chalking the roads is a tour de france tradition during which spectators write messages of encouragement to their favorite riders. livestrong and the lance armstrong foundation embraced the idea of using the road as a canvas; as part of nike’s open roads project, boxes of yellow chalk were handed out at the tour of california and at select livestrong events, encouraging people to chalk messages of hope in the fight against cancer. the nike chalkbot was a way to take positive messages to the tour de france. by sending a message to the chalkbot through twitter, sms, web banners or wearyellow.com, people around the world were able to make their mark in yellow. over the course of a month, the chalkbot gained over 4,000 followers on Twitter, received over 36,000 messages of support and inspiration. over 13 stages and several thousand miles of the tour de france more than 5,400 messages were chalked, tagged with gps coordinates and photographed—photos and gps data were sent to the writers of the messages.
