New Internet Portal Connects Expeditions with Students

"New Internet Portal Connects Students with Expeditions"

http://www.expeditionquest.com

Have you ever wanted to join an expedition to the Antarctic, follow the submersible
"Alvin" to the bottom of the ocean floor, or listen to climbers deciding to make a
summit attempt on Everest? A new internet portal, ExpeditionQuest.com, offers
students and others the opportunity to participate on expeditions and share in
the excitement of discovery and adventure.

Based in Seattle, Washington, the ExpeditionQuest Network includes "Outbound", a
placement service for scientists, students and adventurers who want to join
expeditions, "ExpeditionNewsNet", a daily news service, the "Expedition Channel"
which offers free web hosting for expeditions and a directory of over 10,000
projects, "Expesearch", a search engine which consists of over 15,000 websites
relevant to field research and exploration, "ClassQuest" where educators and
classrooms can communicate with teams in the field, and a voting system which
allows EQ members and classrooms to vote on what expeditions should receive
funding. EQ distributes 50% of its membership dues to expeditions.

"Outbound" enables expedition leaders to search for additional team members using
a combination of educational, technical and outdoor qualifications. EQ members
fill out a resume form and then choose boxes from an elaborate indexing system
which summarizes their experience, making it easy for users to locate members
with specific skills. (For example a physician who has climbed over 6,000 meters,
is fluent in German, and has Class 3 whitewater experience). The service is also
used by organizations seeking employees such as guides, instructors, experts for
interviews, etc.

In addition, members also complete a form describing when and where in the world
they expect to be in coming months and years. This enables people to get together
while traveling, share expenses and experiences. Outbound allows EQ members to
make their resumes available to expeditions, employers, journalists for interviews,
other EQ members, or various EQ sanctioned Search and Rescue and Disaster Relief
organizations.

A worldwide directory and search engine for field research projects and adventures,
the "Expedition Channel" includes over 10,000 non-commercial projects funded and
supported by such organizations as the National Science Foundation, the Royal
Geographical Society in London, National Geographic, the Explorer's Club,
Archaeological Institute of America, Earthwatch, Smithsonian, the American Alpine
Club and others.

Each expedition which registers is given it's own User ID and Password which
enables it to create a website which is hosted by EQ at no cost. Every site
includes a complete description of the expedition along with dates, funding
requirements, contact information, link to their own website if they have one, a
news section where they can send updates, a media gallery for photographs, audio
clips, and video, a spot to upload a slide show, a polling program which enables
them to poll students and others about their project, a discussion board, a
mailing list which EQ members can subscribe to, a calender to post deadlines and
progress, a directory for relevant bookmarks to other sites on the net, a spot to
uplaod a map or link to one on the net, and a complete administration section
where they can manage all this information.

Expeditions can use "VENUS" , EQ's Voice Energized News Update System, to send
news updates to their website by cell or satphone from anywhere on earth. Teams
simply call EQ, identify themselves with their unique ID and PIN numbers and then
transmit their latest news whether it be from the middle of the Pacific, the
north col of Everest or McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

The call is authenticated at EQ, recorded, saved as an audio file, categorized in
the database and then transferred to the news section of the specific expedition's
site in the Expedition Channel. In less than two minutes their voice transmission
is available for the world to share simply by clicking on the audio link to the
team's latest news update. Expeditions can choose to have their transmission
sent to EQ News and/or registered journalists and they also have the ability
to edit and delete the audio files anytime.

In the virtual classroom, "ClasssQuest", expeditions and classrooms can connect
and communicate with each other. ClassQuest includes directories for classrooms,
interactive expeditions, lesson plans for teachers, and a lecture series where an
expedition can upload a slideshow (powerpoint). Each class can vote to fund
expeditions, and while the class votes as a single unit, the vote is weighed
according to the number of students in the class. This may help foster class
discussions about projects (perhaps even assignments to review projects up for
nomination) and a class vote on which project to support and why. It also
encourages expeditions to incorporate an educational component since the class
vote is weighed so heavily.

If you are interested in field research and adventure expeditions and would like
to share the passion of exploration, I hope you will check us out:
http://www.expeditionquest.com

Thanks,

Jake Stout, Founder