Nokia N95 is star of AIDS PPSAs

Every project has to have supporters who believe so much in what you are doing they don’t ask questions. When we first conceptualized this project, we knew we wanted to push the limits of what is possible with mobile technology. In the Philadelphia PPSA, we used small format handicams – cool but not cool enough. So we reached out to Nokia. I personally own a Nokia N95 (http://tinyurl.com/yokvvy). It is an absolutely amazing phone with astounding video capability: a 5 megapixel camera capable of 30fps video at 640X480 (that is techno speak for “awesome!”). We knew this was the phone that we wanted to use in this project. But we didn’t know where we could buy them in the quantity we needed – and, ok, we didn’t have the money.

We wrote to our contacts at Nokia. Next thing you know six N95s are on their way from New York to Athens. Not another question asked (they didn’t even ask when we are going to return them – soon, we promise).

The N95 was a champ in this project. When you look at the videos online (http://www.mynmi.net/aids_ppsa), you will be amazed at how good the video looks. Well just remember that what you are seeing has been stepped on by encoders and processors to make the videos online-friendly. I wish you could see the raw video we worked from -- YouTube doesn’t do the N95 justice. Plus we helped the N95 do things it hadn’t done before. For instance, we set the N95 up as a wireless webcam for our teams in the field. Using this setup, the producers back in the hotel could see in real-time exactly what the field team saw through the N95’s viewer. Professional video producers were speechless when they saw that.

Nokia is an industry leader who believes in the power of experimentation – that is rare -and fun. Our partnership has with Nokia has been a true joy. I am proud of their commitment to using their products for important social causes. And let me just tell you that it is a special treat to see a Finn geek geared fired up about changing the world with his phone.