Dreamspeaker Anne & Laurence were on hand at the Bremerton meeting -- hopefully you had a chance to see some of their cruising guides for the PNW.
I spoke some with Laurence about the upcoming cruising guide for the Puget Sound - San Juan down to Olympia. It's getting close and he was collecting Names/Email addr/phone Nos so people could be contacted when it arrives and is ready for sale. It seems that this guide will be in a different dimensional format -- a landscape one with an embedded spiral hinge allowing the guide to lay flat when opened.
I mentioned to Laurence about making the guide in electronic form suitable for an Apple iPad or even a laptop computer. Obvious benefits would be less weight, less bulk and the possibility of video entries in the guide. Of course, updates and/or newer revisions could also be downloaded over time. Laurence must have already been thinking along similar lines and thought that releasing sections rather than the whole guide at once might work. Maybe a monthly release cycle... He also said he needs to arrive at a good business plan to make it work which would include some form of sponsorship from vendors and the like. The overall cost for doing all this and to get things started would be around $100,000. :roll: I wished him luck in getting this done. I for one would love to get the Dreamspeaker cruising guides on my iPad... and being able to zoom in on the articles for easier reading and viewing photos, and for watching videos of marinas and the like etc. It would bring a whole new dimension and popularity to their cruising guides IMO.
If you have an interest in electronic versions of the Dreamspeaker cruising guides be sure to let Anne & Laurence know (see Reference URL below). This would/might help secure vendor sponsorship for their new electronic guide versions.
FYI... I have no business association with Dreamspeaker -- I'm just a fan of their publications.
RE: http://www.dreamspeaker.ca
I spoke some with Laurence about the upcoming cruising guide for the Puget Sound - San Juan down to Olympia. It's getting close and he was collecting Names/Email addr/phone Nos so people could be contacted when it arrives and is ready for sale. It seems that this guide will be in a different dimensional format -- a landscape one with an embedded spiral hinge allowing the guide to lay flat when opened.
I mentioned to Laurence about making the guide in electronic form suitable for an Apple iPad or even a laptop computer. Obvious benefits would be less weight, less bulk and the possibility of video entries in the guide. Of course, updates and/or newer revisions could also be downloaded over time. Laurence must have already been thinking along similar lines and thought that releasing sections rather than the whole guide at once might work. Maybe a monthly release cycle... He also said he needs to arrive at a good business plan to make it work which would include some form of sponsorship from vendors and the like. The overall cost for doing all this and to get things started would be around $100,000. :roll: I wished him luck in getting this done. I for one would love to get the Dreamspeaker cruising guides on my iPad... and being able to zoom in on the articles for easier reading and viewing photos, and for watching videos of marinas and the like etc. It would bring a whole new dimension and popularity to their cruising guides IMO.
If you have an interest in electronic versions of the Dreamspeaker cruising guides be sure to let Anne & Laurence know (see Reference URL below). This would/might help secure vendor sponsorship for their new electronic guide versions.
FYI... I have no business association with Dreamspeaker -- I'm just a fan of their publications.
RE: http://www.dreamspeaker.ca