Team Desertaxi’s video of the 2008 Mongol Rally

Posted on 2009/03/13 by Jeffrey Donenfeld

We just finished production of the documentary for Team Desertaxi’s drive in the 2008 Mongol Rally. For the past year I’ve been involved with Team Desertaxi, and their competition in the 2008 Mongol Rally, a rally race from London, UK to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia. I was responsible for setting up and managing their website and blog, as well as setting up all of their field communications gear, so they could blog from anywhere along the route- including using a BGAN satellite uplink to post from the desert.

Previous posts and into about Team Desertaxi in the 2008 Mongol Rally-

Here’s our documentary of the team’s adventure, mostly shot and directed by James Walker, the expeditions leader and “spiritual guide”.. enjoy!

Team Desert Taxi – Mongol Rally 2008 from Jeffrey D on Vimeo.

Taxistan in the London Evening Standard

Posted on 2008/08/15 by Jeffrey Donenfeld

Team Desertaxi, who’s website and field communications I oversee, has gotten a little more press coverage. The team, and their micro-nation of Taxistan have been written up in the London Evening Standard newspaper including pictures taken from the Team Desertaxi Blog.

With this story, it seems like print media is starting to looking more closely at blog media now…. these photos the London Evening Standard printed were originally uploaded by the team from the field via satellite link directly to Flickr, and then posted to the blog using the wordpress xml-rpc.

Caught between Russia & Kazakhstan by war, Taxistan is born

Posted on 2008/08/13 by Jeffrey Donenfeld

I work with Mongol Rally entrant Team DeserTaxi, and set up their website, blog, and manage their field communications. Their mission is to drive a London black cab from London all the way to Mongolia.

They were trying to cross the Kazakhstan-Russia border on the eve of Russia starting war with Georgia – and were denied entry into Russia – only to be denied entry back into Kazakhstan. They’re now sitting in a ring of barbed wire, between both borders, with no resources and only a satellite link to blog from.. check out their full post on their blog…. intense…