Here at Chameleon we have been banging the drum for a while about augmented reality. Most recently, at a personal level, at an IWMW2009 barcamp held at the University of Essex.

Whilst augmented reality requires a sophisticated technological infrastructure to work, the 'additional' technology to make it work is itself relatively simple and the potential for new applications huge. What makes it possible is that the 'sophisticated technological infrastructure' not only exists but is both mainstream and taken for granted: mobile internet and telephony; GPS satellite and radio technology; portable camera and display devices - all rolled into one.

Now its good to see the technology featured in the latest Economist Technology Quarterly: http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299602

No, the article has nothing to do with us!

However, hopefully the Economist article will bring augmented reality out of the future-tech wilderness to the attention of a wider, more business-minded and entrepreneurial mainstream audience.

...and they can come to us to have a go on our drum!

A recent climbing trip to Scotland allowed me to have a go at liveblogging on my iPhone. I found its a great way of boosting website traffic...

This month I attended a really engaging workshop run by Supply London - it unravelled the mystery of writing a bid as part of a tender process, and how to make your prospective client's job of selecting the right supplier easier.

In November last year I took the mad decision to enter the 2009 Paris marathon - to be held this year on the 5th April. I can't say that I'm particularly looking forward to it but I have enjoyed elements of my training...

Following on from the introductory post about Twitter by Ross, in this article I'll be looking at how big business can harness Twitter to present a more 'human' face online. Our case study is property consultants Drivers Jonas, who we have just hired Chameleon Net to consult on and launch their Twitter account.

This month has shown that Chameleon’s work is becoming more widely recognised for its innovation and creativity, and that the company has climbed a long way in a decade.

In the process of planning for Chameleon Net's 10th bday celebration (today's the actual day, by the way), it occurred to me that I'm celebrating my own anniversary of sorts - October marks 5 years of my being here at Chameleon.

Time has flown by and a lot has happened, that's for sure. So in the spirit of the both Chameleon being 10, and me notching up 5 years service, here are my highlights of the past semi-decade working in web with Chameleon.

Well it's nearly upon us. We knew it was coming, but here it is. On 31st October this year Chameleon will be 10 years old, and we're embarking on a whole bunch of fun to celebrate over the coming weeks. (Not least by behaving like 10 year olds on our temporarily kid-like blog ) In '98 the web was a different kettle of fish to what we see today. To kick of our 10th anniversary blogging, I thought I'd have a quick look at the web world circa 1998...

The gears of an internal project are finally getting in motion. The idea is to be able to have small teams of 'chameleons' continually investigating and toying with new technologies and trends that interest them. Such teams will have clear deliverables in order to keep things focused; but the drive should come from them.

In my ongoing mission to become the David Dimbleby of the Web Industry (and beyond?) I recently spent an afternoon chairing a “Question Time” style event for movers and shakers in the UK publishing industry: “Digitise or Die” was the inaugural annual event run by The Bookseller, the leading trade publication for the book industry, with the sole intention of focusing on the issues facing the book business in the digital age.

When Chameleon Net asked me if I’d like a regular ‘blog spot’ on their site, I was chuffed but a little nervous. Surrounded by the creative and technical insight provided by the blindingly bright Chameleon Net team, how would my PR perspective of the company and their work fare?

This month we have re-launched our very own Chameleon Net website with a brand new look. When I came on board as Creative Director at the beginning of 2006 one of my first tasks was to undertake a re-working of the 'then' current branding. Far from throwing away everything that had come before and creating something completely new I wanted to capitalise on everything we had already achieved as a company, and the recognition we already had within the new media sector. I saw it more as an 'evolution of the brand' and in approaching the recent re-design of our website I really wanted to stay focused on the principle of evolving our online proposition rather than going back to the drawing board.

Our development team have spent a lot of time creating a flexible, scalable .NET and XML based solution that is robust and easily maintainable. Likewise we have invested many man hours, creating relevant copy to achieve a very search engine friendly, accessible site. So the design brief was quite simple; Bring the website in line with the current branding and communicate our design abilities without effecting any of the underlying code or foundation work already undertaken.

