On-Line Service Ventures Into World Of Exploration
Product: Expedition News On-line News Service
Description: A monthly on-line subscription news service featuring coverage of “significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures,” according to the publisher.
The activities span the globe, including Himalayan mountaineering, self-supported skiing treks, ballooning, Antarctic research, paddle trips (and attempted paddle trips) on remote and unrun Africa rivers, mountain bike treks, sled dog expeditions and more.
EN is distributed electronically on CompuServe, America Online and the Internet. There’s even a printed version shipped by an organization known as the U.S. Postal Service.
Pro: EN is a reliable, informative source of expedition news news that’s unlikely to appear on Live At Five unless an unlucky balloonist (is there any other kind?) has crashed into a nearby elementary school.
It’s mercifully free of the time-consuming graphics favored by far too many online services, and cuts to the chase with concise coverage of interesting expeditions from around the world.
In addition, there’s advance coverage of events to come, so the service isn’t limited to simply reporting the day’s events. For those interested in the adventure of expedition, it’s an invaluable source of information - and for those putting expeditions together, it’s another way of providing sponsors with additional exposure.
Con: EN prints them as it finds them, and rarely adds “editorial comment” to the coverage of expeditions, adventures and research projects, making the coverage just a tad dry.
Comments: No fuzzy photos, no fancy graphics, no “thermometers” telling me to wait while new art is added … This is my kind of on-line service: one that promises and delivers just the facts, ma’am, in straightforward text.
The June issue examined the loss of 11 lives last May on Mount Everest, detailed the first South African team’s attempt to scale that same peak and told the story of two Californians who recently departed on a two-year, 20,000-mile expedition to circle the Pacific.
The July issue features a story about the first African-American to summit an 8,000-meter peak. These are stories worth reading but receiving woefully inadequate coverage.
Cost: $36 per year.
Company: Blumenfeld & Associates, Suite 202, 397 Post Road, Darien, CT 06820; (v) (203) 656-3300; (f) (203) 65507710. E-mail addresses are: Blumassoc@aol.com or Compuserve 76226,773. Highlights from each month’s issue can found on the World Wide Web at http:/ /www.microship.com/Expedition-News. Free trial issues are available.