The following Important hot topics on the Internet are emerging. "Sources of
Video
Content" and "Online Social Networking."

Since 1993, hundreds of 360 degree interactive panoramas and high quality
audio/video
sequences are available for viewing from watersheds across the country at the
Interactive
Watersheds web site home and map pages. This is a unique resource that people
you
know would appreciate learning about. Please share the following web site
addresses with
them:

http://www.interactivewatersheds.net
http://www.interactivewatersheds.net/uswtrmap.html

Starting in 2001, the Interactive Watersheds Community Centers were developed in
the
form of an "Online Social Networking" process. Many websites offer examples and
descriptions. A good social networking service and a good source for information
is
Wikipedia. Look at Social Networking , and Web 2.0.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_social_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2

A major objective of the Interactive Watersheds web sites is to make it easy for
a web site
visitor to look at a map of one of the special watersheds, find detailed maps of
important
resource areas, and virtually visit a number of specific locations within each
area. The
virtual visit will allow the user to view and navigate around and up and down on
the image
on their computer screen using the unique and immersive 360 degree panorama
QuickTime VR technology. In addition, as a person looks at a 360-degree
panorama, they
often find additional pictures and text links, which further describe the area's
"Resource
Issues." Often an audio/video clip will be available to actually see and hear
a resource
person at the site describing features and issues related to the 360-degree
view.

What we attempted with the Interactive Watersheds web sites was to make a visit
to the
site "look and feel" a lot like the experience a person would have if they
actually did visit
one or more of the watershed areas in person.

Ideally a viewer who visits one or more of the watershed areas in real life or
on the Internet
would become interested in actively participating personally in watershed
restoration
activities. And, they would also want to continually use the web site to stay
informed about
specific locations and issues they are interested in. The wealth of information
that could
become available on all of the Interactive Watersheds web sites will make it
possible for an
individual to see dynamic multimedia information in a few hours or a day that
could take
weeks or months to find any other way. The "Watershed Community Centers" are
"Online
Social Networking Centers" designed to facilitate discussion and submission of
content for
the web site from citizen web site users, organized special interest groups,
scientists, and
local, state and federal agencies.

This Yahoo Group discussion opportunity also represents one of the many forms of
"Online Social Networking."

Any questions or comments?

Thank you,

Gary Grimm

A Yahoo Groups user and moderator