Solomon Source - Building Bridges to the Future.

World Proclamation of Emancipation 2011

2011-02-21T06:12:00.000-08:00

By Andrew N. Skadberg
February 20, 2011

Today marks the realization that we have within our reach the creation of a networked, Internet based tool-set to free humanity from the illusionary reality that it has imposed upon itself based on a mis-representation of the spiritual and intentional powers of human-beings.

Today, as a representative of the collective, human experience Eye proclaim and set forth in this document my realization that we have easily within our grasp the capabilities, skills, tools, resources and collective Will to solve all of the illusions of our collective sufferings: things like war, poverty, starvation, disease, strife, homelessness, and any other type of collectively created and supported concepts and mis-understandings that oppose the concept of Reverence for Life. These ideas are now history. History is only a reflection of the past. It does not exist. And our perspective as we understand it, and typically present it, is a reflection and is only a sliver of the truth of our collective experience. And we have habitually, as a collective, overemphasized what we collectively call “the negative”. This has perpetuated these experiences into our present, while also likely projecting those images into our future. They are not the truth. They are just a story that we have created which has been a form of entertainment, or a tool to teach us of our powers. But it is now time to let these things go. As we envision a new reality, and take the actions to use the tools at our disposal to accomplish the great re-creation we stand on the precipice of paradise on Earth.

As a sovereign being, a representative of our collective human family, I boldly state my intention today that the challenges listed above are all easily addressed. The potential means, and some details of how this might be accomplished, will be presented in a diagrammatic presentation below.

However, before these brief details are presented, Eye, as a catalyst, a Being who is a fully aware and conscious aspect of the multi-verse hologram, a Divine expression of the ONE, put forth the power of The Word, intention and attention, fueled by Love to bring into manifestation the elements that are presented. This presentation does not assume any particular order but to represent the broad array of opportunities for re-creation and emancipation. We will accomplish this profound consciousness change towards conscious evolution through: revitalization, education, improvisation, innovation, recreation, imagination, destination, commercialization, transportation, transmutation, catalyzation, vitalization, realization, technologization, experiementation, transformation, and visualization.

Eye now present this to the Universal Mind, and release all expectations and attachments to materiality to allow Spirit to manifest that which is in alignment with One Love and trust that the capabilities and capacities of the Universal Mind will easily accomplish all that is being invited to be created. Today marks the day that One Human Being, of the collective human experience, recognizes the power of the Word to transform. And the presentation of that intention to the Universal Mind will allow it to become manifest. With Great Love, So Be It!

Here is a brief description of the elements included in the above diagram.

Individual Empowerment and Collaborative Networking (Orange Box)
The center of this diagram shows the heart of the matter for re-creation. Empowering individuals and facilitation of collaborative networking is the foundation and starting point. By providing a simple set of tools, and the skill-set to use them, we will be able to transform the world one person at a time.

The World Self Management Institute
The Practice provides the connection to Spirit through each individual’s breath. As each person becomes conscious of their breath, and the other skills contained in The Practice, a catalyst ignites the powers of the Universal Mind.

Collaborative Networking – I Am Sharing
The next stage in online networking is collaborative networking, bringing people together to share, cooperate, have fun and “be the change they want to see in the world”. The collaborative networking model will provide the tools necessary to allow people to find other like-minded people to create new opportunities and collaborative projects. This component has significant documentation in addition to this introduction.

Tourism as an Initiator (Blue Box)
Tourism touches all aspects of the economic systems in the world today. So, it is a great vehicle for transformation. Also tourism is a harbinger for peace. The Internet is a tool that we can use to help us to make the most of the industry.

It is still paramount that the environment be protected. That can be accomplished by distributing tourism development as broadly as possible and utilizing proper planning methods to minimize impacts.

Travel Portal
Currently being called “YouTooTravel” this element will create a global portal for travelers to find and purchase (as long as we have the existing economic system) experiential travel.

Support to Travel Industry
Travel Talk Media is the natural solution to providing holistic information, services and media support and education to the various travel industry associations and communities.

Online Catalog
People like to purchase things when they travel. Additionally, small hand-crafts people, artisans, musicians, etc. need support to find people to purchase what the make. By creating an online presence and supporting via networking, marketing and education we can significantly enhance the economic situation of the people and the communities where they live. The key is to focus on getting “living wages” to these people and eliminate the exploitative production of things of very little value.

Accommodations Support
Providing “back-office” support for smaller accommodations will enhance the travel industry significantly. By gathering these entities together into a larger collaborative group we will be able to help them find customers and provide many other services through our educational and technology solutions.

Vacation Education
Based on a project that was already created to help people and families make the connection to quality learning and leisure pursuits. In addition to supporting travelers, teachers would find support and services to connect up with good experiential learning opportunities, and get guidance for how create quality programs.

Associations Support
The Internet is a powerful tool to support associations, in addition to their typical offerings for conferences and other programs. Creating a network of associations in the interest of serving the tourism industry, and all of the ancillary activities will be a powerful to organize and create a collaborative and cooperative atmosphere which is a much better model than competition.

Education/Community, Environment (Green Box)

Virtual Education – Institute – Experiential University
Empowerment starts with preparing people to learn, and find the resources and tools to help them transform their lives. The internet is the most powerful tool to support people to do this and to help them make their dreams come true. Our view is that the only way we learn is by doing, or through experiential education. And combining the power of the Internet, experiential education and practical resources is the future of education.

Sustainable Development and Communities – Honoring Our Mother Earth (HOME) Communities
Grass-roots revitalization in the interest of sustainability is happening around the world. Supporting this process by providing access to quality information, case-studies, and networking tools will enhance this process greatly. Additionally, linking these various communities, initiatives and organizations together into a larger global network will also accelerate this process.

Environmental Amelioration – Remote Sensing and Technology
Protecting and ameliorating the environmental impacts that humanity has imposed on the earth is the most important foundation of this entire proposal. Technology provides a tool-set to help us deal with the environmental challenges that we face as global family. Putting these tools to use is critical. Immense opportunities exist to implement many solutions that are facing the people of the world.

The Benefits of Experiential and “Nature-Based” Tourism

2011-02-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

The Benefits of Experiential and “Nature-Based” Tourism
By Andrew N. Skadberg, Ph.D.

Provided below is a description of why creating, participating in, doing, developing or teaching experiential and nature-based tourism is a good thing. There are multiple beneficiaries and a wide variety of opportunities that arise.
Nature-based tourism most importantly provides opportunities for people to experience the out-of-doors, to breathe fresh air, to notice the beauty of nature. Through effective interpretation and programming people can be guided to gain a new appreciation for the natural world at many levels.

The benefactors of these processes are everyone involved including landowners or providers, the participants, communities and the neighboring communities, and ultimately nature herself. To start, let’s take a look at a list of descriptors, or elements, connected to the potential GOOD that can come from actively seeking to create, and participate in experiential and Nature-based Tourism. But first the definition of “experiential tourism” refers to the experience derived from any form of recreation or tourist activity. Experiential tourism encompasses all touristic experiences including, but not limited to ecotourism, nature tourism, adventure tourism, cultural and historical tourism culinary tourism, outdoor recreation, etc.

Short List of Benefits of Experiential and Nature-based tourism
- Essentially benefits every person, and entity involved.
- Diversity of activities and possibilities nearly unlimited.
- Developed properly highlights the best of nature/people/history/culture.
- Establishes and fosters a connection between people and between people and nature.
- Stimulates creativity for providers and participants.
- Fosters cooperation, between people, businesses, communities, etc.
- Connects kids, families and everyone involved in the process.
- Nature tourism is inherently educational, and experiential which assures impact.
- For communities and society if done in a diversified and cooperative fashion distributes “risk” both economic and for environmental impacts.
- For the providers, if done thoughtfully, it does not require a great deal of capital to get started.

Technology
It may seem ironic, but with creative and sensible development of Internet based support, incredible possibilities and potentials open up. Developing these possibilities has been the author’s primary aim since about 1997. A very short list of benefits includes:

- Creating regional and community network(s) creates a multiplicity of benefits for communities, providers, collaborators and participants.
- Creates the ways that the whole spectrum of businesses (providers, attractions, accommodations, services) can cooperate.
- The tourism industry is riddled with the “competitive” mindset, from agencies or NGOs that are supporting it, to businesses. This approach works against the industry, and the Internet provides the ways to overcome this “old school” mentality of competition and helps people move to the creative mind.
- Online resources provide a way for organizations, businesses, associations and people to “pool” their often limited resources to more effectively realize and benefit from their opportunities.

Some Inherent Benefits and the Case Study of a Rancher Provider
The process of developing experiential and nature-based tourism inherently educates and inspires the people doing it (providers and participants) to become more environmentally conscious. This addresses the #1 concern in the world, in the author’s opinion, of connecting people with Gaia and awakening their Spirit. This then leads to more conscientious creation, which leads to the people finding their passion and then the realization that they can participate in more enjoyable activities, both for their work and leisure.

Whether we admit it or not, people love to talk about themselves. People love to tell their stories, what they love, what their experiences have been, their connections to their place, their family and ancestors. The “story of people and places” is the essence of experiential tourism.

Creating natural, cultural or historical based tourism enhances ways to keep family ties strong. Practically every human longs to keep family ties strong. Fathers and mothers want their children to come home after a time away. And fathers want their children to appreciate their work, and possibly continue the family legacy. But experiential and nature-based tourism have qualities that are very special. There is a magical quality that is derived when people desire to create quality experiences - to share the best of their lives, to connect people to nature, especially people who have not had the opportunity or been taught how to appreciate the beauty, wonder and inherent magic of the natural world. Children today have experienced an unsettling disconnect to the natural world. The distraction of bombarding technologies, super stimulation from television, video games, cell phones, etc. have caused most to be unaware of nature. But nature beckons us to re-connect them to her, to create opportunities to spend time in nature. At the same time that the quiet, mystical connection is made to Gaia, an opportunity arises for them to reconnect to themselves too.

Working with farmers and ranchers in Texas I imagined creating the possibility of a rancher, who might have been was previously disconnected from the backdrop of beauty of his property, to become aware. To awaken to the genuine privilege that he has had to live and work in nature. During the process of developing a quality experience, he would learn more about conservation and protection of the environment, animals and plants. Then he would create a unique experience based upon his life experience and passion. Then he could decide that one of his audiences would be underprivileged children from inner-city Houston. All that would be necessary to make this happen would be for the rancher to connect up with a science of geography teacher and then to arrange transportation to his ranch. During this process, the rancher would be the harbinger of great, and beautiful impacts on the children that got to experience what he created. This would be so easily accomplished and was one of the “dreamed of” outcomes of the Texas Education Vacation initiative, a project of the Texas Travel Industry Association back in 2005.

Supporting and Educating Providers
Likely the best way to explain this is to describe what we were doing when we were working with landowners and rural communities in Texas. A group of concerned farmers, ranchers and community leaders came to the university with issues regarding having enough money to maintain their farms and ranches. This is a common problem. In many cases the farmers end up having a job, which essentially they do to “subsidize” their ranching and farming activities.
We began working with them and West Texas community leaders to assess ways to provide assistance to diversify their ranch and farm operations. Our approach was to assist them to add a new “business enterprise” to their operations, which is the best way to handle a new activity, or a completely new type of business. In order to assess the economic viability of a new set of operations, it is best to handle it as a “stand alone” operation. The Nature Tourism Guidebook: Evaluating Enterprise Opportunities, was the final product of this process.

Now the great thing about experiential tourism (eco, heritage, agri, etc.) is that the opportunities are essentially limitless. The variables for what kind of businesses a person create are only limited by the imagination. In fact, we often used the example that you could have two families living adjacent to each other, on very similar lands, but the experience for the visitor would end up being completely different. This is because the type of product that is created depends on the personal interests of the creator, the personality of each of the people involved with providing the services, the kinds of activities being supported for the visitors, the types of accommodations, the types of outside activities that are being promoted, etc. All of these things are variables that can be used to create unique “experiences”.

The Fragmentation of Tourism Creates Confusion
There is a very important digression that needs to be introduced about how tourism has been segmented into so many “categories”, or “niches” as it is commonly called in tourism circles. This, I believe, has been one of the greatest detractors of coordinated and thoughtful tourism development. People think that “ecotourism” is a unique, exclusive experience. Of course, definitionally, it does have important aspects. However, those have all been lost as a result of mis-use of the term by un-informed “marketers” that are trying to use the “fad” of ecotourism to attract customers. All of this has resulted in great confusion in the marketplace, and a loss of the intent of ecotourism, which in its inception was noble. Now, how do you know if what you are going to find is a “real” ecotourism experience? Do we start tacking words on like “really real ecotourism”?

In fact, this type of segmentation really has caused a fragmentation in an industry that in which the “product” can be captured in one word “experience”. Stan Hodge, the state tourism statistician for Texas, just months before his passing in 2005 provided the most emphatic support of this concept when he said “the emerging trends in tourism make clear the three most important factors in the tourism industry 1) experience, 2) experience, and 3) EXPERIENCE!

