2:46 Quakebook has moved....

Please come visit us at www.quakebook.org Thank you.

Sunday 17 April 2011

The #quakebook blog has moved!

We're happy to announce that the #quakebook blog has now moved to www.quakebook.org. This new home will allow us to bring you updates in multiple languages, and gives us the flexibility we need to expand as the project moves forward.

If you have subscribed to this site via RSS, please update your feed: the new URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/quakebook/.

Many Thanks.

The #quakebook Team

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Quakebook on sale now


This is the moment we have all been dreaming about and working so hard for: 2:46 - Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake is now on sale. Let me rephrase that.

GET YOUR QUAKEBOOK NOW!

The Kindle ebook is available to buy from anywhere in the world at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. You don't even need a Kindle. Just go to the order page and download (for free) a Kindle reader for your Mac, PC or smart phone.

The book is $9.99. In some cases, the price may be quoted as $11.99 for international customers. But Amazon has assured Quakebook that any international handling fees will be reimbursed.

Every single penny that you spend on Quakebook will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross. Nothing for Amazon, nothing for Quakebook. Everything for the survivors of the Japan disasters.

I'd just like to say two things:

1. Well done everyone involved in this, I'm so proud of all of you.
2. Buy the book, and tell the world to buy the book.

It makes a difference. You make a difference.

Our Man in Abiko

The Making of the #quakebook video



Like a lot of people shocked by the earthquake and tsunami, but living in Ireland with my Japanese wife Tomomi, I (@Crank_Dub) felt pretty far away and helpless. With limited news coming out for the first few days we were obsessively following the newsfeeds, blogs and Twitter for any snippet of information. It was while doing this that I just happened to see Ourmaninabiko's first tweet, the one where he put his idea for the book out into the ether. I followed his subsequent tweets and it was like seeing little thought bubbles, like watching someone else think out loud.

Not being a writer and feeling that any written contribution I might make would be puerile, inadequate and, at best, semi-literate, I didn't respond to Ourman's request for submissions, but kept a weather eye on proceedings as they developed. Watching Ourman and his growing team of volunteers felt like the worldwide response to the quake, only in microcosm. However, unlike the foreign media who quickly became jaded and moved on, #quakebook stayed with the story.

When Ourman put out a request for translators, I alerted Tomomi and she was delighted that, at last, there was something tangible she could do. When a subsequent request went out for other volunteers, I felt I had to respond, expecting my involvement would be small and pretty limited. But like Silvio Dante in the Soprano's, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

During an online brainstorming session on Yammer one of the volunteers suggested making a promotional video and, since video is what I do for a living, I couldn't in all conscience sit there and say nothing. But how could I even begin to promote Quakebook in the manner it deserved and, at the same time, respect the plight of the Japanese people? Like leaving your homework until Sunday night, I put it off for a couple of days, trying to figure out what to do.

It was seeing the amazing photographs taken by Max Hodges when he travelled into some of the affected areas just after the tsunami that clicked with me. I was particularly taken by his photographs of the 'Small Things', people's everyday possessions now lying lost within the all pervasive mud. I contacted him and he very graciously gave permission for them to be used.

The second part of the puzzle was Scala and Kolacny Brothers, the amazing girls choir from Belgium, who recorded a truly heartfelt version of the Kings of Leon song 'Use Somebody'. I uploaded the song to the computer, edited it down to 60 seconds, put it with Max's photographs and, using an adapted Adobe After Effects template, pretty quickly compiled a rough video. I then tried the video with lots of other music and songs but the only piece that was perfect in every way, that made the video more than the sum of its parts, was 'Use Somebody'.

The difficulty was, if I was going to use the song, I would have to get permission. Now we all know that famous bands get pestered constantly by people looking for a piece of them and I didn't want to join that throng. But I figured I wasn't asking for myself. I was borrowing the voices of those who survived the tsunami and asking on their behalf.

The Scala choir were immediately positive:

""We would of course be more than happy to help, but this song is publishing controlled so you would need permission from the publisher".

