Do you think lifechanging inventions like the web should continue to have numeric labels that increment every couple of years like software products from the 80’s? And if they do, who will be the person who decides we can’t have a web 8.0 and forces it to be called Web 2019? Just one of the silly things in life to ponder.

One silly thing you shouldn’t have to ponder is why are we doing this blog. We might come across as a little schizophrenic, and you may question our motives, our coordination, or my mental state. There are a couple simple reasons we are doing this and if you understand our backgrounds it might come into focus. Anne is an accomplished ghostwriter who has had a number of books published. A writer by both trade and nature, her reasons to write are both to document our adventures and to entertain those who stumble across this blog. Like many bloggers she is participating in the poetry of the day. I, on the other hand, am not a writer, at least not professionally. As I mentioned before, I am an internet executive who works at EarthLink. I am one of the Web 2.0 champions at the office and am in love with the power and possibilities of the internet. I am not going to get all teary eyed and blubbery, but I believe this is one of the greatest things to happen to humankind—maybe not as great as domesticating animals but close. I had that level of appreciation with Web 1.0 and I am just as excited about Web 2.0. If you don’t know the difference, I hope you enjoy Anne’s posts. To me, this blog is a way to enrich our travels with the benefits of a socially interconnected world and to extend my knowledge of web 2.0 (I am not a developer and intentionally have yet to ask a developer for help in creating anything on this blog). For me this blog isn’t just about the six of us in the world, it is about you as well. It is about the thousands of potential interactions we will have with people we may never have met otherwise. Ideally, I would love people to get involved and give us local recommendations, to follow our recommendations, to meet us when we are in their town, or to share in a healthy exchange of travel ideas and topics. I am going to call this new connected traveling, “Travel 2.0.” Sadly, I am too late to coin the term. It is most often used by professionals in the travel industry who are discussing how their marketing and services are rapidly changing.

The simplest way to Travel 2.0 would be to post your travelogues, questions, and pictures at one of the great travel social networks like Travbuddy, World66, Travelblog, or Tripadvisor. For a two week trip an article on trip advisor and a photoset on Flickr would be about all you need. For a year long trip that just doesn’t sound like a proper level of engagement. We will do it the hard way with our own blog and domain. It is more challenging, but in the end, it should be a much richer experience and we hope a more interactive one. When I have finally figured out all the tools we are going to use I will create a more detailed post explaining them.

Consider this the first of many pleas to get involved. If you have ever taken an extended trip, if you know someone who has, or if you dream about taking an extended trip let us know. Anne and I exist in 2 different worlds, and we are thrilled to bring both those worlds to the blog. Anne will continue to find interesting observations and write about them. I will put up mailing lists and email links for her and keep the rss feeds, comments, and trackbacks up for me. Of course, I will also look for opportunities to massage the necks of any heads of state we come across.

Technorati Tags: , , ,