So let’s look at this briefly from the participants, or tourist point of view. Except for really specialized people, who only are looking for certain kinds of experiences, and repeating those experiences (e.g. serious birders) the majority of people when they do “tourism” end up partaking of many types of tourism in one trip. For example, usually people have a main focus, or interest such as heritage or visiting a museum, but on that trip they are likely to also participate in other forms: “nature tourism” – any viewing of nature or taking pictures (we do this driving in our cars); “culinary tourism” most people eat while they travel, “cultural tourism” – when you enter into a region, country or place that is not your home, you are going to partake in that places culture; “shopping tourism” – almost everyone buys something when they travel, “agritourism”, almost everyone sees farms, visits a market, eats local foods and maybe even takes a tour on a farm while also on their “heritage tour”. I could go on and on with this example, I think you get the point.

This fragmentation, in my observation, has been a result of various agencies that are “missioned” to support their constituents in their specific area of responsibility (historical societies promote “heritage” and agricultural agencies promote “agritourism”). But this segmenting of the marketplace has created a great deal of confusion for entrepreneurs and communities who are uninformed about how to create quality tourism experiences. Often times they think that they are going to create a “agritourism” (or is it agrotourism, or agritainment?) product, but don’t really know what that entails, or how that fits into the greater tourism rubric. The point here, is people are mostly looking for experiences. And the provision of the best tourism experiences should be a “blending” of a variety of experiences. Providing people, who are looking for new, interesting and quality experiences, that - good, robust experiences that satisfy the whole person. This does not mean that individual providers, or businesses or organizations cannot focus on a particular specialty, or niche, it just means to see the tourism product being more comprehensive, wholistic, within the greater context of “experiences”. The best tourism provision sees that the tourist is moving through geographical space, and partaking of a variety of experiences that satisfies a variety of interests, desires and needs. Most human beings are “generalists”, with some special interests, but open to many different experiences. And generalists comprise, by far, the greater “opportunity space” for regions, communities, businesses and attractions.

By taking the perspective of a bunch “specializations” is like treating tourism experiences as a bunch of “islands” of experiences. This is not a good perspective. The best experiences, in most cases, will provide the traveler a blended experience. Taking care of the whole person is the key. The tourism providers, whether it is the community, individual businesses, or other organizations should pay special attention to making good segues and connections between the experiences. This is why the best tourism is developed through a cooperative and collaborative mind-set as compared to a competitive one. The idea is to make a “big pie” which everyone contributes to, so each entity can have a nice big piece of the collective pie, instead of fighting over one tiny pie. We can see this phenomenon in how businesses “cluster” businesses such as fast food chains in cities. In tourism, this concept is called a “critical mass of attractions.” This concept is developed by what was mentioned before, moving from the competitive mindset to the creative (and thus cooperative). This philosophy or approach has been proven successful in innumerable contexts, but are also supported by such diverse people as John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics, and Wallace D. Wattles, the author of “The Science of Getting Rich”.

Diagram 1: Establishing a critical mass of attractions via coordination and technology – (example provided for Iowa)

Creating Critical Mass and Virtual Meeting Places
The Network – creating critical mass and supporting via technologies

It is a well established theory in tourism that regions are necessary to sustain a viable base of resources for attracting visitors. These principles for regionalism are now being embraced as necessary for all levels of economic development (see Rural Policy Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 2004).

We can see an even broader implication of this understanding and envision, potentially, an entire restructuring of societies. Toward that end a critical element of this process will be the utilization of technologies for forming, and facilitating these network functions. To illustrate this idea tourism can be a lead driver for this process so a “case-study” should focus on tourism. However, since tourism as an industry touches most sectors of the economy, in some form or fashion, it is easy to expand the idea of “critical mass” to the other aspects of regional and community development. The beauty of the Internet and computer software and technologies is that once the network is constructed the machine will actually coordinate, track, and monitor all activities, in perpetuity.

Diagram 1 depicts the need to establish a critical mass of attractions in order to attract more visitors and to be able to support a regional, national and international branding effort for enhancing tourism development (the map in Diagram 1 is Iowa). In addition, through the pooling of organizational, institutional and community resources, capacity building is enhanced via improvements in efficiencies and effectiveness due to improved communication and coordination.
Effective coordination is easily accommodated by utilizing Internet Communication Technologies (ICT). Due to the ease of “manifesting” and supporting “The Network” with ICT tools, we will be better able to support regional networking and collaboration. The model we employ is about cooperation and creativity rather than a competitive model. This focus results in the greatest benefits for the greatest number of people, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

Completing the Circle – Connecting with Gaia, and the Individual
So going back to wrap up on this idea of the benefits of nature tourism, we can see the heart of the matter is about life experiences. One of my earliest realizations in my professional career in Leisure, and outdoor recreation, I realized that there has been a disconnect between people and the natural world. In fact, my earliest recognition of my “mission” or purpose came to me in about 1987. I have written an essay about this experience so I won’t go into detail here. However, in a nutshell, the insight came to me that my job in this world was to help people get access to the natural world, and quality experiences, so that an opportunity was created for the Spirit of nature to touch people’s hearts. In this process people can become awakened to the importance of our absolutely, interdependent relationship with the Earth and nature, or the living Spirit of the world named Gaia.

Andrew Skadberg's CV

2011-02-09T20:17:00.000-08:00

Andrew N. Skadberg
Curriculum Vitae

January 2011

Education

2002 Ph.D. Environmental Geography
Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

Dissertation Topic: Nature Tourism in Cyberspace: an Examination of Its Geography and Character in the Network.

Chair: James R. Kimmel, Ph.D.

1992 M.S. Forestry
Economics and Marketing Concentration
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Chair: Joe P. Colletti, Ph.D.

1989 B.A. Leisure Studies
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Professional Experience

Employer - Position - Dates
Self Employed Solomon Source - Founder/President - Feb. 2008 to Present

Universidad de Tolima, Ibabague, Colombia S.A. - Faculty of Education English Instructor - Aug. 2010 to Mar. 2011

Oxford Centre, Ibabague, Colombia S.A. - English Instructor - Jul. 2010 to Mar. 2011

Texas A&M University, Vice President for Research Scientist - Assistant Research Scientist - Nov. 2006 to Feb. 2008

AdventGX Corporation - Co-Founder/Chief Knowledge Officer - Nov. 2004 to Nov. 2006

Texas A&M University, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences - Asst. Professor/Extension Specialist , Dec. 2002 to Nov. 2004
- Extension Associate 2001 to Dec. 2002

Southwest Texas State University, Department of Geography - Research Assistant - 1997 to 2001

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department - Asst. Director Catalogue Sales - 1993 to 1997

Iowa State University, Department of Forestry - Research Assistant - 1990 to1992

Research and Professional Interests

Evolving Higher-ed Extension activities and examining the role of technology to create commercialization and technology transfer from universities and public institutions, while extending benefits, education and outreach to the public domain

Examining how the Internet is impacting rural economic development as it relates to marketing and protecting natural resource amenities for tourism development.

Exploration of the formation and evolution of Web-based communities by following nature tourism business actors.

Development of Web based educational resources for communities and entrepreneurs interested in developing businesses in rural regions.

Development of centralized information systems to facilitate rural community and enterprise decision-making.

Grants and Contracts

Title: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s Global Research Partnership. Institute for Scientific Computation, Texas A&M University
Amount: $20,000,000 (preliminary proposal with team organized by Dr. Richard Ewing, Vice President for Research. I was preliminarily appointed a co-leader for Education by Ewing. I left Texas A&M after Dr. Ewing’s passing Dec. 2007).

Title: Wetland conservation, nature based tourism and rural economic development. Roundtable session with China – U.S. Conference. Organized/sponsored by Texas A&M University and hosted by Peking University, Beijing, China.
Amount: $17,625 (co-chair with Jianbang Gan, Yongxia Skadberg, Tiger Wood and Rick Giardino. Nov. 14-17, 2005.

Title: Demonstration Version of TxDOT Travel Information Kiosks (TexBox)
for Four Safety Rest Areas.
Amount: $44,344 (co-PI with Yongxia Skadberg) Texas Dept. of Transportation contract. Feb. 2003.

Title: Visit Big Bend Visitor Information Gathering and Marketing Study
Amount: $31,767 (co-investigator with Scott Shafer, P.I. & Yongxia Skadberg). Contract with Visit Big Bend Tourism Council. Jan. 2003.

Title: Development of Texas INFRONT (Information Network of Farm, Ranch, Outdoor-Recreation and Nature Tourism)
Amount: $8,000 (co-investigator with Yongxia Skadberg). RREA Grant, 2002.

Title: Development Of An Online, Database Driven Market Evaluation Tool (Tourism Market Match) For Rural Texas Communities & Landowners
Amount: $7,400 (co-investigator with Yongxia Skadberg). RREA Grant, 2002.

Title: Nature Tourism Evaluation Workshop Series & Video: Landowner Nature Tourism Handbook Implementation & Training
Amount: $8,000 (co-investigator with Miles Phillips). RREA Grant, 2002.

Title: Development of an online tourism market assessment tool for
destination managers. Travel Research Grant, sponsored by the Travel and Tourism Research Association.
Amount $2,000 (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), RREA Grant, 2002.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Arkansas
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Colorado
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Delaware
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Illinois
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Maryland
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of New Mexico
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Pennsylvania
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Texas
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Wyoming
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2001.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Arizona
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2002.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Connecticut
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2002.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Louisiana
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2002.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Missouri
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2002.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Georgia
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2003.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Nevada
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2003.

Title: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Washington
Amount: $20,000 (5 years) (co-investigator with James Petrick, P.I.), 2003.

Title: Development of an Online Nature Tourism Market Determination Tool for Texas Landowners.
Amount: $6,000 (co-investigator with James Petrick) RREA Grant, 2001.

Title: Development of a Nature Tourism Guide Curriculum and Implementation Strategy.
Amount: $6,000 (co-investigator with Miles Phillips and James Kimmel). RREA Grant, 2001.

Title: Texas Historical Commission, to plan a heritage tourism program (Texas Heritage Trail Program) for the State of Texas.
Amount: $15,000 (co-investigator with James Kimmel, P.I.). 1998.

Publications and Presentations

Publications--Refereed
Skadberg Y., A. Skadberg, and J. Kimmel. 2005. Flow Experience and Its Impact on the Effectiveness of a Tourism Website. Information Technology and Tourism, Vol. 7, Nos 3/4.
Skadberg, A., Y. Skadberg. 2002. Developing online resources to address the needs of landowners and communities interested in nature tourism as an economic diversification strategy. Journal of Extension [On-line]. (Accepted)

Jamal, T., Y. Skadberg and A. Skadberg. 2002. Re-engineering ecotourism: sustaining rural nature and the ‘family farm’ with IT-based tools. Submitted to the Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration (Special Issue on Sustainable Places).

Jamal, T., A. Skadberg and K. Williams 2002. The agricultural ethic, information technology and nature tourism: intermediaries of sustainability in Calhoun County, Texas. Submitted to the Journal of Sustainable Tourism (In review).

Larsen, R., R. Stephenson, and A. Skadberg. 2000. Using a geographic information system to identify existing and potential future impacts on the Edwards Aquifer – from closed municipal solid waste landfills in the state of Texas. Papers and Proceedings of the Applied Geography Conferences. Vol. 23, 2000. p. 236-244.

Kimmel, J., R. Stephenson, A. Skadberg. 2000. Tourism interpretation: the need for geographic concepts and themes. Papers and Proceedings of the Applied Geography Conferences. Vol. 23, 2000.

Book Chapter

Jamal, Tazim, Skadberg, A. and K. Williams. 2002. The State of Nature Tourism in Texas: Sustaining the Rural Agricultural Family Enterprise. In “Ecotourism: Management and Assessment”, Dimitrios Diamantis and Susan Geldenhuys (eds.). (In review)

Other Publications

Li, X., Petrick, J. & Skadberg, A. (2004). A post-hoc analysis of state tourism website
users: Differences between visitors and non-visitors. Proceedings of the 2004 Travel and
Tourism Research Association Annual Conference. Montreal, Canada. Travel and
Tourism Research Association

Skadberg, A. J. James, M. D. Phillips, J. Kimmel and C. Watt. 2004. Nature and heritage tourism: a guidebook for evaluating enterprise opportunities. Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University.

Skadberg, A., J. P. Colletti, R. Robertson, C. Mize, J. Regula, J. Gan, W. Premachandra, C. Lufumpa and C. Twarok. 1991. Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment. Proceedings from the Regional Lake Management Conference. North American Lake Management Society. Des Moines, Iowa. June 10-12, 1991.

Colletti, J., C. Mize, D. Schultz, L. Rule, A. Skadberg, R. Hall, and P. Wray. 1991. Land application of sludge to forest and herbaceous energy crops. Ames Forester 78:24-30.

R. Schultz, J.P. Colletti, C.W. Mize, A. Skadberg, M.F. Christian, W. Simpkins, M. Thompson and B. Menzel. 1991. Sustainable tree-shrub-grass buffer strips along midwestern waterways. Proceedings Of The Second Conference On Agroforestry In North America. Springfield, Missouri August 18-21, 1991 Edited By H. E. 'Gene' Garrett, The School of Natural Resources University of Missouri Columbia, MO.

J.P. Colletti, C.W. Mize, R.C. Schultz, A. Skadberg, J. Mattila, R. Hall, L. Rule, P. Wray, M. Thompson, I. Anderson and D. Buxton. 1991. Land application of sludge to forest and herbaceous energy crops. Proceedings Of The Second Conference On Agroforestry In North America. Edited By H. E. 'Gene' Garrett, The School of Natural Resources University of Missouri Columbia, MO.