So, one step forward and two steps back into a world I use to work in. Knowing the music business, I was expecting it to be impossible to even find the right person to talk to, let alone get a response. But two guys, Rob Christensen of Bug Music and Steve Barton of Warner/Chappell publishing, responded quickly and positively. Rob researched who controlled all the bits of the publishing, contacted the Kings of Leon and, with the minimum of fuss, granted Quakebook a worldwide licence for 2 years to make a promotional video in multiple languages to advertise the book. When I thanked him and his company on behalf of Quakebook, he responded

"We’re glad to help out and honestly, the majority of the credit should go to Kings of Leon for being willing to donate their song..."

With the publishing clearance obtained I again contacted Scala and Kolacny Brothers and Glenn Stone of their management team got back to me within a few hours:

"The group is happy to co-operate in a charitable endeavor to support Japanese quake relief."

So a huge vote of thanks to all those who could have been difficult and unhelpful but instead immediately went out of their way to assist the people of Japan at this time. Thank you all so much.

Credits

Giant Robot interviews Our Man in Abiko



Eric Nakamura, editor and publisher of Giant Robot, does a superb interview with @ourmaninabiko for Mr. Nakamura's blog. Please enjoy this excellent piece at the link below:

Sunday 10 April 2011

Quakebook Editor Interviewed by News 1130 Vancouver

On Thursday, 7 April, News 1130 in Vancouver, British Columbia, interviewed Quakebook editor @ThatDanRyan for a short piece about the book. A clip from an audio interview also accompanies the article.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Quakebook Translations

Currently, there are people working on translating Quakebook into Japanese, French, Spanish, Greek, German and Portuguese. We are looking for Chinese translators too.

If you can help out, we would be very grateful so that Quakebook can reach the widest audience possible.

And if you can translate this post below into Japanese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Chinese (or any other language!) that would also help.

Merci, thanks, gracias, danke, efharisto, arigato, obrigada.....

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Get Ready for the Launch!!

Whatever device you have, be it a Mac, Windows PC, Kindle, iPhone, Blackberry, you will shortly be able to read Quakebook for yourself.

Download the appropriate Kindle Reader here from Amazon.

Do it NOW and be ready!

Monday 4 April 2011

Get involved - we have our first flier!




Wondering what you can to do to support QuakeBook? We have our first flier for you to print out - download it here.

There are more posters to come....so crank up your printers and start preparing your windows, walls, car, local library, shops, schools, and businesses for QuakeBook promotions!

Thank you to the Quakebook editor who has produced this - @ThatDanRyan. The cover of the book itself is by James White and Edd Harrison.

If you have ideas for promotion and for Quakebook, please complete the volunteer form To all those who have completed that form, we are hugely grateful for your offers. If you haven't received an invite to our Yammer community yet, it's coming! We are marginally swamped but in a far more positive manner than those we are trying to support.

Ourman on the radio

Please tune in to this VS Sunday Canadian radio show - The Maple Syrup Edition - to listen to OurManinAbiko and revpaperboy talking about Quakebook.

The show, Virtually Speaking, is on BlogTalk Radio and will be aired SHORTLY.

It will also be available on itunes

Please show Quakebook your continuing support as we move towards the launch. Thank you.

Sunday 3 April 2011

The Quakebook theme tune?

@ourmaninabiko pushed @FatBlueMan to write a song, before the idea of Quakebook was born (about 10mins before!)

And here is that song.....

Saturday 2 April 2011

Global media coverage for Quakebook

It is really quite astounding how much coverage Quakebook has received already.

Don't forget to read what others are saying about Quakebook on the Media page.

Friday 1 April 2011

@ourmaninabiko ... the man without a name, but no longer without a face



Our Man in Abiko (center) ... seen in living color for the first time.

At left, #quakebook advisor Kevin Carroll. At right, Time magazine correspondent (and Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan event moderator) Lucy Birmingham.

Streaming the Quakebook press conference ...



The technology wizard behind this morning's livestream of the Quakebook press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan was Joseph Tame (foreground), who not only set up the stream, but also livetweeted the action. What does Joseph get up to in his spare time? Check it out.

#QuakeBook Press Conference at the FCCJ, Tokyo

At 10am JST on Friday 1st April 2011, OurManinAkibo took to the stage at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

For those of you who were unable to attend in person, we have a recording of it here.

