Where to go

In addition to newspapers and radio stations, my employer has been quite busy in the travel media business. Over the last couple of years, Morris Communications has acquired several companies, combined them with existing assets, and realigned them all under a coherent brand identity: Where Guestbooks, Where Magazines, Where Quick Guides, and Where Maps. But there was no unified Web presence for all of the above ... until last Friday, when the "Local Guides. Worldwide." WhereTraveler.com launched in "beta test" form.

In each city, the Where resources provide local directories of dining and entertainment resources for business and personal travelers. If you've stayed at a good hotel in a major city, you've probably seen and perhaps used one of the Where publications -- perhaps under a previous identity, such as Guest Informant or Best Read Guides. This initial stage of the WhereTraveler project makes most of those resources available on the Internet.

Like a lot of what we're doing these days, WhereTraveler.com was built on the Drupal framework. It makes thorough use of open-source add-on modules including the Content Construction Kit and Views. To open the door for Where editors in many different places to edit content in just their own domains, it uses the Domain Access module created at Morris Digital Works and contributed to the open-source community.

The website and its companion service aimed at the iPhone are just the first steps in a larger project that will unfold over the coming year.