Colletti, J.P. L. Rule, A. Skadberg, D. Schultz, C. Mize, R.B. Hall, and P.H. Wray. 1991. Agroforestry systems for the Midwest, Ames Forester 78: 10-13.

Colletti, J., C. Mize, D. Schultz, L. Rule, A. Skadberg, R. Hall, and P. Wray. 1991. Land application of sludge to forest and herbaceous energy crops. Ames Forester 78: 24-30.

Colletti, J., C Mize, R. Schultz, R. Faltonson, A. Skadberg, J. Mattila, M. Thompson, R. Scharf, L Anderson, C. Accola, D. Buxton, and R. Brown. 1991. An Alleycropping Biofuels System: Operation and Economics Opportunities for Agroforestry in the Temperate Zone Worldwide. Proceedings of the Third North American Agroforestry Conference. J. P. Colletti and R. C. Schultz, Editors M. R. Saunders, Managing Editor

Technical Reports

Petrick, J.F., Choi, H. and Skadberg, A. 2001. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Fourth Quarter 2001. Report for Texas Economic Development, Market Texas Tourism (January 31, 2002.

Petrick, J.F., Choi, H. and Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: First Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming (April 15, 2002).

Petrick, J.F., Choi, H. and Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Second Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming (July 15, 2002).

Petrick, J.F., Hayes, H. and Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Third Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming (October 15, 2002).

Petrick, J.F., Hayes, H. and Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Fourth Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming (January 15, 2003).

Petrick, J.F., Hayes, H. and Skadberg, A. 2003. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: First Quarter 2003. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming (April 15, 2003).

Closed Landfill Inventory Project Team. “Closed Landfill Inventory: Progress report phase II.” Prepared for South Texas Development Council, Laredo, Texas. February 2, 2001.

Interdisciplinary Research Team for Iowa State University. “Winnebago Forest and Agriculture Alternatives Feasibility Study: Final Report.” Submitted to The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Winnebago Agency—Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior. May 31, 1992.

Interdisciplinary Research Team for Iowa State University. “Winnebago Forest and Agriculture Alternatives Feasibility Study: Resource Assessment Report.” Submitted to The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Winnebago Agency—Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior. August 22, 1991

Skadberg, A. Historical review of Lake Red Rock. Appendix of the Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment Survey. A cooperative study by Iowa State University, the Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Army Corps of Engineers. 1990.

Skadberg, A. Analysis of Question #34: An open ended question from the on-site user survey. The Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment Survey. A cooperative study by Iowa State University, the Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Army Corps of Engineers. 1990.

Books – Self Published

Skadberg, Andrew N. 2010. “Poetry and Essays About Love, Life and One”. Self published. 138 pages. Available at no cost via email request.

Skadberg, Andrew N. 2010. “VISION We Are Re-Creating the World: A Resource Manual - "tool-box"- for revitalization and empowerment through grass-roots strategies and environmental awareness”. Self published. 462 pages. Available at no cost via email request.

Skadberg, Andrew N. 2009. “I Am Sharing: Thoughts, Experiences and Learning About Love and Service”. Self published. 241 Pages. Available at no cost via email request.

Skadberg, Andrew N. 2009. “When Love Guides Your Thoughts”. Self published. 199 Pages. Available at no cost via email request.

Skadberg, Andrew N. 2010. “Your Breath – Your Key”. Self published. 37 Pages. Available at no cost via email request.

Desmond D. Green and A.N. Skadberg (editor). 2010. “Global Citizenship Passport”. Self published. 102. Available at no cost via email request.

Lectures and Conference Presentations

“The Regional and Community Empowerment Project – Colombia” abstract accepted for the Tourism Progress and Peace. The Dead Sea, Jordan. March 24-26, 2011. http://www.tourismprogressandpeace.com/index.html

“Viva Quindio: Estrategia Regional Turística Creatividad y Colaboración”
Sustainable Tourism Conference. University of Pereira, Pereira, Colombia. December 12, 2008.

“Tourism for Economic Development”. Basic Economic Development Course. Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Texas A&M University. Austin, Texas. Oct 26, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – Iowa”, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Des Moines, Iowa – Apr. 26, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – Missouri”, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Osage Beach, Missouri – May 25.

“Tourism Builds Communities – North/South Dakota”, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Sioux Falls, SD – Aug. 9, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – Minnesota”, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Minneapolis, MN – Nov. 2, 2006.

Tourism Potential for Washington County, Texas - Keynote Address, Tourism Week Celebration, Brenham, Texas.

“Tourism for Economic Development”. Basic Economic Development Course. Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Texas A&M University. Frisco, Texas. Apr. 20, 2006.

“Capturing Clicks Best of NAFDMA Web Sites & what makes a good Web site? - Andrew Skadberg & Yongxia Skadberg, North American Farmers Direct Martketing Association. Annual Conference, Austin, Texas Jan. 13, 2006.

“On the Ecotourism Trail – Stepping Back to See the Big Picture: Successful Community Tourism Development”. – North American Farmers Direct Martketing Association. Annual Conference, Austin, Texas Jan. 13, 2006

“A New Era of Rural Economic Development: the Case of Van Horn, Texas”. China – U.S. Conference. Organized by Texas A&M University and hosted by Peking University, Beijing, China. Nov. 14-17, 2005

“Tourism for Economic Development”. Basic Economic Development Course. Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Texas A&M University. College Station, Texas. Nov. 8, 2005.

“Hot-spot installation and implications of wireless technologies for rural economic development”. Un-wired Conference, University of Georgia, Extension. Tifton, Georgia Nov.1-2, 2005.

“Successful Community Tourism Develoment”. Iowa Tourism Conference, Iowa Department of Economic Development. Council Bluffs, Iowa, October 24, 2005.

“AdventGX” Presentation to Parral Consortium. Texas A&M Research Park, College Station, Texas. June 21, 2005.

“Texas Education Vacation”. Bryan/College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau Board Retreat. Bryan, Texas. March 24, 2005.

“Texas Education Vacation – Focus Group. Oakwood Intermediate, College Station ISD, College Station, Texas. March 10, 2005.

“Travel and Education: a Bright Future for Texas”. Texas Travel Industry Association, Unity Dinner. Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas. February 14, 2005.

“The South West Texas Tourism Partnership: creating a destination and fostering a sustainable tourism partnership”. (Presented twice) National Extension Tourism Conference. Traverse City, Michigan. September 16-20, 2002.

“What others are doing elsewhere and why it’s important.” Trans-Pecos Landowners’ Nature Tourism Opportunities Forum. Iraan, Texas. March 21, 2002.

“Nature Tourism in Texas: Challenges, Efforts and Opportunities.” UT-SWT grad student colloquium exchange. Austin, Texas .April 14, 2000.

“State of Nature Tourism in Texas: Challenges, Efforts and Opportunities.” Southwestern Division, Association of American Geographers Annual Conference. The Southwest Texas State University. San Marcos, Texas. October 19–23, 1999.

“Nature Tourism in Texas…2000 and Beyond.” Member Panel Discussion. Texas Travel Summit, Texas Travel Industry Association. Galveston, Texas. Sept. 26-29, 1999.

“The Opportunities Offered for Nature and Heritage Tourism Development.” Presentation to Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce. February 25, 1998.

Other Meetings, Workshops and Poster Presentations

“Successful Tourism Development” as part of the Basic Economic Development Course, Texas Engineering Extension, Texas A&M University System. College Station, Texas. November 8, 2005.

“Utilizing Online Resources Available at the Texas Nature Tourism Information Center” as part of The Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Nature Tourism Business. Palacios, Texas. August 21, 2003.

“Interpretive Guide Training Workshop,” In Collaboration with Dr. James Kimmel and Miles Phillips. A collaborative project of Texas A&M University and the Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism, Southwest Texas State University. La Copita Ranch, Alice Texas. September 4-5, 2002.

“Demonstration of the South West Country Web site.” Assistant moderator, Planning Meeting of the Southwest Texas Tourism Partnership, Eldorado, Texas. August 17, 2002.

“Interpretive Planning Workshop,” Assisted Dr. James Kimmel. Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism. Southwest Texas State University. Eldorado, Texas. February 21, 2002.

“Demonstration of the Tourism Market Match Information System.” Texas Nature Tourism Council Meeting of Travel Summit 2001 of the Texas Travel Industry Association. Austin, Texas. Sept. 8, 2001.

“Demonstration of a Rural Tourism Market Information System and potential of GIS in rural tourism development.” Assistant moderator, Planning Retreat of the Southwest Texas Tourism Partnership, Sonora, Texas. July 13, 2001.

“Advanced Demonstration of a Rural Tourism Market Information System.” Assistant moderator, Planning Retreat of the Southwest Texas Tourism Partnership, Sonora, Texas. August 6, 2001.

“Nature Tourism and Economic Development” Assistant moderator, presented to the Bandera County Chamber of Commerce, Bandera, Texas. March 2000.

Planning Charrette for the Texas Rivers Center at San Marcos Springs. Assistant moderator, Southwest Texas State University & Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, San Marcos, Texas. April, 1998.

“Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment” Poster Presentation: Regional Lake Management Conference, Des Moines, Iowa. A. Skadberg. June 11-12, 1991.

“An Assessment of the Impact of Siltation on Recreation Use of Lake Red Rock Reservoir” Poster Presentation: International Association for Impact Assessment, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. J. P. Colletti, R. Robertson, A. Skadberg.. June 7–11, 1991.

“An Agroforestry System Utilizing Municipal Sludge as Fertilizer Producing Biomass for Energy” Poster Presentation: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, Iowa. J.C. Colletti, R.C. Schultz, M.J. Thompson, C. W. Mize, D.R. Buxton, I.C. Anderson, W.W. Simpkins, R.B. Hall, R. Gonzalez, A. Skadberg, J.W. Mattila, and R. Scharf. February 18-19, 1992.

Professional Needs Analysis Conference – Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Invited Participant: Austin, Texas. June 21-22, 1999.

Web Sites and Online Resources Developed

Texas INFRONT (Information Network of Farm, Ranch, Outdoor-Recreation and Nature Tourism). In collaboration with Dr. Yongxia Skadberg. Texas Cooperative Extension, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University. http://survey.tamu.edu/texasinfront

Tourism Market Match. In collaboration with Dr. Yongxia Skadberg. Texas Cooperative Extension, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University. http://survey.tamu.edu/tourismmarketmatch

Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism. Department of Geography, Southwest Texas State University. http://www.geo.swt.edu/nht/. 1997 to present.

Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/tce/. 2001 to present.

Texas Festivals, Fairs and Events Institute. Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/tce/eventinstitute/index.htm. 2001 to present.

Nature Tourism Information. Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. http://naturetourism.tamu.edu. 2001 to present.

Tourism & Recreation Resource Center. Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. http://trrc.tamu.edu/. 2001 to present.

On-line survey to Evaluate the Texas Hospitality Program, Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences. March 2002. http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/hospitality/

On-line 2001 Texas Local Hotel Tax Expenditure Questionnaire. Texas Economic Development, Tourism Division. http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/trrc/hoteltaxsurveycity
April 2002.

On-line 2002 Texas Local Hotel Tax Expenditure Questionnaire. Texas Economic Development, Tourism Division. http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/trrc/hoteltaxsurveycity
April 2003.

Courses Taught

International Business English. 2010, Fall Semester. Faculty of Education. Universidad de Tolima. Ibague, Colombia, S.A.

Advanced Conversation, English. 2010, Fall Semester. Faculty of Education. Universidad de Tolima. Ibague, Colombia, S.A.

English 5th Semester. 2010, Fall Semester. Faculty of Education. Universidad de Tolima. Ibague, Colombia, S.A.

Conversation Club. 2010, Fall Semester. Oxford Centre, Ibague. Oxford University.

IELTS preparation. 2010, Fall Semester. Oxford Centre, Ibague. Oxford University.

Nature Tourism and Technology (online). 2003, Spring Semester. First on-line course developed and taught in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences. Texas A&M University. College Station, Texas

Professional and Community Appointments and Service

International Community Tourism Institute - Patron. December 2010 to present

Texas State Agency Tourism Council. Representing Texas A&M University System. November, 2001 to Oct 2004.

National Extension Tourism Design Team. Member October, 2001 to 2004.

National Extension Tourism Conference Planning Committee, Keynote Speakers Subcommittee, April 2002.

RuralTourism.net. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Tourism Education Design Team developing a national Web site to address the needs of rural areas by providing information and resources to tourism practitioners. October, 2001 to Oct. 2004.

Western State Extension Working Group for development of a “Nature Tourism Development Toolbox”. Project Coordinator Dave Sharp, Montana State University. April 2002.

Nature Tourism Response Team. Texas A&M University, Texas Cooperative Extension, 1998 – 2003.

Graduate Student Representative on Committee for Presidential Awards for Scholarly and Creative Excellence, Southwest Texas State University. Spring, 1998.

Graduate Student Senate Representative for the Department of Forestry, Iowa State University. 1991 and 1992.

Student Representative. Substance Abuse Advisory Committee. Iowa State University. Fall 1988.

Student Representative. University Recreation Committee. Iowa State University. Fall 1988.

Leisure Studies Association, Iowa State University. Student Representative at faculty meetings Fall 1987 to Winter 1988.

