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Hey guys,
Imogen and I were thinking about putting a picture on the first page of every travel guide. Something more eye-catching than a map… I mean you have a look at let’s say the Paris travel guide and the only thing you see is just a map and maybe a photo of the leading article’s editor… is that really motivating for continue reading this section? Opinions?
@tech: What do you think, is this possible?
Thanks again to you Eva, super! @valentinyeo, @alfreda – perhaps we could add the screencast-videos, which are already on YouTube, as a nice small guide for how to use CC-content somewhere in the editing box of the articles. Just to show userfriendly how much sources are there and how to use them. I personally think the short video expalins more then much text. What do you think?
I suggest to have a tutorial section in “About us” and link it in the help and in other pages also as Rafael suggest.
sorry guys i don’t wanna get on your nerves. while the screencast is good work i am fairly critical as to wether this is time spent well. the screen where the editor is is going to be changed quite soon. that means you have to do it again… the site is morphing so much these days.
You are writing a great article about a museum in Joensuu or recommending a nice restaurant in Székesfehérvár? And you need some inspiration? You want to check the basics about a city, find some ideas of the top sights of a town?
(Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/qthomasbower/)
• http://www.travellerspoint.com
That are creative networks and webpages, from where you can legally “copy and paste” articles. Earth.org joined a license, which allows to reuse all this stuff for our travel guide.
Check it out, mash it up or just copy and paste it to spread the word about the world’s greatest locations with us!
Afterwards just enter the link of the website you used for writing your article:
It is so easy! Have fun with it! Yes – let us mash up creative commons content 
And everyone is invited also to use our content on Earth.org!
Hey Rafael, that sounds really easy and fun. I promise the adaquate screencast will fallow soon! Eva
Does anyone feel like cleaning up the accomodation article for London, UK? http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/London/places-to-stay
Ideally this article is just a clear short introduction and all the hotels listed here get their own place in the travel guide. If you need help to get started @imogen will be happy to help I am sure! (imogen (at) earth (dot) org)
Hi Rob, I replied to this…. but only in my head, sorry. Thanks for the heads-up, we are working on London this week and this article is now high on the Hit List
Hi guys,
our common efforts have led us to it. From now Earth.org Ambassadors are displayed on their locations of Ambassadorship! Just take a look at the top, in the right corner Here as example, Babu – Ambassador of Kerala:
Soon they will be also displayed on the subsites of locations and changes, which allow to show more than one Ambassador per location, will be synced to the live server. So now worry please, you will be all there asap!
Great stuff!
Btw: the design shown on the pic is not final — reworking is in the make!
yeah pls do asap this is live and doesn’t look to good. thanks.
v
…already with Dmitriy…
Yes! Nice Improvement!
(Amal -Sri Lanka)
Happy to see you here on the blog, Amal! Thanks!
Hello Rafael, nice feature and useful to have all ambassadors on a map!
Here also a link how to add a picture to your profile: http://blog.earth.org/2009/11/11/how-to-tegister-for-the-blog-and-add-a-nice-picture-to-your-profile/ Just try it!
Hey guys – I hope this short presentation will help you all in adding “See and do’s” to the travel guide of Earth.org. I hope you like this way of presentation. There will be soon more. Feel free to share it.
Hi Rafael!
Great. Let’s see how users rate it.
Suggest you also do one version with a voiceover – and see what goes better.
Thanks Otto, the voice version is already planned (somewhere in my mind), thinking also of a nice background music…
it s just FINE ~ Thanks Rafael!
@rafaelmichalczuk, Can’t we add this somewhere in our webpages.
This could suite the help section. It is the first tutorial that we have. We may create a section called Tutorials and add this for the moment and the others to come in the future.
@Otto I think a section called video gallery should be added too. We now have a couple of good video presenting Earth.org. What do you think?
Just thought I let you guys know I was leisurely writing some travel guide content on Amsterdam (NL) this evening. Just felt like it, saw some SPAM I wanted to get rid of and at the same time it gave me a good feeling of how the new site is performing (and where we can still improve). For those of you interested in Amsterdam:
http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/Amsterdam-North-Holland/train
http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/Amsterdam-North-Holland/places-to-eat-and-drink
http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/Amsterdam-North-Holland/pubs-bars-cafes/Unicoo-Bar
http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/Amsterdam-North-Holland/restaurants/Supperclub
http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/Amsterdam-North-Holland/museums/The-Rijksmuseum-Amsterdam
http://www.earth.org/travel-guide/Amsterdam-North-Holland/places-to-stay (thanks @david for getting the hotels in)
wow, good articles. @ all travel guide writers – somthing to look at. Hope we can add up pictures soon!
@Rob – yes I like your articles! Will show them other writers as “best practice” Thanks!
Space hotel scheduled to open in 2012. How on “earth” will we add this to our travel guide? 
Space hotels will not be mentioned on Earth.org Also because it doesn’t fit our values to waste so many earth resources to fire persons into space!
Interesting new site to digg news stories which highlight ‘off the track’ places to travel:
I’ve sent the creator (http://www.backpackerben.co.uk/) a message to find out more, perhaps it is somewhere we could share our earth.org articles?
