I'm glad there seems to be a fair amount of interest in an online component to your course this autumn, Nelson and All! If we proceed with this online component in a few weeks, what you'll need is a gmail address and G+ page, as well as an avatar in Second Life which you can get here - secondlife.com/download - and then teleport here - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Berkman/165/212/25 - (if we want to explore Harvard's virtual island and even build touristic objects, as well).
In terms of my virtual research, Tourism Studies, and this course, check out Harbin Hot Springs' Gate House in Google Street View / Earth / Maps here, and walk down the road to Middletown, California here, for example -
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harbin+Hot+Springs/@38.785962,-122.651913,3a,75y,3.07h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sZvCvdrcS5wPenGS_nB4JtA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xde57c3ab0ecaa2c9!6m1!1e1
- and add some of your photos, as Google Street View invites here (or to another part of the world where you do your tourism research) ... and per "ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy" (see this label here - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy). I'm planning to give a talk about this as method at the Tourism Studies Working Group on Friday, November 6th at 5pm at UC Berkeley in the Gifford Room, and will hopefully broadcast this video in a G+ Hangout too.
Besides publishing our Tourism Studies' papers in journals, we can also post them here - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Tourism_Studies - as wiki.
As a film-realistic 3D interactive build-able virtual earth develops, I hope we as (STEM) researchers will all be able to add our data, pictures, videos, and languages even (and historically too). I think this real-time virtual earth (think Google Street View with SL plus) will become a very important site of Tourism Studies' academic research over time, and comparatively too.
Best, Scott
http://www.scottmacleod.com
https://twitter.com/scottmacleod
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