Partnership of Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, Pennsylvania Tourism Office, National Civil War Museum, Public Intelligence, and Ripple Effects Interactive brings cutting edge…
Partnership of Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, Pennsylvania Tourism Office, National Civil War Museum, Public Intelligence, and Ripple Effects Interactive brings cutting edge search and social networking technologies to thousands of Pennsylvania destinations.
Ripple Effects Interactive, a full-service web and online marketing firm, will cooperate with industry leaders to pioneer real-time spatial image browsing, a new and experiential way to not only find accurate travel destination information online, but to visualize a destination`s geographic location in relation to other destinations, virtually explore that destination, submit your own photos and comments on the destination, and access recent National Geographic magazine photos and articles with more information on the destination, all via the Google Earth geospatial image browser launching on the official tourism website of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, VisitPA.com.
The Commonwealth, through the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, is providing a $285,000 grant to support this Google Earth partnership, which was unveiled at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg by the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development`s Tourism Office, Technology Investment Office, Global Connection Project (a consortium of Google Inc., Carnegie Mellon University, National Geographic, and NASA), Public Intelligence, and Ripple Effects Interactive.
Spatial image browsing will be available in early 2007, and social networking by late 2007. The region designated for the launch of Google Earth on VisitPA.com is the Dutch Country Roads region, enabling virtual tourists from around the globe to immerse themselves in Pennsylvania`s historic Civil War trails throughout the region.
Pennsylvania is once again solidifying its position as an industry leader in tourism by not only embracing emerging technologies, but by building them for the industry, explained Mickey Rowley, Deputy Secretary for Tourism at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. This is a system that other state, regional, and destination management organizations will be able to use.
By the first quarter of 2007, two robotic web cameras will be capturing very high resolution panoramic images of the Dutch Country Roads region of Pennsylvania, which includes the six counties featured in Pennsylvania`s Civil War Trails: Prelude to Gettysburg initiative, and storing these Gigapixel Panoramas online to be explored by users. Named Gigapan, this robotic platform developed by Google, Carnegie Mellon, and the NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG), produces panoramas that users can virtually enter, explore, zoom in on details of interest, and even go back in time to witness the change of seasons on a historic Civil War battlefield, enabling more of a sensory experience than was ever before possible via imagery on the web.
By the third quarter of 2007, social networking and bookmarking will be built into every Pennsylvania destination on the Google Earth image browser, creating a virtual Pennsylvania travel community where users can share with the world their original photography and commentary on destinations they have visited. And social bookmarking will allow visitors to store, classify, share, and search for Pennsylvania travel-related links.
What better way to communicate Pennsylvania travel than through Pennsylvania travelers themselves, declared Paul Magnani, president of Ripple Effects Interactive. Americans today spend more on travel than anything else online, which represents an exciting opportunity for destination marketers to provide all the information consumers look for to make their travel decisions online. Most consumers today look beyond traditional destination marketing to the real-life experiences of real-world people like themselves. Because user-generated content can add another level of credibility to an already information-rich website, we look forward to creating this social network via Google Earth on VisitPA.com.
Pennsylvania`s Civil War Trails: Prelude to Gettysburg initiative is an effort to showcase the journey of the Commonwealth`s soldiers, its women and children, the African American contributions to the defense of the Commonwealth, and the endurance of its people as they went about their daily lives. Google Earth will provide real-time imagery of thousands of travel destinations along these trails in Lancaster, Franklin, Adams, York, Cumberland, and Dauphin counties.
VisitPA.com was the first state-sponsored website initiative to present actionable information on the large majority of activities, attractions, and destinations available throughout the Commonwealth, so it`s logical to extend that pioneering spirit now into virtually changing the way users browse for those destination experiences, remarked Illah Nourbakhsh, Associate Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University`s Robotics Institute.
What`s unprecedented is that Pennsylvania is putting its resources behind bringing the Civil War trails to electronic exploration, especially Gigapan, a brand-new technology out of Google Earth, that will be, for the first time, deployed to a state. We`re thrilled to be part of this team and believe Google Earth on VisitPA.com is yet another positive example of the true innovation that comes from the fine institutions in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania is the first state in the US to capitalize on the Google Earth platform in this way, making tourism an interactive experience from anywhere in the world.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