Student Coordinator of Job Mart, Iowa State University. February 1988.

Assistant Instructor Ames Wellness Workshop. Madrid, Iowa June 1988.

Program Leader, Camp Jubilee, Madrid, Iowa. June 1988.

Coordinator of Project CULL (Clean Up Lake Laverne) Iowa State University, April 1988 and 1989.

Honors

Gamma Sigma Delta, The Honor Society of Agriculture, 1992

Xi Sigma Pi, National Forestry Honor Society, 1991.

Nominated for Academically Outstanding Graduate Student for Department of Forestry, Iowa State University. Spring 1992.

Professional Training

Certified Interpretive Training Workshop. National Association for Interpretation. Ft. Wayne, Indiana. February 20-25, 2002.

Total Resource Management Workshop: an interactive workshop of strategic planning in natural resources. In cooperation with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. July 17 & 18, Aug. 8-9, 2001.

Faculty Orientation Workshop, Texas Cooperative Extension. College Station, Texas. October 16-19, 2001.

E-Commerce: Impacting the way we do business. Southern Rural Development Center, Farm Foundation, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Nashville, Tennessee. October 1-2, 2001.

Writing Winning Grant Proposals. Seminar Presented by Granting Possibilities. For Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Nov. 1, 1993.

Emergency Medical Technician. Austin Community College. Austin, Texas. August 1993.

National Cave Management Symposium. Texas Cave Management Association and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. October 3-7, 1989.

Andrew Skadberg's CV - Spanish

2011-02-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Andrew Neil Skadberg PhD.
Curriculum Vitae

Información de Contacto
300.532.0352 Móvil
anskadberg@gmail.com

Educación

Ph.D. en Geografía Ambiental
Southwest Texas State University.

Tema de Disertación:
Turismo Natural en el Ciberespacio: Un Examen de su Geografía y Características en la Red.
Título Original en Inglés: “Nature Tourism in Cyberspace: An Examination of Its Geography and Character in the Network”.
Director: James R. Kimmel, Ph.D.
San Marcos, Texas 2002.

Magister en Forestal
Énfasis en Economía y Concentración del Mercado
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Tema de Disertación:
Estudio socioeconómico de un sistema agroforestal alley-cropping usando fertilizantes bio–sólidos municipales.

Título Original en Inglés: “A Socio-Economic Analysis of an Alley-Cropping Agroforestry System Utilising Municipal Biosolids as a Fertilizer”

Director: Joe P. Colletti, Ph.D.
Ames, Iowa 1992.

B.A. en Recreación y Turismo (B.A. in Leisure Studies)
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Ames, Iowa 1989

Áreas de Interés Investigativo y Profesional

• Examen del papel de la tecnología en programas de extensión. Análisis del impacto en el crecimiento socio económico y cultural de las comunidades rurales con acceso a tecnologías de la información en la creación, comercialización y transferencia del conocimiento tecnológico de las universidades y de las instituciones públicas.
• Construcción de mercados turísticos sostenibles ambiental y económicamente. Relación del uso de tecnologías con la creación y mercadeo de proyectos turísticos, y la protección de los recursos naturales en el desarrollo del turismo natural.
• Análisis de la formación y evolución de las comunidades con acceso a internet y la construcción y desarrollo de actores sociales en la creación de proyectos de producción agro industrial.
• Desarrollo de recursos educativos basados en internet para beneficio y asesoría de las comunidades rurales interesadas en el desarrollo de negocios de turismo natural.
• Desarrollo de sistemas de información turística centralizados para facilitar el trabajo y la toma de decisiones en las comunidades rurales que emprenden negocios turísticos.

Experiencia Profesional

Texas A&M University.
Vicerrector de Investigaciones
Tiempo: Noviembre de 2006 a Febrero de 2008.
Cargo: Científico Asistente de Investigación.

AdventGX Corporation.
Tiempo: Noviembre de 2004 a Noviembre de 2006.
Cargos: Co-Fundador, Chief Knowledge Officer

Texas A&M University.
Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences
Tiempo: Diciembre de 2002 a Noviembre de 2004.
Cargo: Profesor Asistente Experto en Programas de Extensión.

Texas A&M University.
Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism
Tiempo: Años 2001 a 2002.
Cargo: Asociado de Programas de Extensión.

Southwest Texas State University.
Department of Geography
Tiempo: Años 1997 a 2001.
Cargo: Asistente de Investigación

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Tiempo: Años 1993 a 1997
Cargo: Director Asistente de Ventas

Iowa State University
Departamento de Forestal
Tiempo: Años 1990 a 1992.
Cargo: Asistente de Investigación

Concesiones, Contratos y Proyectos de Investigacion:

• Conservación de Humedales. Turismo Basado en la Naturaleza y Desarrollo Económico Rural. Tema del Coloquio en el Marco de la Conferencia China – Estados Unidos. Organizado y Patrocinado por la Universidad de Texas A&M y por la Universidad de Pekín en China.
Título del proyecto:
Wetland conservation, nature based tourism and rural economic development.
Director: Andrew N. Skadberg
Participantes: Jianbang Gan, Yongxia Skadberg, Tiger Wood y Rick Giardino.
Total: $17.625
Fecha: Noviembre 14 a 17, 2005

• Kioscos de Información Turística en Siete Áreas de Descanso de Texas. Versión del Departamento de Transporte de Texas.
Título del Proyecto:
Demonstration Version of TxDOT Travel Information Kiosks (TexBox) for Seven Safety Rest Areas.
Director: Andrew N. Skadberg
Participantes: Yongxia Skadberg
Total: $44.344
Fecha: Febrero de 2003.

• Observatorio Turístico del Parque Nacional Natural Big Bend. Estudio de Mercadeo y Recolección de Información Turística. Contrato de Investigación para el Consejo Turístico del Big Bend.
Título del Proyecto:
Visit Big Bend Visitor Information Gathering and Marketing Study.
Investigador Principal: Scott Shafer
Co-Investigadores: Andrew Skadberg y Yongxia Skadberg.
Total: $31.767
Fecha: Enero del 2003.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Georgia. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Georgia.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2003.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Nevada. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto
: Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Nevada.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2003.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Washington. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Washington.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2003.

• Desarrollo del Sistema de Información de Granjas, Rachos y Sitios Rurales dedicados al turismo natural en el estado de Texas.
Título del Proyecto:
Development of Texas INFRONT (Information Network of Farm, Ranch, Outdoor-Recreation and Nature Tourism)
Co-investigadores: Andrew Skadberg y Yongxia Skadberg
Total: $8.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Desarrollo de una Herramienta Electrónica. Base de Información en línea para evaluar los mercados turísticos de las comunidades rurales del Estado de Texas.
Título del Proyecto:
Development of An Online, Database Driven Market Evaluation Tool (Tourism Market Match) For Rural Texas Communities & Landowners
Co-Autores: Andrew Skadberg y Yongxia Skadberg
Total: $7.400
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Evaluación del Turismo Natural. Manuales Secuenciados y Video Taller de Implementacion y Entrenamiento para Propietarios de Tierras.
Título del Proyecto:
Nature Tourism Evaluation Workshop Series & Video: Landowner Nature Tourism Handbook Implementation & Training
Co-Autores: Andrew N. Skadberg y Miles Phillips.
Total: $8.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Desarrollo de una Herramienta de Asesoría en Mercadeo para el Manejo de Destinos en Turismo. Concesión Otorgada por la Asociación de Investigadores en Viajes y Turismo.
Título del Proyecto:
Development of an Online Tourism Market Assessment Tool for Destination Managers.
Co-investigadores: Andrew N.Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $2.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Arizona. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Arizona.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Connecticut. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Connecticut.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Louisiana. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Poyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Louisiana.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Missouri. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Missouri.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2002.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación y Análisis de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Arkansas. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Arkansas
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Colorado. Un Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Colorado
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Delaware. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Delaware
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Illinois. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Illinois
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Maryland. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Maryland.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de New Mexico. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of New Mexico.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Pennsylvania. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Pennsylvania.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Texas. Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Texas.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Observatorio Turístico: Evaluación Continua de la Página Web de Turismo del Estado de Wyoming Proyecto a Cinco Años.
Título del Proyecto:
Continual Evaluation of Tourism Website, State of Wyoming.
Co– Investigadores: Andrew Neil Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $20.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Desarrollo de una Herramienta Online para el seguimiento del Mercadeo de Turismo Natural para los dueños de tierras en Texas.
Título del Proyecto:
Development of an Online Nature Tourism Market Determination Tool for Texas Landowners.
Autores: Andrew Skadberg y James Petrick
Total: $ 6.000
Fecha: Año 2001.

• Plan de Desarrollo del Turismo de Tradición Histórica de Texas, avalado por la Comisión de Historia de Texas. Este proyecto recibió el premio “United States Presidential Award” en 2006.
Título del Proyecto:
Texas Historical Commission. To plan a heritage tourism program (Texas Heritage Trail Program) for the State of Texas.
Investigador Principal: James Kimmel
Co-investigador Andrew N. Skadberg.
Total: $15.000
Fecha: Año 1998.

Publicaciones
Skadberg Y., Skadberg, A., & Kimmel, J. 2005. Flow Experience and Its Impact on the Effectiveness of a Tourism Website. Information Technology and Tourism, Vol. 7, Nos. 3/4.
Skadberg, A., & Skadberg, Y. 2002. Developing online resources to address the needs of landowners and communities interested in nature tourism as an economic diversification strategy. Journal of Extension [On-line].

Jamal, T., Skadberg Y., & Skadberg, A. 2002. Re-engineering ecotourism: sustaining rural nature and the ‘family farm’ with IT-based tools. Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration (Special Issue on Sustainable Places).

Jamal, T., Skadberg, A. & Williams, K. 2002. The agricultural ethic, information technology and nature tourism: intermediaries of sustainability in Calhoun County, Texas. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

Larsen, R., Stephenson, R., & Skadberg, A., 2000. Using a geographic information system to identify existing and potential future impacts on the Edwards Aquifer – from closed municipal solid waste landfills in the state of Texas. Papers and Proceedings of the Applied Geography Conferences. Vol. 23. 2000.

Kimmel, J., Stephenson, R., & Skadberg, A., 2000. Tourism interpretation: the need for geographic concepts and themes. Papers and Proceedings of the Applied Geography Conferences. Vol. 23. 2000.

Skadberg, A., James, J., Phillips, M.D., Kimmel, J., & Watt., C. 2004. Nature and heritage tourism: a guidebook for evaluating enterprise opportunities. Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University.

Skadberg, A., Colletti, J.P., Robertson, R., Mize, C., Regula, J., Gan, J., Premachandra, W., LufumpaC., & Twarok., C. 1991. Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment. Proceedings from the Regional Lake Management Conference. North American Lake Management Society. Des Moines, Iowa. June 10-12, 1991.

Colletti, J., Mize, C., Schultz, D., Rule, L., Skadberg, A., Hall, A., & Wray, A. 1991. Land application of sludge to forest and herbaceous energy crops. Ames Forester 78:24-30.

Schultz, R., Colletti, J.P., Mize, C.W., Skadberg, A.N., Christian, M.F., Simpkins, W., Thompson M., & Menzel, B. 1991. Sustainable tree-shrub-grass buffer strips along midwestern waterways. Proceedings Of The Second Conference On Agroforestry In North America. Springfield, Missouri August 18-21, 1991 Edited By H. E. 'Gene' Garrett, The School of Natural Resources University of Missouri Columbia, MO.

Colletti, J.P. Mize, W., Schultz, R.C., Skadberg, A., Mattila, J., Hall, R., Rule, L., Wray, P., Thompson, M., Anderson I., Buxton, D. 1991. Land application of sludge to forest and herbaceous energy crops. Proceedings Of The Second Conference On Agroforestry In North America. Edited By H. E. 'Gene' Garrett, The School of Natural Resources University of Missouri Columbia, MO.

Colletti, J.P. Rule, L., Skadberg, A., Schultz, D., Mize, C., Hall, R.B., & Wray, P.H. 1991. Agroforestry systems for the Midwest. Ames Forester 78: 10-13.

Colletti, J., Mize, C., Schultz, D., Rule, L., Skadberg, A., Hall, R., & Wray, P. 1991. Land application of sludge to forest and herbaceous energy crops. Ames Forester 78: 24-30.

Colletti, J., Mize, C., Schultz, R., Faltonson, R., Skadberg, A., Mattila, J., Thompson, M., Scharf, R., Anderson, L., Accola, C., Buxton, D., & Brown, R. 1991. An Alleycropping Biofuels System: Operation and Economics Opportunities for Agroforestry in the Temperate Zone Worldwide. Proceedings of the Third North American Agroforestry Conference. J. P. Colletti and R. C. Schultz, Editors M. R. Saunders, Managing Editor

Capítulo de Libro

Jamal, Tazim, Skadberg, A. and K. Williams. 2002. The State of Nature Tourism in Texas: Sustaining the Rural Agricultural Family Enterprise. En “Ecotourism: Management and Assessment”, Dimitrios Diamantis and Susan Geldenhuys (eds.).

Reportes Técnicos

Petrick, J.F., Choi, H. & Skadberg, A. 2001. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Fourth Quarter 2001. Report for Texas Economic Development, Market Texas Tourism. Enero 31, 2002.

Petrick, J.F., Choi, H. y Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: First Quarter 2002. Report for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. Abril 15, 2002.