Thursday 31 March 2011

Associated Press: Japan disaster sparks social media innovation


Many thanks to Tomoko Hosaka at the Associated Press for including #QuakeBook in their coverage of social media use following the March 11th Earthquake. The story is now appearing in news outlets worldwide.

Associated Press: Japan disaster sparks social media innovation

2:46 Quakebook Editor Interviewed by Indie Reader



IndieReader.com is an online resource for writers and readers of independent books. On 30 March, one of Quakebook's editors answered IndieReader's questions about how Quakebook got started, and what it has been like pulling together contributors and resources from all over the world to publish an independent book.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Amazing Artwork & Images

2:46 QuakeBook is more than just an anthology of personal experiences of the quake; there are also photos, images and artwork.

You can now see a small selection of these on the Excerpts page.

Quakebook Flickr In Japanese and.....


Almost 200 photos already.

Well done to @taotsu and @aragoto for getting the Quakebook group description in Japanese, encouraging over 50 members to join, and for creating a wonderful archive of Quakebook supporters' photos from Japan.

You must go and see the photos on Flickr.....

Tuesday 29 March 2011

QuakeBook hits Google Newswire






AFP has now picked up the QuakeBook story, which means it has gone out on all the newswires.

The media page might need far more attention shortly! Thank you AFP.

Daily 2:46 Promotion

Every day at 2:46 Japan Standard Time, @quakebook will tweet a quote from Quakebook, as well as a link to the "Buy Quakebook" page on this blog. If you don't already follow @quakebook on Twitter, we ask you to start doing so, because every day we will be relying on all of our Twitter followers to retweet the quote of the day as soon as we post it. The Japan Times has already committed to follow and support us in the retweeting campaign.

Please send all your friends and family a link to this page, so that we can have as many @quakebook followers as possible helping us raise awareness for this amazing project.

2:46 Tokyo time is:

British Summer Time +8hrs
Greenwich Mean Time + 9hrs
Eastern Standard Time +13 hrs
Pacific Standard Time +16hrs
Singapore Standard Time -1hr

The current Tokyo time is:





What time is 2:46pm in your part of the world?

Barry Eisler writes the foreword


The good news keeps coming thick and fast. You can check out Barry Eisler's books on his website.

Poster sales reach $15,000

Sales of the poster that became the cover of  have already raised $15,000.


Order yours here http://bit.ly/dYfUpj 

Japan Times prints Quakebook stories



The Japan Times has done a wonderful thing for us and published seven stories from Quakebook in the Tuesday 29 March issue. You can access them using the link below. While reading the stories, you will get a sampling of the range of emotions and difficulties experienced by both quake survivors and remote observers. We hope these stories touch your heart and pique your interest, because it is to the credit of many of the contributors to Quakebook that they were able to tell anyone their tales at all.

More great media coverage!



BBC News technology blogger Rory Cellan-Jones has written an excellent piece about Quakebook. It was published on the BBC News blog website on 28 March, and you can read the full article, including mostly positive reader comments, by clicking on the link below:


Quakebook editors and supporters send out a huge "Thank You" to Mr. Cellan-Jones for his upbeat reporting on our efforts.


In addition, on the same day CNNGo Asia also published a piece on Quakebook. You can read what they had to say at the following link:



Monday 28 March 2011

Quakebook on LinkedIn

Don't miss the opportunity to connect with Quakebook.

We are now on LinkedIn - join us!

We have a final book cover!

This in no way undermines the logo, but it is the final book cover that you will soon be able to enjoy on your preferred device when Quakebook goes on sale digitally in a day or two.



All about the logo

Our awesome logo designer, @marikurisato, has put down her art tools to tell you where the logo came from:

"The logo inspiration came almost immediately. The whole country was affected. That fact demanded a symbol of nationality, without using stereotypical imagery (no samurai for example.) Therefore I researched the color of Japan's modern National Flag as the most basic perimeter. I wanted to resist an image that showed quake damage, or a wound, but rather hinted at the strength in the most fundamentally universal image of helping someone up.

