Pls find the comments inline below.
On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Francis Hook
<francis.hook@gmail.com> wrote:
If I may play devil's advocate:
1 - What would streaming live by webcam do to the local communities (incl the tour companies, drivers, waiters, hoteliers, curio shops, etc) that rely on REAL LIVE visitors visiting the Mara to bring them income?
For a start, how would you paint a picture of the Mara to a guest who is interested? Suppose visitors searched on the Web as a global search resource and needed a peek into what this Mara thing is, what would they see? What about those who already visited and have an attachment to Kenya to return, is there no motivation for them? Putting the frame by frame stream online ( not real time streaming ) creates more searchable interest. Now unless some Massai fellows spear the ip web cams........ :-)
Seriously, when we think of National Geograhic narating the event and we can watch the entire process of crocs lying in wait to jump the animals, all this is happening on the TV in the comfort of our homes. Then why do tourists still come and watch the event? They must be crazy to come and watch something that is also available on DVD. Then there are also Zoos in other countries so why bother to come to Kenya?
2 - What will it do to the REAL EXPERIENCE of waiting and waiting for the stampede to start (which in turns means longer occupancy/stays/etc)? I think its like shooting a fish in a barrel - no fun at all - esp for the communities that stand to benefit. The tech savvy will simply monitor the herds and once they start moving, airlift visitors to the site - I think it kills the suspense and sense of expectancy (ergo diminishes the experience).
Actually the beauty of the system is to create that interest and an alert of events taking place, therefore while the airlift goes on which is at least 6-15 hours away the herds have changed "mood". Nature is unpredicatble, so no tech algorithm can compute it. Either way, the stay is not affected, unless the animals somehow develop an intelligence or phobia.
3 - Should we always leverage technology no matter what? Technology for technologies sake?
This explains why we are where we are, so I suppose you will not mind travelling to the Mara in a donkey pulled cart? I mean, who really cares about 4 wheel drives, traction control, winches and tow ropes, extra fuel tanks, water and all that planning that goes into trips. Please try and make a trip to the Mara around the rainy season, you will get a first hand idea of why the donkey cart would be too dangerious when the animals have little ones they protect. If you thought the Lion is known as the King in a joking manner, please drive near to it. 99% of all animals will move away, not this animal.
You should look at the vision of the why we need to do this, putting the Mara Online will mean many things from camps locations to gps co-ordinates for navigation, the sky is the limit on this. We can make it whatever we want for those who are interested in kenya as a tourist destination. :-)
My thots.
Rgds.