Petrick, J.F., Choi, H. y Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Second Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming. Julio 15, 2002.

Petrick, J.F., Hayes, H. y Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Third Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming. Octubre 15, 2002.

Petrick, J.F., Hayes, H. y Skadberg, A. 2002. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: Fourth Quarter 2002. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming. Enero 15, 2003.

Petrick, J.F., Hayes, H. y Skadberg, A. 2003. Website Effectiveness Evaluation: First Quarter 2003. Report for for the State Tourism Directors in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas Virginia and Wyoming. Abril 15, 2003.

Closed Landfill Inventory Project Team. “Closed Landfill Inventory: Progress report phase II.” Prepared for South Texas Development Council, Laredo, Texas. Febrero 2, 2001.

Interdisciplinary Research Team for Iowa State University. “Winnebago Forest and Agriculture Alternatives Feasibility Study: Final Report.” Submitted to The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Winnebago Agency—Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior. Mayo 31, 1992.

Interdisciplinary Research Team for Iowa State University. “Winnebago Forest and Agriculture Alternatives Feasibility Study: Resource Assessment Report.” Submitted to The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Winnebago Agency—Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior. Agosto 22, 1991

Skadberg, A.1990. Historical Review of Lake Red Rock. Appendix of the Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment Survey. A cooperative study by Iowa State University, the Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Skadberg, A.1990. Analysis of Question #34: An open ended question from the on-site user survey. The Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment Survey. A cooperative study by Iowa State University, the Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Army Corps of Engineers. 1990.

Conferencias y Participación en Eventos

“Tourism for Economic Development”. Curso de Desarrollo Económico Básico. Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), Texas A&M University. Austin, Texas. Octubre 26, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – Iowa”. Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Des Moines, Iowa. Abril 26, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – Missouri”. Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Osage Beach, Missouri. Mayo 25, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – North/South Dakota”, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Sioux Falls, SD – Agosto 9, 2006.

“Tourism Builds Communities – Minnesota”. Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences. Minneapolis, MN – Noviembre 2, 2006.

Tourism Potential for Washington County, Texas - Keynote Address, Tourism Week Celebration, Brenham, Texas.

“Tourism for Economic Development”. Basic Economic Development Course. Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Servicio de Extensión de la Universidad de Texas A&M. Texas A&M University. Frisco, Texas. Abril. 20, 2006.

“Capturing Clicks Best of NAFDMA Web Sites & what makes a good Web site? - Andrew Skadberg & Yongxia Skadberg, North American Farmers Direct Martketing Association. Asociación Norteamericana de Granjas de Mercadeo Directo. Coferencia Annual. Austin, Texas. Enero 13, 2006.

“On the Ecotourism Trail – Stepping Back to See the Big Picture: Successful Community Tourism Development”. – North American Farmers Direct Martketing Association. Asociación Norteamericana de Granjas de Mercadeo Directo. Annual Conference, Austin, Texas. Enero 13, 2006

“A New Era of Rural Economic Development: the Case of Van Horn, Texas”. China – U.S. Conference. Organized by Texas A&M University and hosted by Peking University, Beijing, China. Nov. 14-17, 2005

“Tourism for Economic Development”. Basic Economic Development Course. Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX). Servicio de Extensión de la Universidad de Texas A&M. Texas A&M University. College Station, Texas. Nov. 8, 2005.

“Hot-spot installation and implications of wireless technologies for rural economic development”. Un-wired Conference, University of Georgia. Servicio de Extensión. Tifton, Georgia Nov.1-2, 2005.

“Successful Community Tourism Develoment”. Iowa Tourism Conference, Iowa Department of Economic Development. Council Bluffs, Iowa, Octubre 24, 2005.

“AdventGX” Presentation to Parral Consortium. Texas A&M Research Park, College Station, Texas. Junio 21, 2005.

“Texas Education Vacation”. Bryan/College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau Board Retreat. Bryan, Texas. Marzo 24, 2005.

“Texas Education Vacation – Focus Group. Oakwood Intermediate, College Station ISD, College Station, Texas. Marzo 10, 2005.

“Travel and Education: a Bright Future for Texas”. Texas Travel Industry Association, Unity Dinner. Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas. Febrero 14, 2005.

“The South West Texas Tourism Partnership: creating a destination and fostering a sustainable tourism partnership”. (Presented twice) National Extension Tourism Conference. Traverse City, Michigan. Septiembre 16-20, 2002.

“What others are doing elsewhere and why it’s important.” Trans-Pecos Landowners’ Nature Tourism Opportunities Forum. Iraan, Texas. Marzo 21, 2002.

“Nature Tourism in Texas: Challenges, Efforts and Opportunities.” UT-SWT grad student colloquium exchange. Austin, Texas . Abril 14, 2000.

“State of Nature Tourism in Texas: Challenges, Efforts and Opportunities.” Southwestern Division, Association of American Geographers Annual Conference. The Southwest Texas State University. San Marcos, Texas. Octubre 19–23, 1999.

“Nature Tourism in Texas…2000 and Beyond.” Member Panel Discussion. Texas Travel Summit, Texas Travel Industry Association. Galveston, Texas. Septiembre 26-29, 1999.

“The Opportunities Offered for Nature and Heritage Tourism Development.” Presentación ante la Cámara de Comercio de Canyon Lake. Febrero 25, 1998.
Otras Presentaciones y Talleres Desarrollados

“Successful Tourism Development” as part of the Basic Economic Development Course, Texas Engineering Extension, Texas A&M University System. College Station, Texas. Noviembre 8, 2005.

“Utilizing Online Resources Available at the Texas Nature Tourism Information Center” parte del Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Nature Tourism Business. Palacios, Texas. Agosto 21, 2003.

“Interpretive Guide Training Workshop.” En colaboración con Dr. James Kimmel and Miles Phillips. A collaborative project of Texas A&M University and the Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism, Southwest Texas State University. La Copita Ranch, Alice Texas. Septiembre 4-5, 2002.

“Demonstration of the South West Country Web site.” Moderador asistente. Planning Meeting of the Southwest Texas Tourism Partnership. El Dorado, Texas. Agosto 17, 2002.

“Interpretive Planning Workshop,” Assisted Dr. James Kimmel. Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism. Southwest Texas State University. El Dorado, Texas. Febrero 21, 2002.

“Demonstration of the Tourism Market Match Information System.” Texas Nature Tourism Council Meeting of Travel Summit 2001 of the Texas Travel Industry Association. Austin, Texas. Septiembre 8, 2001.

“Demonstration of a Rural Tourism Market Information System and potential of GIS in rural tourism development.” Assistant moderator, Planning Retreat of the Southwest Texas Tourism Partnership, Sonora, Texas. Julio 13, 2001.

“Advanced Demonstration of a Rural Tourism Market Information System.” Moderador Asistente. Planning Retreat of the Southwest Texas Tourism Partnership, Sonora, Texas. Agosto 6, 2001.

“Nature Tourism and Economic Development” Assistant moderator, presented to the Bandera County Chamber of Commerce, Bandera, Texas. Marzo, 2000.

Planning Charrette for the Texas Rivers Center at San Marcos Springs. Assistant moderator, Southwest Texas State University & Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, San Marcos, Texas. Abril, 1998.

“Lake Red Rock Recreation Assessment” Poster Presentation: Regional Lake Management Conference, Des Moines, Iowa. A. Skadberg. Junio 11-12, 1991.

“An Assessment of the Impact of Siltation on Recreation Use of Lake Red Rock Reservoir” Poster Presentation: International Association for Impact Assessment, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. J. P. Colletti, R. Robertson, A. Skadberg. Junio 7–11, 1991.

“An Agroforestry System Utilizing Municipal Sludge as Fertilizer Producing Biomass for Energy” Poster Presentation: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, Iowa. J.C. Colletti, R.C. Schultz, M.J. Thompson, C. W. Mize, D.R. Buxton, I.C. Anderson, W.W. Simpkins, R.B. Hall, R. Gonzalez, A. Skadberg, J.W. Mattila, and R. Scharf. Febrero 18-19, 1992.

Professional Needs Analysis Conference – Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Invited Participant: Austin, Texas. Junio 21-22, 1999.

Sitios Web Sites y Recursos Online Desarrollados

Texas INFRONT (Information Network of Farm, Ranch, Outdoor-Recreation and Nature Tourism). En colaboración con Yongxia Skadberg. Texas Cooperative Extension, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University. http://survey.tamu.edu/texasinfront

Tourism Market Match. En colaboración con Dr. Yongxia Skadberg. Texas Cooperative Extension, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University. http://survey.tamu.edu/tourismmarketmatch

On-line 2002 Texas Local Hotel Tax Expenditure Questionnaire. Texas Economic Development, Tourism Division. Abril 2003.

On-line survey to Evaluate the Texas Hospitality Program, Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences. Marzo 2002.

On-line 2001 Texas Local Hotel Tax Expenditure Questionnaire. Texas Economic Development, Tourism Division. Abril 2002.

Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. Desde 2001 a 2004.

Texas Festivals, Fairs and Events Institute. Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. Desde 2001 a 2004.

Nature Tourism Information. Texas Cooperative Extension in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. http://naturetourism.tamu.edu. 2001 hasta la fecha.

Tourism & Recreation Resource Center. Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University. http://trrc.tamu.edu/. 2001..

RuralTourism.net. Pagina web desarrollada por representantes del Departamento Nacional de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos, del Departamento de Transporte, y del Equipo Nacional de Programas de Extensión en Turismo, entre otros. Esta página se diseña con el objetivo no sólo de estudiar las necesidades del sector rural, sino de proveer información y recursos a quienes incursionan en negocios de turismo rural. Octubre de 2001 hasta la fecha.

Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism. Department of Geography, Southwest Texas State University. http://www.geo.swt.edu/nht/. 1997 hasta la fecha.

Cursos Dictados

Turismo Natural y Tecnología. (Nature Tourism and Technology) Primer curso on-line desarrollado e impartido en el Departamento de Ciencias de la Recreación y el Turismo de la Universidad de Texas A&M. Semestre A del 2003.
Pertenencia y Representación en Organizaciones y Comunidades.

Concejo de la Agencia de Turismo del Estado de Texas. (Texas State Agency Tourism Council). Representante de la Universidad de Texas A&M desde Noviembre , 2001 hasta 2004.

Equipo Nacional de Programas de Extensión en Turismo. (National Extension Tourism Design Team). Miembro desde Octubre del 2001 hasta el año 2004.

Miembro del Comité Organizador del la Conferencia Nacional en Programas de Extensión en Turismo. (National Extension Tourism Conference Planning Committee). Abril, 2002.

Representante del Equipo Nacional de Programas de Extensión en Turismo para el desarrollo de una pagina web destinada al análisis de necesidades del sector rural, y a la oferta de información y recursos para la puesta en marcha de negocios de turismo rural. Página web: RuralTourism.net

Co partícipe del proyecto Caja de Herramientas para el Desarrollo del Turismo Natural. (“Nature Tourism Development Toolbox”) Grupo de trabajo del Oeste Américano para programas de extensión. Montana State University. Abril de 2002.

Nature Tourism Response Team. Texas A&M University, Texas Cooperative Extension, 1998 – 2003.
Representante de los estudiantes de postgrado ante el comité de premios, becas de excelencia y creatividad de la Southwest Texas State University. Semestre A de 1998.

Representante de los Estudiantes de Postgrado ante el Departamento de Forestal. Iowa State University. 1991 y 1992.

Representante estudiantil ante el comité “Substance Abuse Advisory Comitée”. Iowa State University. Semestre B 1988.

Representante de los estudiantes ante el comité universitario de recreación. Iowa State University. Semestre B 1988.

Miembro de la Asociación de Estudios en Recreación. Iowa State University. Representante Estudiantil ante la Facultad. Años 1987 y 1988.

Estudiante Coordinador de Job Mart, Iowa State University. Febrero 1988.

Instructor Asistente: Ames Wellness Workshop. Madrid, Iowa Junio 1988.

Program Leader, Camp Jubilee, Madrid, Iowa. Junio 1988.

Coordinador del proyecto CULL (Clean Up Lake Laverne) Iowa State University, Abril 1988 a 1989.

Honores

Gamma Sigma Delta, The Honor Society of Agriculture, 1992

Xi Sigma Pi, National Forestry Honor Society, 1991.

Nominado por el Departamento de Forestal de la Universidad del Iowa State para el reconocimiento de excelencia académica. Primavera de 1992.

Professional Training

Interpretación de Parques. Certified Interpretive Training Workshop. National Association for Interpretation. Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Febrero 20-25, 2002.

Total Resource Management Workshop: an interactive workshop of strategic planning in natural resources. Cooperación entre el Servicio de Extensión del Estado de Texas y el Departamento de Parques de Texas. Julio 17 & 18 y Agosto 8-9, 2001.

Faculty Orientation Workshop, Texas Cooperative Extension. College Station, Texas. Octubre 16-19, 2001.

Comercio Electrónico. E-Commerce: Impacting the way we do business. Southern Rural Development Center, Farm Foundation, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Nashville, Tennessee. Octubre 1-2, 2001.

Writing Winning Grant Proposals. Seminar Presented by Granting Possibilities. For Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Noviembre 1, 1993.

Técnico en Manejo de Emergencias. (Emergency Medical Technician). Austin Community College. Austin, Texas. Agosto, 1993.

