Won't You Make a GO Nation?

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

See this van? Epic, eh? It was built as a rolling promotional tool for NationofGO.com. We tried something like this to promote StreetFire but our budget only allowed for a clapped-out ice cream truck, which oddly enough, gave off more of a chester vibe. To this day I don’t understand why it didn’t work; we even gave out free candy. Enough of our misconstrued marketing attempts, this post is about the Nation of GO. You might be wondering who exactly is the Nation of GO. Well… you are. Hit that jump to read more. And don’t worry we won’t be offering candy this time.

While stifling the urge to sock myself in throat for actually typing such adspeak Nation of GO is simply a social networking initiative geared towards (pun alert!) gearheads. The site, created by BFGoodrich, is quite a marvelous amalgam of bits and pixels and from what I can tell the tiremaker wants nothing more than to jumpstart this community. It allows users to map out drive routes (on road or off) and share them with others. The GO Nation can embed images and videos (StreetFire videos I hope!) that can be geo-coded to specific locations on the drive. One of the most compelling features is the ability to record the elapsed time of your drive, which would be useful to record the time it takes to travel from, say, Foothill Blvd. to the 138 via Angeles Crest Highway (once that nasty Station Fire actually burns out). You can share this e.t. with friends and, um I don’t know, challenge them to beat the time. I know there’s something in here about obeying all traffic laws and declining the urge to try this at home.

Speaking of trying things at home, something occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, people may not want to share their secret back roads and trails with others for fear of oversaturation. Much like what happened when Surfline took surf forecasting into the mainstream forever closing out the days of the secret spot.

I understand everybody has a secret passion. Maybe you like to air-drum the Neil Peart solos on Tom Saywer. Perhaps you like to steal a glance at the hot girl at school/work before the intoxicating scent of her Victoria’s Secret perfume lingers as she breezes by causing you to inhale harder than a coked up model in the ladies room at Studio 54 (have I said too much?). Maybe you have a fetish for something as innocuous as a little green ball of fuzz. Why not tell the world that you love Rush, Sally from accounting and little green fuzzy balls? Because that would be odd, you sick bastard. However sharing a good drive will allow you to connect with others who share your passion to drive and (PR alert!) your passion for GO.

Check out the tutorial video below or just click over to the site at NationofGO.com. My user name is NadsyNads. Add me as a friend (please!), I don’t have many, virtual or otherwise. Although my drive routes only consist of my commute to and from work and to certain, ahem, clubs that The Wife may not appreciate.