Interestingly enough this scenario is not uncommon among many of our clients. There are of course occasions when their current solution is too old to cost effectively salvage technology, but many of our projects have involved existing systems or required collaboration with an in-house IT team to effectively re-skin their offering. With contemporary standards based development techniques like CSS ( custom style sheets ) we can 'skin' just about any system.

So back to the new Chameleon Net offering. We have added a dynamic Content Managed Flash Banner to our homepage and in the long term we will be re-tasking this space with multiple promotional panels featuring video, animation and motion graphic work from the design team. We have further utilised flash, and specifically siFr, to convert structural headings ( H2, H3 etc.. ) into our brand font on the fly,  whilst retaining an accessible, standards compliant layout for users without the plugin.

I hope you like the new look Chameleon site as much as we do, and if you have any comments or ideas I would love to hear from you.

In the autumn of 2004 I was sitting on a train with a friend of mine, Karen Jepp, and we were discussing climate change. We’d both been reading about it (Bill Bryson started the whole thing as I recall) and had both, unbeknownst to each other, been going through a whole range of emotions about the subject: interest, fascination, amazement, incredulity, anger, disgust and fear. We were both clear about one thing: it was not the latest fad, it was not hysteria. We (by which I mean ALL of us) were sleep walking into the biggest disaster the human race had ever faced – Climate Change.

You see even re-reading that sentence somewhere I cringe. Talk of disasters, sleep walking, even “the human race” somehow sounds over dramatic, an exaggeration. Yeah, yeah, another global threat, another disaster. It’ll be fine. It always has. Except this time it is highly likely that it just won’t be fine at all.

I thought it might be useful to create an area where we can compile and keep track of any websites that mention/report on Chameleon Net's activity. Mainly news sites and online press.

So in the spirit of web 2.0 I've set up a de.licio.us account to bookmark such bits and pieces.

Feel free to check it out: http://del.icio.us/danm_chameleon.

Little did we know the most challenging piece of road would be in the Gambia. We crossed from senegal to the gambia with little stress but once we got to the gambia we found the worst road we had yet to encounter. It was almost impassable for 2 wheel drive cars and despite destroying yet another wheel and another shock absorber, we managed to limp in the dark to an eco-report on the banks of the river. Just as well because the surrounding fields were ablaze and the countryside home to crocodiles, leopards and even hienas.

The next day was easier, we made it to Banjul without too many problems; the road improved although a lot of it was still under construction so we had to dodge bulldozer and men at work but at least the car kept on going. Despite taking the most difficult route through the gambia we were suprised to find we were amongst the first to arrive. Apparently there is a victory parade in a couple of days time and then the cars will be auctioned for charity.

The car took a hammering in the desert and everything is covered with a layer of sand. We have had 3 flats and now only have a space saver spare but as long the car keeps moving, so will we! We are now only a couple of days away from banjul, our final destination!

We made it through the sahara or at least the edge of it. We got stuck countless times but we let the tyres down so they were virtually flat, dug the car out and pushed - tiring but effective. The first night in the desert we camped by a sand dune and the second night we reached the ocean and camped on the beach.

We then made a dash for the border and after 5 hours of tough negotiation we eventually managed to get into senegal on a car ferry that i thought was going to sink at any moment. We then found our way in the dark to a tiny campsite on the edge of a national park, just south of st louis.  After a rest day, we then pushed on to Dakar. We are now on our way to the gambian border, i am sure with many hours of negotiation to come.

We are now at the edge of near civilisation in the western sahara, we have a short 450k on tarmac through the desert today before we go off road for real and will be at the mercy of the local guide to take us through the sahara to rejoin a road further south. Apart from a puncture, there have been no problems with the car so far but the next four days will be the real test. Not sure when we will be able to communicate again but watch this space...

So we have made it to Africa! We have had a very eventful journey so far...

As many of you may know I am taking part in the Plymouth to Dakar rally. A colleague and I will be setting off tonight, to drive to Portsmouth to catch a ferry bound for France. The plan is that we will then drive through France, Spain, take a ferry over to northern Morocco and then on through Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and finally arrive in The Gambia in about three weeks time.