National Cave Management Symposium. Texas Cave Management Association and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Octubre 3-7, 1989.

Moving from "Socializing" to "Collaborating - the next Internet

2011-01-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Chapter 11—Creating a Collaborative Network-an Evolution of Social Networking Extracted from the book “Vision – We are Re-Creating the World: A resource manual – “tool-box” – for revitalization and empowerment through grass-roots efforts and environmental awareness.”

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

There is a Vision - IAmSharing
I began to looking at the phenomena of networking on the Internet in about 1997 for my PhD research. In fact the primary theory that I used is called “actor-network theory”. Some of the findings of that research are included in this chapter. The main idea for I Am Sharing is to evolve the tools that we have been given to gain greater benefit for humanity. The following is the development of this idea for a “collaborative network.” The reason why I Am Sharing has been chosen is because the inspiration for this came just one month after my father passed. This may or may not be the actual name for the first network that we create, but for the purposes of this essay and discussion, this is the name I will use.

I have been slowly evolving ideas and discussion about the I Am Sharing network. It was first conceived in February 2007. I posted an Alpha website, which I have included a screenshot of. Then, sometime in 2008, I created a Ning network, - this network is not functioning as of April 2010, Ning decided to stop free services). The following are some of the ideas and concepts that have been written, including specific ideas and “mock-ups” of the various pages.

Introduction Posted on January 5, 2009 at the “alpha” version of I Am Sharing at Ning.

Dear Friends,
There is a vision for IAmSharing - it's a vision of Love and the One. To that end, we must bring people out of the confusion of thoughts, beliefs, fears, and dramas and traumas of the world. There is "Only Love" as John Prine sings in the beautiful song with the same title. The process is one of "Building Bridges". IAmSharing – The Conceptual Foundation of Creating a Collaborative Network The title of my PhD dissertation is "Nature Tourism in Cyberspace: an examination of its geography and character in the network".

My work, experiences and studies have given me insights into the potential of the Internet to help the "little guy" and the disenfranchised. I see there is an opportunity to, in a way, follow the Wal-Mart model to extend services to rural places, but instead of selling people a bunch of stuff, we can empower them to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true (education, personal empowerment, etc), and improve the quality of life in small communities and for the people we reach.

Figure C11-1: The sites "Coming Soon" notice was posted on May 29, 2007.

Our endeavor here is to capture a new audience that might have a desire to share a little bit more about themselves to a like minded community of people. The phenomena of online communities (Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Yahoo personals, True.com, Ecademy, etc.) are expanding, but the meaning or substance that they portray, in my opinion, is shallow. David Peat, writing about Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity suggests that “meaning” is the substance or the bridge between mind and matter – the glue of synchronicity. I believe “meaning” is truly at the core of what we are all searching for spiritually through our connections with people and the natural world. We accumulate “meaning” through the experiences of our lives. My vision is to create a community of people who want to share their stories (successes?) with the world, or at least the community of like minded people within the I Am Sharing community. At the same time, and maybe more importantly, show their connections to people who have helped them accomplish what they have – and to tell their stories too. That is what I want to do.

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Homelessness, Bulk Mail, Corporations, Change

2011-01-17T05:11:00.000-08:00

Just Thinking – Pondered Observances
– Empty buildings and Homeless People

I grew up in Ames, Iowa. I don’t remember seeing or even hearing about homeless people. Ames is a small town that was kind of an island. No poverty to speak of, no crime, very low unemployment. I am not sure if that caused me to be naïve.

The first time I thought about homeless people was when I moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1989. I remember seeing people standing on major intersections with signs saying “will work for food”. I have heard that some of these people actually do this for a job. It is not my concern. My thoughts were that there are thousands of people in any single city the size of San Antonio that do not have adequate housing.

I lived in the northwest part of the city and there was a very large eight story building that, for all the years that I drove in and out of this part of the city, sat empty. Nothing, no activity, just a very large building that could have housed hundreds of people. Throughout that one city I saw, and would imagine, all of the empty buildings that could provide some type of shelter for homeless people.

I know we can come up with all kinds of reasons why this shouldn’t be done. The homeless people will damage the building, etc., etc. I suppose if you think along these lines you can surely come up with all kinds of reasons.

As for me, I just can’t rectify the fact that people need places to stay, and there are nice empty buildings sitting around, in some cases for years, not being used.

To me, it would be an opportunity for “landlords” to get some good karma, and in my experience they need it. Have you ever thought of the word “landlord”? In my experience they are some of the unhappiest, frustrated people I have ever known. I can understand why.

Another thing that I have thought about is the hungry. Have you ever tried to imagine how much food is thrown into the garbage every day from all of the restaurants and grocery stores across the world? It seems to me we shouldn’t throw food away when there are hungry people on the streets. Surely if we can figure out how to get a plastic bottle of Coca Cola or a bag of Frito Lay chips to every small shop in every country of the world, we can figure out a way to distribute locally this food being thrown in the garbage to the hungry people of the world. Or, maybe not . . . maybe I am just crazy.

Postal Service – Delivering Garbage to Your House & Economic “externalitites”
I had never really thought much about the postal service until sometime in 2006. I actually liked the postal service as a concept for a long time. It and the railroad is what made America become the country that it did. But somewhere along the line the postal service changed. Instead of delivering personal letters and other critical types of information, extending lines of services to all peoples, it became a broker of “junk mail”. I think there is even a stronger word that we might use, but that would be a digression.

I had thought about inefficiency though when I was working with a mail order catalog business in the mid-1990s. I was pretty astounded by the amount of waste in that industry, even though the project was for a very good cause, to increase revenues for Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. to protect more wildlife habitats and support small Texas artisans.

The major costs of printed mail order catalogs are design, but especially printing. Another major cost is postage. However, as it works, if you mail enough pieces (individual letters or publications) you can get “bulk rate” through the US postal service which is a significant drop in cost per piece of mail. But it was still a very expensive part of the business. Now, for me this is the evidence where our economic system fails. It is called “economy of scales”. The more pieces that are created, or mailed in this case, the cost per item goes down.

The eye opener for me was what I learned from experience in mail order business. In mail order the key word to success is “return rate”. “Return rate” means that people purchased something from the catalog. This means the number of people who make a purchase, which is represented by the percentage of responses to the catalogs you mail out. If you get 2% return rate you are doing a good business. TWO PERCENT! That meant that 98% of all of those beautiful catalogs that we produced went straight to the garbage can. Imagine the waste of energy in that process. That would be like cutting down 1000 trees and only using 20 of them. Think, in all of the world, all of the energy being expended in this process. Trees are cut down. Huge amounts of money are being spent to kill trees, and convert those trees to “slick” paper. Expensive design and printing is being done. Hundreds of hours of effort is expended for each catalog that is produced. Exorbitant amounts are being spent on postage to deliver to individual houses, but by far the majority of these people do not want it.

In looking from a very real perspective, the postal service delivers garbage to our house, and we have already paid for that because we pay “taxes” to subsidize the postal service. The time honored “Postman” is a garbage man, but he is delivering the garbage to our house.

But that is just the beginning. Then we have to pay garbage men to haul the garbage away. The garbage is taken to a “landfill” which then we have to pay another company, or municipality, to figure out how to keep this mountain of garbage from polluting our soils and water systems. If we don’t, the natural environmental, and human health costs are incredible. And it isn’t working. And I can show you a picture of how well these “landfills” control “toxic seepages”. That’s another funny concept to think about the word “landfill”. Sounds kind of nice right? But what is actually happening is that we are creating mountains of garbage, or just dumping them into the ocean.

In our economic system, as it is developed under Adam Smith’s model, is that most of these things are called “externalities”. These are “costs” or “impacts” that fall out of the realm of responsibilities of the companies that are making the “profit”. The “externalities” of impacts to our environment, that we pay through having to clean up this pollution, or otherwise “health costs”, is incredible. In this case example, I have not mentioned many other factors such as those connected to the fuel costs, and impacts, associated to delivering the garbage to our house, and then taking it away. I won’t even follow the trail of costs and impacts of using fossil fuels. That becomes a whole other stream of similar effects as what was described above. And these effects are also not necessary because other options to petroleum exist. Very few people take the time to investigate that many alternative technologies for energy and transportation exist, but have been suppressed by oil interests. How this happens and has been accomplished is a whole other story.

So what is the solution? Well to start we need to have a way to look at the situation from a different perspective. One of my favorites is called “systems thinking” which was conceived back in the 1920s by scientists looking at natural systems. Using “systems thinking”, or even common sense, one would have to question these processes that have become a part of mainstream society. Why do we allow this kind of waste to continue? If we look at nature, which is where systems thinking was derived from, we never see a system where only 2% of the energy expended is used. There is an organization called Zero Emissions Research Institute (ZERI) which looks at developing systems that more closely match the efficiency of natural systems, which are perfectly efficient. As we know, natural systems do not waste anything.

So now you ask, ok Andy, how do we address this? Well, I could figure something out if given enough time, and I have a few ideas, although not all of them for sure. One possibility, just stop using this system, or this economic model that sustains “economies of scale” and “externalities”. In any case, I know I could come up with something that would perform much better than 2%. Today I am not writing to propose the solutions although I am sure there is someone out there who has proposed a model that will work much better, for example ZERI. However, we must look at this system and go back to the source of the skewed nature of the model, and I am convinced it is connected to our existing economic system. I think we could quickly alleviate, or eliminate, many of these incredibly wasteful systems, that usually serve a few corporate interests in the end, by placing into the cycle the additional costs which are pawned off as “externalitites”. If we included all of the additional costs that are incurred in this “system” of bulk mail, the costs would eliminate it as a viable option.

We must, in my view, also look at the foundation principles of corporations. Who and what are they? How do they conduct their business? What is their legal basis for existence? In reality, it is a paper reality”. It is not “really”, real. But they have convinced us, and have us totally buffaloed into believing the “systems” that they have created. And they are abundant, and they require an immense amount of energy to try to operate within. But they have no souls. They are not living beings. And, there is no one within them that takes “personal” responsibility for the impacts and actions, even though they probably should. Information is starting to come forward about the true nature of this incredibly elaborate “shell game” that has totally taken the creative and immensely powerful collective human consciousness into a realm of existence that is absolutely unsustainable, except maybe for a select few. In many respects I have recently realized it is like a really elaborate “Monopoly” game, intermixed with “Risk”. Do you like the game? Do you want to step outside of it? Well, the first thing you need to do is see that it is a game, and that in this game you have diminishing freedoms.

There are some very encouraging events happening in certain circles where people are starting to wake up. Recently I saw a news item where a number of communities are finding “loopholes” in the legal system which are allowing them to deny corporations “personhood”. Denying the companies to dispose of toxic wastes or to purchase the communities water rights. However, I feel that these methods might be a temporary solution because the legal system is one of the primary elements of this imaginary “game space”. It all falls under England’s model of government called the “Commonwealth”. And if we stay in the game, and just manipulate the rules of the game, we are still stuck in their game. Wouldn’t we prefer to create a new game? Or better yet, stop playing games and start just living life? I don’t know, but it seems a good question to answer.

In any case, my purpose here is not to suggest that I know how to “fix” everything. I just bring this to people’s attention. So, I want to ask, have you ever thought about something like what I mentioned in this little essay? If not, isn’t it surprising? What should we do? – ignore it? Or, maybe we should do something?

How many of these processes are going on as we go about our day to day business? If we observe what we are doing as collective groups is like we are pretending, as we have blinders over our eyes, that everything is just fine. Just as long as we don’t see or think about what is going on, we aren’t affected in any way. But is this the case? We just go about our daily lives, busy, busy, busy, taking care of our own families and everything is just fine? Well, for me, this is not the case. Ever since an experience in 1979 I have seen that we really are all one family. Thus the quote “we are all in this together”. As one species on this world, being genetically, and ancestorally tied, we are really one big family. And everyone knows that we should take care of family, right? We just need to expand the definition of our family. I have come to understand that it is our responsibility to do our best for the benefit of all. Great people have shown us this by their demonstrations (e.g. Jesus, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Norman Borlaug, etc.). But it is also written into the texts of the great religions and teachings. I could provide a number of great quotes, but won’t now. You can find many in the Bhagavad Gita.

In the world it is like we are warring over little pieces of “turf”. Creating imaginary boundaries that we fight over is really ridiculous considering that there is really the possibility to venturing out to the cosmic neighborhood. Religion, science and some select interests have severely limited our understanding of the possibilities of venturing out to the stars, not to mention what we believe and know what life is about. These possibilities have been entertained and presented as “science fiction”, as if our imaginations will not get satisfied. But this is not the case. Imagination is the catalyst for realizing those things dreamed about. Why would we be able to see and contemplate this grand universe but not be able to venture out into it? This would be similar to getting a house and knowing that you had a dozen rooms, but could only stand in the entry vestibule.

However, it is quite apparent to any thinking person, that if we can’t get our act together on this little world, then the likelihood of venturing out to the stars as a greater humanity is severely limited. And by the way I do believe that there are certain interests connected to certain governments or corporate interests that have access to travel in space much more than what most of us know about.

