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March 24, 2003
Vacation Area Network
Mike and I have spent years developing the idea of the Vacation Area Network. Each year when we take a family trip together (his family and mine, we even include our wives and kids in some activities), we try to "improve" the experience with the use of technology (usually somehow involving computers).
Over the years, we have made several attempts at a near-real-time reporting on our trip, with stories, pictures and video. We haven't been successful just yet. But this year, things will be much different, I think.
We now know about Weblogs. This seems like a good possible fit.
We've figured out how to get video from a camera to the Web. In theory it's not tough, but try making a decent-looking video, and then make it stream-able to a typical Internet connection. An educational process.
The most recent piece is something we've worked on the last couple of days as Mike's been visiting me. I tried out Gallery a couple of months ago, and we decided it was the perfect solution for our family Web site. We've been integrating it into our site, and figuring out the logistics of making it multi-user and useable across a broad range of computer platforms and computer skills. I expect this will also be a part of our next VAN.
Network technology has some amazing capabilities to keep people together. Families that are spread out (Mike lives in Boston) can keep together now better than ever (we use email, Instant Messenger, video chat, a family web site, a web forum, a family event reminder, an email forwarder service, weblogs, on-line pictures, on-line video and probably a few other things--all to keep in touch, not to mention phone and in-person). These network technologies make distance matter much less than it used to, though it's still a long way from Salt Lake to Boston.
We are planning to vacation in Acadia National Park in Maine this summer. The VAN will be an incredible one this year. I'm looking forward to it.
Posted by pete at March 24, 2003 10:56 PM
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