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Sunday, February 22, 2004

Interesting Idea 

Microsoft is funding a 7700-mile walking tour of US nature preserves that a young college graduate is undertaking. But here's the news. As the fellow takes pictures, he will record their location using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. Thus, as he walks and when he is done, the world will have a precise record of where the fellow went and where exactly he took his pictures.

This might be a crazy idea but it struck me that such a system might be useful for anyone in travel PR. As travel writers move through a country, they can snap photos and take exact records of where they have been, so tourists can find their way later. Perhaps someone is doing this already. If so, I would like to hear about it. I certainly would like to have a GPS record of some places I've been and wouldn't know how to find again if I tried.

Microsoft will load the hiker's photos and GPS coordinates onto its World Wide Media Exchange (WWMX) that will link them to an exact location on a map, so people can follow along. Wouldn't it be neat if travel writing were that way today? One could open a Web site for the Carribean, for example and follow real-time, GPS-enabled travelogues of several islands to help figure out where to go for that much-needed winter vacation in warmer weather.

It's something to think about.

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