"My usual style is very detailed, but I wanted to minimize a specific ethnic group, and rather project a humanity wide effort, which is why the arms are silhouettes coming from outside the flag's "sun" image. Then it was a matter of refining the image to it's most basic shapes, without dehumanizing the sensation. I hope it conveys not just an emotion, but a sense of purpose and action.

"I actually felt almost feverish, as if I was just watching myself work from the outside, being controlled by the idea."

WE  LOVE IT!

Japan Times will print excerpts tomorrow


Yes, it is now time to read Quakebook. In a few hours, the Japan Times will publish excerpts from the book.

We can't wait! Thank you to the Times for its support.

Is Quakebook ahead of its time?

Well, yes. Obviously. No-one has ever done anything like this before!

However, for the observant amongst you, the reason our first blog post is dated 2018 is to keep that particular post at the top so everyone understands what Quakebook is from the start. All new posts come below that.

Thanks to @AqParavane for querying the logic of this!! It's a Blogger thing.

Earthquake and Tsunami Photos on Flickr

Photos from Quakebook supporters are now on Flickr. Thanks to @taotsu for setting it up.

How did Quakebook begin?

Everyone who writes about, reports on or buys #Quakebook is going to have one simple question: how did this all start?

So, after some searching around, I traced the origin of Quakebook - both the name and the original idea. Here is the series of tweets from @ourmaninabiko that will answer the questions you all have.

When you buy your copy of Quakebook, you'll see that the first three tweets below have been given the first page in the book, opposite the copyright listings. That's how important these words are to us, to this project. They formed the germ of the idea for everything we have done since.








Within 4 minutes, the idea was being fleshed out:






And a mere 17 minutes later, we find where the original inspiration came from:





So, that should give every reader and journalist the information they require about how this started!

And where did the name come from?






It was pointed out quite quickly, by @marikurisato, that he had the hashtag right there!

You may note that the 74 submissions had come in a mere 15 hours from the original idea. Which says something about the power of the Internet and those who use it. And how willingly people from around the world jumped in to help those in Japan, who despite all they were going through, also found the time and energy to write about their experiences. Now, there are just hours to wait to Buy the Book!

The Editing is Finished!!


To all those who have done a truly amazing job on the edit - a massive round of applause. And may you all now enjoy a much earned chance to sleep.

So, to @ourmaninabiko, @thatdanryan, @whatwhated, @sandrajapandra, @shogannai, @robertodevido @Rosencrantz_M


Three cheers from all the #quakebook supporters around the world.

(I hope I haven't missed anyone - apologies if I have).

Next step is the meeting with Amazon tomorrow.......

Quakebook Wordle

Thanks to @cyberdoyle for generating a Wordle for us.

Sunday 27 March 2011

Please follow @quakebook

It really is that simple! Show your support for #quakebook by following @quakebook

Without twitter, we would not be where we are today!

Who is in #quakebook - take a peek

NB this is not formatted folks, just names and stuff so you can see. Yes, I know Names and Title are out of alphabetical order. There is a reason. Carry on.