Hiding our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich is not acceptable. Do we have brains bigger than the ostrich? We are responsible for what is happening in the collective human experience. Really. We cannot just pretend and it will all fix itself. The interests that have gotten us into this situation are actively working to maintain things the way they are, and the results is a continued degradation of the human and natural condition. Each day more and more “systems” are put in place to limit our freedoms, to travel, to go about our business without being watched. Do you have any idea how many cameras are watching us? (there was one in the charter bus I drove in 2008, taking images both inside and outside the bus, funded by the Office of Homeland Security). Why? Do you know what happened in East Germany after WWII? Did any of you read the book 1984 by George Orwell which was written in the 1950s? That was someone’s imagination.

Which do you prefer, a world where people are all fed, there is peace, abundance and “true” freedom? Or one which continues along the lines of where we are headed – that is as you open your eyes to see what has been happening? Is this going to change by magic, or will it require some effort on our part? And, this is not about another “war” or “battle” against these “powers that were” (very important word choice). As long as we see there is a battle ground, we will maintain that enemy, with our own consciousness, thoughts and emotions. This idea is contained in the quote from Carl Jung “what you resist, persists”. Again, will these situations magically be rectified? Not likely. As long as we continue with our “eyes wide closed” the situation will continue along the same path. We have to open our eyes, and then determine a new path based upon what our imaginations have introduced to us. Then take the actions to begin to introduce new modes, systems and methods to create that new “reality”.

Converting Light Into Knowledge (CLIK)

2011-01-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

Remote Sensing Sciences & Hyperspectral Sensors and Systems Thinking for Tackling Our Environmental Challenges

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

This is a Highlight of Chapter 8 of the Vision Book--Environmental Case Example--Remote Sensing Sciences, Hyperspectral, Commercialization and Creation of an Institute and New Science?, available for free from the link above, or at the end of this blog.

One of the most interesting and exciting things that I ever worked with was a technology called a "hyperspectral sensor". I was working with Dr. Richard Ewing the Vice President for Research of Texas A&M University. My job was to figure out a strategy for the university to utilize this technology, in the context of "remote sensing sciences", for education and commercialization opportunities.

So what about this hyperspectral sensor? In simple terms a hyperspectral sensor is a very large camera that can take a picture of all that we can and cannot see. Typically the device is flown in an airplane, UAV, or satellite, and is aimed at the surface of the planet, at least in the applications we are interested in. The device captures reflected light - many bands of data across the light spectrum that can be used to understand the characteristics of the objects and substances captured in the image based on their spectral signature. The device I was working with at Texas A&M was built by Texaco in the mid-90's, called the Texaco Energy and Environmental Multi-spectral Spectrometer (TEEMS). The device captured about 250 bands (sections of light wavelenth) across the ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectrums. The bands are critical for seeing the various "substances" that you are looking for. The amazing thing is that these spectral signatures are like "finger prints" for everything. Every substance, including your hair, or my hair, or whatever, each has a unique spectral signature.

So what's the big deal? It's a huge deal! This device can help us see all kinds of phenomena that are invisible to the naked eye, pollutants floating on water, insect infestation in crop fields, fault lines showing up in avalanche prone areas, leachate seeps from landfills polluting a river, etc. etc. In fact, since we haven't even looked very much at what we can see with these devices (except for military applications), the potential is unlimited. The opportunities exist in the questions that we ask, and our willingness and capability to break the data down and analyze it. The more I looked at this device and its potential last year, the more astounded I became.

The real, and most important opportunity comes from taking these technologies and converting the data into information for decision making. Yes, there are immense opportunities to pursue new hardware and software, but the huge opportunity is to gather insights to what these spectral signatures can show us, and how those can be used for understanding and ameliorating our various environmental challenges that we face globally. The application of this technology crosses all activities occurring between humans and natural world.

This blog includes a link to Chapter 8 in the Vision book about the strategies that I have been working on for the last four years, building on the strategies I proposed for Texas A&M, and continuing to propose efforts here in Colombia, I have included all the information and insights for building an institute, and apply these technologies and "systems thinking" to address a multiplicity of issues. I have envisioned working with a company called SpecTIR that is currently on the leading edge of applying this technology in places around the world.

Here is a sample of a diagram described in some detail in the chapter which shows how the hyperspectral sensor, combined with spatial analysis, can be a process utilized with GIS software applications to help solve environmental challenges.

Spatial Analysis
Spatial Analysis is a powerful tool for decision-makers interested in developing a more comprehensive view for project management. By gathering a variety of data and information sets and then referencing them in a geo-spatial way, considerable insights can be gained for environmental decision-making and problem-solving. Spatial analysis allows for disparate, yet interrelated information to be examined. Depending on the goals and objectives of a specific situation, layered data sets can be examined in many ways to allow for greater flexibility for assessing and managing impacts. GIS spatial analysis allows project managers to play “what-if” scenarios based on a variety of mathematical and computational modeling techniques (see Diagram C8-2 in the Vision book).

Follow this link to see a previous blog entitled "The Paradox of Technology - New Science and Hyperspectral" to read some of the early insights as I was working with this technology, and the "intelligence" of light.

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Tourism - The Elephant Standing on Our Feet.

2011-01-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

Tourism Development Strategies - Innovation, Technology, Community Based - Chapter 9 Vision book

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world. It is so diversified, and touches so many aspects of our lives and the economies of nations, regions, communities and people. It is seemingly complex because of how we have fragmented the various aspects of the world.

But at its essence tourism is relatively simple. Experience! It is about people providing experiences and opportunities for other people to partake of those experiences. It really isn't rocket science. And the import of this as we work toward Peace and greater understandings between peoples, and to discover more about this wonderful world that we live in, we cannot ignore the imperative to continue the evolution of tourism as an industry. It is critical to move from the competitive mindset and move into creativity and diversification. Tourism can be complimentary to any other development. In fact, tourism done properly is a part of almost all communities that have successful economies, and are nice places to live. And tourism is the number one vehicle for instilling a sense of place and an awareness of our critically important connection to the Earth.

Personally I have worked in the tourism industry at all scales. From taking money from campers in a county park campground, to driving charted tours around the U.S., to teaching windsurfing and leading outdoor recreation trips, to teaching farmers and ranchers how to start nature tourism businesses, to developing the first Wireless Internet and tourism information kiosk, as part of a project to provide travelers information at Dept. of Transportation rest area facilities.

My observations are that we have not been very thoughtful, visionary, or creative as we have been looking at tourism as an "opportunity space", at all scales. Based on these observations, I have dedicated my life to creating a grander and more sustainable vision.

The other aspect of the tourism development side of the equation, is the lack of understanding of how important the Internet is and how we can utilize new technologies. I don't have to look at any statistics to know that practically everyone will go to the Web to do research or gather information before they travel. Many technologies have been developed that enhance the tourism experience, and for providers to enhance their services. But the industry as a whole are very slow at learning how to use these tools, much less lead in their development and utilization.

In Chapter 9--Tourism as a Case Example 3--and In-depth Description of the Development of a Regional and Replicable Initiative of my Vision b ook, I have gathered together as comprehensive of a presentation as possible, in the shortest amount of space, of what I see as the main emphases and opportunities for developing tourism, both for regions and communities, and also for travelers. When one steps into the Creative Mind, as promulgated by Wallace D. Wattles, the opportunities in the realm of experiential tourism really open up, to be practically unlimited. (Download Wattles Science of Getting Rich, FREE).

Here are two excerpted graphics of concepts described in some detail from this Chapter of the Vision book.

To download this chapter, or any others from my book, follow this link "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Hybrid Community Diversified Cooperative

2011-01-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

“Hybridizing” the Cooperative Model

This concept is one of my more interesting ideas and describes in some detail the creation of a sort of "regional community center", including the creation of a physical set of facilities to catalyze innovation, entrepreneurship and community empowerment.

This chapter of the Vision book begins a “Master Mind” dialog for evolving the concept of a new type of cooperative. There is something incredibly powerful about the "cooperative". It transformed agriculture. And yet in the U.S. it has really been limited in its utilization and evolution. Also, in my opinion, it tends to have a "corporate" feel. The idea of a "hybrid" would be to adjust the concept of "one vote per member". This concept rings of democracy which may not be the ultimate form of a cooperative venture, because in "a democracy" you could have 49% of the group disgruntled. That to me is not a workable model.

An evolution of the original concept of the cooperative might be derived from Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich” describing the functioning of the Master Mind (see discussion in the book chapter). A process built into the Cooperative could involve assurance of 100% alignment regarding actionable efforts. The key to tapping into incredible powers would be to assure "pure" collaboration. In many historical and contemporary human endeavors small percentages of dissonant opinions and voices resulted in ultimate failure.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statement_on_the_Co-operative_Identity
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business

To download this chapter, or any others from my book, follow this link "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

Views on Internationalization and Strategic Planning

2011-01-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Recently I applied for a teaching position for International Business English here in Colombia. I was given one hour to write an essay. The following is what I wrote with practically no editing. I feel it adequately captures what I see going on, and the opportunity that lies ahead of us.

Internationalization and Strategic Planning
Internationalization has shown to have both positive and negative impacts. Under the past model (which is currently most people's understanding of current affairs), dominated by corporate interests is not not sustainable. However, at the same time the systems of communication and distribution can be utilized to support the rapidly emerging system that supports international cooperation and collaboration on a more "grass-roots" level.

One only look at the last fifty years of the results of the old paradigm of internationalization to see that it is not viable or sustainable. Numerous cases could be cited of both human and natural environment exploitation. Two glaring cases are China and the conditions of human rights and the second is the rainforests in Brazil.

There is a shift occurring that is not visible to the masses because the mainstream media is controlled by corporate interests. This shift, or total paradigm restructuring, is occurring as the old financial and controlling interests are crumbling in the U.S. (including the Federal Reserve Bank) which has been by far the main proponent of internationalization under the corporate model. What will replace these systems are one that are based upon the support and development of nations, places and people with integrity and recognition of individual and community sovereignty.

The interesting thing that can be seen as one steps back and looks at the larger context, with a systems thinking view, is that these interests that have caused all of these "problems" have done all of the hard work of organizing the channels of distribution and communications. One case in point is Rupert Murdock the Australian media mogul who has brought together at least 25,000 news and media outlets (including TV, radio, newspaper and Internet).

Interestingly enough, Wallace D. Wattles predicted this shift to occur in his book "The Science of Getting Rich" that was written one hundred years ago. This is the book that inspired the international phenomena movie and book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne.

It is very apparent that the rapidly passing away model of producing and shipping products vast distances is exorbitantly wasteful. And these systems have the most blatant examples of human and environmental exploitation (e.g. food production in California and maquiladoras on the U.S. / Mexico border).

The shift that is occurring and is rapidly expanding is founded upon at least three important principles a) sustainability of economic and social structures, but most importantly the natural environment, b) the phenomena is not blatantly apparent but is what is called "grass-roots" in nature, pockets of people's are coming together in collaboration to essentially, take their lives back, and c) it is apparent that the character of these emerging communities and cooperative efforts are based upon regional models that support revitalization at several scales, and empowerment of people.

Strategic planning, in my view based upon "systems thinking", is an important perspective and approach to bring about these changes with the least amount of systemic disruption. Of course the "powers that were" (I have changed the term "powers that be", because there is incredible power in the words we use), the existing political and financial interests, want us to believe that everything is collapsing. The solutions, in their view, are the ones that they say that they have. But one only needs to look at the performance of these interests, in any country, or the entire world to know they have no solutions.

As it turns out all of the solutions are already with us. Different individuals (and small groups) have shown us that as people get together in the interests of serving people, and to make life more fulfilling that changes can occur - sometimes on a grand scale. (Ghandi, Lincoln, Mother Theresa). I personally interviewed Norman Borlaug who is credited for saving 1 billion people's lives. His simple belief, "people deserve to eat." The Number 1 contributor to his success "young minds".

If we simply follow the guidance of these great teachers, including Jesus, Buddha, and Lao Tsu, we will see! The way is quite apparent that we cannot blindly blaze forward with the past "development models". And our ship captains, essentially self appointed, are crashing the metaphorical boat on the shores of destruction. These "captains" are essentially the dominating financial interests that have had one hundred years at the helm.

The time has arrived for the people's of the world to come together with one heart and know that we have the true power, we always have. What is that power? It's Love! The tools are scattered on the ground at our feet (creativity, cooperation, technology, innovation, Internet, etc.). We need only pick them up and start working together to create the world we all have in our dreams. Of course we need to quit paying attention to the "horror movie" being shown in the mass media. And know that the power system, based upon fear, is absolutely insubstantial compared to the real power - Love!

Regional Revitalization and Empowerment Stategies (RRES)

2011-01-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

2011 is the year for Regional Revitalization and Empowerment Strategies.

Empowerment involves helping people to realize their own abilities to be the masters of their own destiny, to make dreams come true. The best toolset I have found so far is Desmond Green's The Practice. It is the first of two books in this book The Global Citizenship Passport. Download it for FREE!

http://jamaicaselfmanagementinstitute.yolasite.com/resources/GlobalPassportDesmondDGreen002.pdf

From the Jamaica Self Management Institute

The Regional and Community Empowerment Project – Colombia

The Regional and Community Empowerment Project – Colombia
By Andrew N. Skadberg, Ph.D.

This abstract was recently accepted for the conference Tourism Progress and Peace. I see the pieces of this puzzle coming together very nicely, as this has been a dedicated effort to develop over the last 22 years. So, in the interests of gaining supporting energies, I am posting this description here to make it known to the world, so to speak. There is much more already written about the details, and the various components are being built and could become a very lengthy blog, but this will provide a nice summary for those who might be curious about what I have been working on for the last 3 years.