I am sure it’s a nice find for PR — but also a good read! (did especially like the “suicide showers of south america” http://www.backpackerben.co.uk/travel/suicide-showers 
)
Every month, we like to highlight one of the people who have been making great contributions to Earth.org’s travel guide. This month it is my great pleasure to introduce Allison, who has been working on the LA travel guide.
If you have ever wondered where to hike in LA or wanted to know about what to tip a waiter, then Allison is getting you covered. She’s been working away adding a few pages at a time for the past month whilst juggling a full time job as a PR and ecommerce manager for an Italian handbag company and a part time MBA program and training at least two times a week.
With a busy schedule like that, I asked her how she manages travel writing for Earth.org with limited time:
I just fit it in when have open windows during the week.
I write for 15-20 minute when I have a window. I write a bit, spend a few hours a week doing research asking around and posting. In total it’s only about 2-3 hours a week.
How does someone working in he fashion industry get involved with a collaboratively written travel guide?
I started really caring about environment over the last couple years…and wanted something more fulfilling. I wanted something non-profit and green, something meaningful.
I was looking for writing opportunities and saw posting for freelance writers for Earth.org. It fills void working full time with handbags. I needed an outlet to express my thoughts and feelings about the environment, advise people about travel. I was looking for way to give back.
And of course, we’re always curious how users see Earth.org growing in the future, taking it in fantastic new directions that we only ever dreamed of:
I see Earth.org being much more than just a travel community. I would love to see sections devoted to local organic suppliers, local classes on learning new uses for old things, growing herbs or a mico-garden, or becoming LEED certified in cities around the world…
While we can’t promise to achieve all that soon, Earth.org is designed to be flexible. We actively look for community members who not only write, but program new features beyond what our core team has time for. If you can volunteer time for a programming job to help Earth.org reach dreams like Allison’s, visit us on the forum.
We love having Allison here, the energy and enthusiasm she brings even with a packed life are exactly what Earth.org needs. She has been bringing content, friends and a great enthusiasm to the Los Angeles travel guide.
Take a moment to read through the things to see and do in LA that Allison has been adding, and send her a thank you on the forum.
If you would like to to join Allison in contributing to Earth.org, the only collaborative travel guide with a non-profit approach, please come introduce yourself in the forum.
Keep travelling, and collaborate with our community of fellow travellers!
Justin, posting from Canada.
Thanks Allison – you are one of our first contributors – and we can not say enough thank you to our very very early adoptors! And great that you say “I see Earth.org being much more than just a travel community…” – be assured, we all do see it the same way…
Thanks Allison!
So great to see L.A. grow on Erath.org Thanks!!
We have a vision at Earth.org. This vision is to provide travellers with responsible travel information. The company that most closely embodies this vision – Wikipedia – captures the collaborative approach to information, but fails to fulfill our vision in respect to responsible travel. We guess few, if any, of you is a registered member of Wikipedia. And if you are, it is more than likely that you are not regularly logging on.
Our vision of the social network – which Steve is constructing:
The Earth.org social network vision is to bring relevant travel information to you!
On Wikipedia relevancy comes from entering a search term into the search bar.
Earth.org has a slightly different approach to providing relevant travel information:
We solve a problem for average Internet users: It is very difficult to remember all the places they have been, impossible to know all the places their friends have been, what their friends have recommended and where their friends are now. This information gives a great base for the most wonderful source of travel information – trusted information that is highly relevant to the user’s interests. We want to give users the ability to connect to friends – to see where they have travelled and what they recommend.
And obviously, the social network makes Earth.org sticky and fills Earth.org with content. Relevant content is part of responsible content. It makes every member of Earth.org a contributor and serves our overall marketing goal to find and develop a network of frequent contributors.
What makes us unique:
Earth.org is the only travel social network with a non-profit approach.
And we must make clear: Private information about your entire life does not belong in profit orientated hands. It needs to be in sustainable hands. A user may be guarded about providing private information to a large, commercial organization. A non-profit approach, however, ensures that the information a user submits to Earth.org will not be sold to outside organizations in the interest of profit.
mareikeonearthorg, 
alfreda, and 
Thomas are discussing. 
Cristiano, and 
rafaelmichalczuk are discussing. 
evamiamueller, and 
imogen is discussing. 
Anne, 
radha, 
Rafael, and 
Mathias is discussing. 
adrianne@earth.org, and 
Thomas 7:07 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
…actually some kind of gallery like http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bermuda is already planned and will come with our flickr integration
mareikeonearthorg 7:18 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
With one huge pic on the first page?
alfreda 2:27 pm on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
gallery with the thumbnails were planned at the top of the first travel guide page. the huge picture was under discussion for a while, I had doubts coz it pushed text way down, unless we can put it to the right. A huge picture will mean re-organizing the top of the page quite a bit. Suggest to stick to the current plan first, I know quite a number of people want that huge picture, let’s make that step 2 and give it more thought?
mareikeonearthorg 4:27 pm on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Maybe we can ban the map instead? Or make it smaller in order to place a huge picture of the location there?