Names - Yoshiko Ikeda, West Tokyo
Alive - Steve Nagata, Tokyo
Another - Masumi Nabekawa Abiko, Chiba
Beautiful - Christopher Maurer, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Birthday - Jonas Neergaard-Nielson, Tokyo
Bravery - Yoshie Sherriff, Abiko, Chiba
Cakes - Arun Vemuri, Tokyo
Care - Yuki Watanabe, Tokyo
Ceiling-light - Brian Wood, Tokyo
Ceremonies - Wesley Cheek, Kyoto
Changed - Florian, Osaka
Close - Debora K. Ohnishi, Utsunomiya, Tochigi
Contrast - Vadim Zendejas, Vadim Zendejas
Conversation - Michael Gakuran, Nagoya
Cushions - Shaun Hickox, Tokyo
Dark - Andy Heather, Kyoto
Debris - Greg Harbin, Wakabayashi, Sendai
Decisions - Ted Taylor, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Determination - Andy Sharp, Yokohama
Disappeared - Brighid Rader, Kentuky, USA
Distance - Brent Stirling, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Encouragement - Grandfather Hibiki, Sendai
Engage - Tokyo Twilighter, Tokyo
Escape - James Hou, Koriyama, Fukushima
Evacuated - Takamori Hayao, Osaka
Exactly - Mark Rende, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
Expectations - Miho Nishihiro, Abiko, Chiba
Experience - Kosuke Ishihara, Abiko, Chiba
Facebook - Joel David Neff, Takanezawa, Tochigi
Faculty - Rodney Van Meter, Yokohama
Forget - Michiko Segawa, Chiba
Forward - Maxamillian John, London
Ganbaro - Lowlypoetic, Kyoto
Gesture - N. Cobayne, Shizuoka
Goal - Naomi, Canada
God - John Janzen, Japan
Graduation - May Arai, Kamakura
Harmony - Tom Hope, Tokyo
Heart - Victoria, Tokyo
Help - Yui and Shizue Nonaka, Abiko, Chiba
Home - Kimberly Tierney, Tokyo
Illusion - Hiromi Davis, Tosashimizu, Kochi
Leaving - Sandra Barron, Los Angeles
Lingering - Soso Bureau staff, Soma and Futaba cities
Lost - Matthew Holmes, Shimokitazawa
Loving - Shehan Raban, Kohoku, Chiba
Lucky - Stephen Lyth, Tokyo
Muenbotoke - Jake Adelstein, Tokyo
Morals - Yuichiro Ito, Kesenuma, Miyagi
Mountain - Edan Corkill, Zushi, Kanagawa
Neighbors - Yumiko Takemoto, Hitachinaka, Ibaraki
Normal - Laurent Fintoni, Koenji, Tokyo
OK - Naotoshi Nabekawa, Abiko, Chiba
Options - Jason Morgan, Kawasaki
Overwhelmed - Corey Wallace, Aukland, New Zealand
Pajamas - Mark Warschauer, Tokyo
Photographs - Mari Aquarian, Concord, New Hampshire, USA
Positive - Arthur Davis, Tosahimizu, Kochi
Precious - Keiko Fujii, Abiko, Chiba
Prepared - Annamarie Sasagawa, Shinjuku Sasagawa
Radioactive - Ian Martin, Tokyo
Really? - Chikae Singleton, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Rebuilding - Mr Salaryman, Tokyo
Recovery - Yoko Kobayashi, Abiko, Chiba
Relief - Don Myles, Falkirk, Scotland
Remoteness - Sybil Murray, United Kingdom
Same - Baye McNeil, Yokohama
Scenarios - Miles Woodroffe, Tokyo
Shaken - James Simpson, Kawasaki
Signs - Terrie Matsuura, Shizuoka
Strength - Ai Hinton, Kashiwa
Strong - Robert Ouwehand, Seoul, South Korea
Television - Richard Smart, Tokyo
Together - Jesse Johnson, Abiko, Chiba
Tremors - Iain Hair, Tokyo
Trousers - Joseph Tame, Tokyo
Underground - Bigger in Japan, Kamakura
Underneath - Yuko Kato, Tokyo
Understanding - Mari Kurisato, Denver, Colorado, USA
Values - Kaoru Raban, Kohoku, Chiba
Vertical - Philip Brasor, Tokyo
Voices - Jessica Tomoko Perez, The Bronx, New York
Waiting - Kevin Wood, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Want - Dan Castellano, Tokyo
Window - William Gibson, Vancouver, BC
Test - Yushi Tabe, Tokyo

More love from the Blogsphere

A supporter of ours on Twitter, @julia_10mh, has written a lovely piece about Quakebook and the aftermath of the earthquake. Please follow the link below to read the entire text of the piece she posted on her blog.


Another Twitter supporter, @goodandbadjapan, also wrote a nice piece on his blog about us. To read it, follow the link below:


Thank you all!

Yoko Ono tweets about QuakeBook

Saturday 26 March 2011

Volunteer to help QuakeBook

We now have a volunteer form on the site. Please help the project succeed by helping out with your skills, contacts - anything!

QuakeBook on Facebook

Don't forget to come and "Like" our QuakeBook Facebook page!

Tweeted by Twitter!

QuakeBook has been tweeted by Twitter