This is a social media experiment with a difference.

Tuttle founder Lloyd Davis is hoping to prove the power of social capital by travelling from West to East America by the help of his online network ONLY.

So that’s accommodation, food and travel only to be donated by his digital connections. At the time this post was published, Lloyd had raised $1520 donated by 28 of his online community.

The idea behind the trip is to prove the importance and strength of online relationships and how they can translate into real-life commodities and cash. In short social media ROI.

He’ll be flying out on 1st March to San Francisco and hopes to end up somewhere on the East coast (possibly Boston) via SXSW.

All he’s taking with him will be a social media tool-kit; smartphone, netbook, flip camera and an SLR and he’ll be blogging his way through the journey here.

If you’d like to help him in any way – offer him a sofa, send him some cash or drive him around, you can do here.

TechFluff is gona keep up with his progress with regular skype calls, so watch this space!

A few days before the big trip, we asked why Lloyd is undertaking such a mean feat, the plans (or lack of!) he’s already put in place and what will happen if he runs into trouble.

Tuttle founder crossing America using Social Capital ONLY
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At SXSW i met the famous Internet life caster Sarah Austin from POP17. She interviewed me, I look like a bit of a hobo as i had just got loads of freebies from one of the events!

Hermione Way

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Angels, big men dancing badly, puppies and a start-up version of Mallet’s mallet…it’s all happening on day 4 of the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

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Super heroes, Hawaiians, servers on motor bikes, it’s all here on day 2 of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

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How would you explain SXSW to an Alien?’ find out in this little video giving an insight into day one at SXSW Interactive 2009!

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The Techfluff.tv crew will be jumping on a flight on Wednesday to report for Digital Mission from SXSW. We will be following over 30 European tech companies on their mission to the interactive festival.

http://sxsw.com/interactive

I’ll be doing something funny for money for Comic Relief on Friday from SXSW…keep your eye’s peeled on Facebook and Twitter for funny photos…

http://www.rednoseday.com/do_something

Full of insight into how American’s do tech and partying..We’ll be launching the next episode of Techfluff from Austin.

After that we’ll be hopping over to Las Vagas to report for Microsoft at MIX.

http://2009.visitmix.com/

Checking out my brother’s new companies in Miami and visiting some tech peeps in NY…then I’ll be back to London to do some Newspepper events filming then off to Amsterdam to co-host The Next Web with the one and only Boris:)

If you’re a start up and want to pitch on stage at Next Web you can find out more here:http://2009.thenextweb.com/

Hollar me if you’re on route!

Hermione

PS: A photo that i’m very proud of, me and ‘The Father of The Internet’ Vint Cerfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinton_Cerf at Lift09 in Geneva last Fridayhttp://www.liftconference.com/

(and no he hasn’t given me drugs- I’m just excited)

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