Tribewanted

Exert from National Geographic Adventure Magazine, words and images by James Vlahos:

“On January 14, 2006, Ben Keene received an email that changed his life. The weather outside was rainy, windy, and freezing—typical for winter in Devon, England—and Keene was holed up in his loft office, the window fogged with mist. He had just taken a sip of hot tea when the message from his friend Mark James popped up, and Keene did a double take at the subject line: “A TRIBE IS WANTED.”

Keene and James, both 26, had been brainstorming ideas for an Internet start-up, and Keene was used to receiving email messages full of improbable schemes from his friend. The business plan outlined in the current message didn’t disappoint: We will establish an online community and call it a tribe, James had written. Members will create profiles, post photos, and chat online—the usual stuff—and then do something with no known precedent in the history of the Internet: The virtual tribe will become a real one. We will travel to a desert island, James wrote, and form a partnership with an indigenous tribe. We will build an environmentally friendly tourist facility and show it off to the world as a model of low-impact development. We will be a 21st-century tribe, and you, Ben Keene, will be a chief.”