mella’s entry gets my vote so far.

  35. David says:

    Great job Mike Mella! It looks great! One thing: it would be even nicer if you added some looking ahead images or text, as most of it is looking back.

    Anyway,

    my entry coming soon.

    Congratulations to everyone else who’s entered so far – they look awesome!

    -d

  36. Mike Mella says:

    Thanks for your comments David and Fred.

    Actually, the colour images at the end of my entry are intended to represent the future New Orleans. They resemble the traditional impressions of the city because I’m suggesting that the original New Orleans was so wonderful that it deserves to be restored, hence the “Welcome back” toward the end.

    Anyway, thanks again!
    –Mella

  37. Thomas M. says:

    In my entry, the Ragin’ Cajun Brother’s Construction Company look to take a page out of ancient history to make sure the flood waters never touch the people of “Gnaw Lynns” again …

    Inspiration thanks: Pieter Bruegel’s painting, Tower of Babel (1563), and slanguage (New Orleans)..

  38. Jack says:

    here is my second entry (that’s allowed right?)

    This time I went for something inspirational. I created this image to show that the darkness that has enveloped America recently has been lifted, and that new hope has sprung forth from the recovery of New Orleans.


    note: print size image

    once again, original 3d artwork + photoshop postprocessing.

  39. Some Oxton says:

    I think this iPod competition has had the worst reception so far.
    I doubt if there is anything here worth awarding an ipod to. I really need to stop posting here using some poor Oxton’s name and actually make time to show y’all what an actual entry to this competition should look like.

    So busy busy…
    Good luck with your new dig Mike.

  40. Chip Kohrman says:

    I am happy to have discovered this website, and moreso, a contest of such worthy subject matter. I am glad to see so many talented people that care about our fellow human beings!

    I say we give Katrina a taste of her own medicine. New Orleans has too much soul to stay down for long.

    Here’s my entry:

    http://www.chipkohrman.com/flood_chipkohrman.jpg

  41. sunshine says:

    A promotional poster in web resolution.

  42. David M says:

    Here is my entry: http://diandmandelboys.com/The New Orleans Disaster.pdf

    I tried to combine a little bit of looking back with a lot of planning ahead. I hope you guys like it! Good luck and congratulations to everyone else who entered!

    David

  43. Thomas says:

    If we are allowed one more entry, I’d like to place a Cover Concept (for a brochure) to go along with the marketing of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of New Orleans (where the colors and pictures became the inspiration.

  44. skinzer says:

    Hello,

    My entry title consists of “New Orleans, The City of your Dreams – 2009”. You can find it here:

    If you’re having problems retrieving it through the above link, it’s also available at :http://pickup.mofile.com

    The pickup number is: 5855826615832745

    I wish good success to all the people who submitted their entries.

  45. skinzer says:

    I would also like to specify some ambiguous points about my presentation. It represents a multimedia brochure of what New Orleans will be in 2009. I focused mainly on what will become the city and what to expect it to be if enough money is raised. I did explain a bit on how the technology will save the city, but I thought that it was less important than raising money because the civil engineers know what to do to solve the problem but they don’t have the money. Check those articles:
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9494337/site/newsweek/?nav=slate#storyContinued
    http://www.realestatejournal.com/regionalnews/20050922-corkery.html
    My main goal was to help New Orleans citizens to get back in their town and to be safe there. I wanted to inspire the world about how this city could become great if everyone spent a small amount of money on it. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Any comments (good or bad) are welcome. If you encounter any problems with the downloading of my entry, please contact me at webmaster@bnmail.zzn.com . Please feel free to distribute it.

  46. skinzer says:

    Here are the new links for my presentation:
    Pickup code:
    http://pickup.mofile.com/
    Mirror:
    http://rapidshare.de/files/6144493/neworleans.swf.html

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe by Email

... or use RSS