No matter what happens I am grateful to Sandy Dhuyvetter of TravelTalkMedia for "lighting this fire". Also, to my friend Desmond Green who is my co-creator of some beautiful opportunities brewing in Jamaica. There are many more to thank, but for the time being this will suffice.

Abstract
Tourism in Colombia has vast potentials. However, one of the most significant challenges is the stigma of Colombia being a risky place to travel that has been created via mainstream media. Another challenge is shifting the Colombia people’s mindset as they too have been influenced by what some have called a “culture of violence”. The aim of the project currently underway in Colombia is to develop strategies to grow tourism and economic opportunities via what we term “revitalization and empowerment”, which involves diversification and strengthening of regional and community economies. Currently underway is a grass-roots strategy for empowering regions and people to develop tourism and other complimentary industries (e.g. agriculture, arts and music, entrepreneurship). Foundational principles build on creating educational platforms and utilizing individual and community empowerment strategies. An additional imperative is a strong foundation on environmental awareness and protection. To accomplish this multi-faceted approach involves educating people about the criticality of the human-nature relationship, and the utilization of remote-sensing sciences for identifying and ameliorating environmental challenges and threats.

The Regional and Community Empowerment Project (RCEP) is comprised of three primary “Initiatives” 1) Education, 2) Branding/Marketing, and 3) Developing New Technologies.

Initiative I – Education: Creating the Tourism, Agricultural and Community Economic Diversification Institute—the “TACED Institute” for tourism and value-added agricultural technical assistance.

The TACED Institute provides access to information and technical assistance with an entrepreneurial focus. The TACED Institute supports holistic economic development strategies focused on tourism, innovation in agriculture and small business development. Additionally the TACED Institute provides on-site, hands-on training seminars to local “trainers” to create a network of “tech-transfer associates” throughout regions. The initiative partners with regional organizations and businesses to develop educational outreach programs.

Initiative II – Branding/Marketing: “Experience Your Region” regional tourism destination branding (national and internationally marketed). – the actual “brand/trademark” will be developed from the initiative itself.

Regional branding is marketed both nationally and internationally as “Experience Your Region”, as experiential tourism destination(s). The purpose of this initiative is to expand experiential tourism in the region based on existing tourism attractions and those developing, in addition to the existing and developing infrastructure.

Initiative III Developing New Technologies: Supporting both the Education and Marketing aspects of the RCEP are access portals for people and communities in Colombia, and for international travelers to find travel opportunities.

The purpose of these new technologies is to provide: 1) a complete “package” of answers to questions that traveler’s might have, 2) customized information about the places they are/will be traveling, and 3) support for rural communities and small businesses to market themselves. Additional technologies support the creation of a “virtual” university providing practical education tools, including, initially 1) English, 2) tourism, and 3) entrepreneurship. The final element of technology development is the utilization of remote-sensing, and spatial sciences for more effective planning and for creating viable solutions for environmental impacts that are ubiquitous in nearly all places where development has occurred.

I Am Sharing Ning Site

2010-03-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends, I have continued to post stuff at the I Am Sharing Ning site. I don´t know if anyone finds any of this stuff, but I continue to just pour it out. I figure at least I tried.

There are so many channelings going on these days, talk about space visitors, angels and spirits that are waiting to help us, but I think the way that we really show that we are ready, is by our actions. The best way to prove that we are ready for assistance, if it is true that the help is waiting, is for us to work to change our world toward love and peace. To this end I continue to work on those things that I feel inspired to share. Free Energy, ways to work from the existing situations in rural places into new was of sustainable development, poetry, inspirational writings, and messages that I am receiving, etc.

If anyone finds this site, I invite them to join me at I Am Sharing and share whatever it is that you feel like Sharing. I think this is the key. For us to mimic the way Love is expressed by the One, the Sun, and Mother Earth. They never ask for payback. And if we at least try our best to Share, we might actually be very surprised at the results. If the help doesn´t arrive as soon as we wish, we will already be in the process of making the new world, and we will be in a better position to receive the assistance when it arrives.

Later I will sharing the links to some of the Web sites and networks that I have found that are providing very inspiring messages about the coming changes. I only pray, and trust that the Love of the One, as I have experienced in such abundance in just this short life, is as spectacularly large and available as I can ever imagine.

All the Best,
Andy

I Am Sharing - Thoughts, Experiences and Learning About Love and Service

2010-03-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks, I am proud to present my second book. Here is an excerpt from the introduction

Follow this Link, or just click on the Book cover

The Love Comprehension Experience!
December 24, 2008

When my brother Mark learned of my finding my soul-mate he said "Andy, focus on the Love and everything else will fall in place". I believe this is one of the most profound and impact-full things we can do.

The other day I did an exercise. I began thinking about how much love I have for one person. Then I thought about another, and another, and another. At the same time I brought the feeling I have for the person into my experience. That feeling from my heart. I even thought about those people who are not in my life that I still love deeply and profoundly. In fact, as I felt the love, I realized that for each person the breadth and depth of the love I felt to be boundless. Then I expanded the exercise as I thought about people whom I haven't met that I want to share in the peace and joy and abundance that I experience. Those people whom might be suffering in whatever form.

I have learned suffering is transitory and not ultimately necessary, except to push me toward Love. So it too is good!

Then I expanded my "Love Comprehension Experience" to all the living things that make my experience here on the planet so incredible: the air, wind, birds, insects, flowers, rocks, water, the planet, the cosmos, etc, etc., etc. It helped me realize that the capacity I have for Love is boundless. And, if I send boundless love out, by Law, it is reflected back. So I really am absolutely, beyond comprehension, immersed and supported by infinite Love. WOW! If that is the case, why would I be afraid? Silly Andy! Just focus on the Love and everything will be perfect, as it already was until I began to think differently. Imagine if a whole bunch of people began "paying attention" like this?

Release of 1st Book - When Love Guides Your Thoughts

2009-09-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

This is an exciting day!!! We've have officially released our first book "When Love Guides Your Thoughts".

The book lays down some basic principles, "rules" for thinking, and invites us, humanity, to create a new foundation for life on seeking the "truth" and on Love. No words here in this blog can do it service.

The book, and the new team members coming online is like a super-charge of new energy to Solomon Source. Look for a newly launched Web site in the near future. Also, Join us at our Collaborative Network, and follow us at Twitter for updates.

ALL proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Solomons Source for efforts to assist humanity. So to purchase this book is like a donation to humanity.

Here is a snapshot of the "tentative" new Web design.

National T.V. Début - Dr. Andy Drives a Bus

2008-11-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to venture into the personal domain with a somewhat humerous story. It looks like I'm going to have my national T.V. début here in a few weeks, not as an expert in tourism, or scholar or a Ph.D., but as a bus driver. Hehehe.

Due to the slowness of some projects for Solomon Source I've had to take a job with my old "stand-by" - working for a bus company. Now this time, instead of driving the bus (which I've done since 1984) I've been mostly working in the office. However, I told the company if they needed me to drive, I would. Last week the makers of "Friday Night Lights" came by to look at our buses, which I showed them. A couple of days later they called about getting the buses. I actually clean up pretty good so the company asked me if I wanted to drive for them. I said "sure".

The scenes are about as the team makes its way to State. And I'm the bus driver. Its been interesting and fun. And it lends to humility. Humility is always a good place to return to. For me it lends to a sense of gratitude, which is also a good place to be.

Actually, I have found myself repeatly coming back to buses over about 25 years. I have "sworn" off driving numerous times, but something about the experience and my life situation has pulled me back for one reason or another. I drove all through my Ph.D. studies to supplement my income, and even drove a few times while I was teaching at Texas A&M.

In an interesting way much of my life experience and perspectives have been influenced by my experiences working with this industry. I think it's the same that people say about their experiences waiting tables. Those jobs that customers often take for granted allows the "Server" a plethora of experience that end up shaping their lives.

Driving for people has had a significant affect on my view of the world. I have always been inclined to "do stuff" and driving the bus has allowed me the opportunity to see many places and meet thousands of people and have a vast array of experiences, especially educational and "experiential".

In fact just the other day I picked up an elementary school group at Camp Champions near Marble Falls, Texas and was amazed with the impact these teachers are having on their students lives. I am doing a little more research and will soon do a longer blog on their awesome work.

In my opinion, this is where "the rubber meets the road" - teachers touching kids lives, creating experiences that allow the kids a chance to see the world in a new way. It was Steve Simpson who really started this for me at Iowa State in the 80's. He lit a fire in my heart and I'm still on the path today.

Well anyway, look for more "down to earth" blogs in the near future. My more recent experiences (having to take a job I don't really want to, just to get by) of the mundane and survival brings me to another level of experience. It makes me ask the question "what are we doing to touch people's lives". How is the "theory" brought to a place where we actually are making a difference. Look for random thoughts along these lines in the next few weeks - or not.

But, I'll be sure to post when my national acting début happens. Likely within the next few weeks. Maybe Hollywood is waiting for me??? . . . or maybe not!!

All the best,
Andy

There is a Vision - I Am Sharing

2008-10-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

There is a vision for IAmSharing - it's a vision of Love and the One. To that end, we must bring people out of the confusion of thoughts, beliefs, fears, and dramas and traumas of the world. There is "Only Love" as John Prine sings in the beautiful song with the same title. The process is one of "Building Bridges".

I have several important projects that need to be brought to the world, including the I Am Sharing collaborative network.

What we need now, in our humble beginnings, is some seed capital. I have a wonderful network of people, who have their own networks, who are doing fantastic things, and building the tools and resources we need to bring all this to fruition, but some financial resources are necessary. The beauty of these endeavors is the fact that I know every one of the projects/technologies/endeavors that I am listing below will convert into incredibly successful and profitable ventures - as long as we keep ourselves focused on the ultimate goal - LOVE.

Here are some of the current projects underway that are developing even without financial support. Some financial support would project these to new dimensions

- IAmSharing - inspired from my PhD dissertation - Nature Tourism in Cyberspace: An examination of its Geography and Character in the Network
- Wireless Internet and Travel Information - now in 11 U.S. States - in collaboration with Zoom Information Systems
- Hyperspectral Sensor - this one is worth BILLIONS of $ - to learn more read this blog
- SolomonSource regional development strategies (See the document at the bottom of the page).
- Breathing Endeavors - per the powerful BEING - Desmond Green - www.themoodschannel.com
- World Reverence for Life University - of BreathFusion, Cultural Fusion and others
- Cultural Fusion - from Source Artist Yvette Dubel and "Attention Guru" Ronald Wopereis

SO IF YOU ARE RICH AND WANT TO GET RICHER, or if you know someone who wants to help a powerful group of people poised to "Change the World", please send them my way. These projects are going to happen, it is just a matter of time!

Finally, my "empowerment IAmSharing" for today has been brought to me through Desmond Green - it's about our breath.

Breath is the foundation of all life, consciousness and everything. I have been breathing now, as per Desmond for about 9 months. Everything has changed. It is so simple and powerful. Noticing my breath and taking deep conscious breaths, to fuel my mind, heart, body, soul has cleared my consciousness. I am in perfect health. It has also opened my Pineal gland, my direct, personal connection to God/Source/Om/IAm. WOW!!!!

If you want to change your life, try Conscious Deep Breathing - to learn more just visit Desmond Green's "The Moods Channel" and watch his Power Talks.

Finally, here is a quote from Eckhart Tolle about breathing:

"Someone recently showed me the prospectus of a large spiritual organization. When I looked through it, I was impressed by the wide choice of seminars and workshops. It reminded me of a smorgasbord, one of those Scandinavian buffets where you can take your pick from a huge variety of dishes. The person asked me whether I could recommend one or two courses. "I don't know" I said. "They all look so interesting". But I do know this," I added. "Be aware of your breathing as often as you are able, whenever you remember. Do that for one year, and it will be more powerfully transformative than attending all of these courses. And it's free." Eckert Tolle: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

With Great Love,
Andy

The Mandala (the Lotus Flower) - Dr. Richard Ewing, and regional development - Part Two of a Three part blog

2008-10-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Some details about the Mandala (Lotus Flower)

In my last blog I included the Mandala that I created from Dr. Ewing's white board drawing in November 2007. As I have contemplated the diagram and its larger metaphorical, and metaphysical meaning, it represents a nuclear reaction, or the birth of a cell, or any other natural growth system.

Some time ago while considering this image I wrote "when a critical mass of knowledge and energy is reached, the results can touch the world."

For most of my life one of my major criticisms of science is that it dissects the word. With the scientific method the world has been cut up into pieces by our scientific and human-oriented (separatist) perspective. Depicting the general categories of disciplines (environmental, social, cultural/historical, political, economics) in the five inner circles in the Mandala image will allow us to re-cognize the integral relationship of these pedagogical domains, providing a new context for re-aligning our educational systems. I recognized that we usually take things out of a comprehensive context while I was working on my Forestry degree in 1990. I was introduced to "systems thinking" at that time. While writing my Thesis I was assigned to conduct an economic analysis of an alley-cropping agroforestry system. Even at that time I couldn't leave well enough alone. I understood that for really understanding the potential of this innovative approach, we would have to look at the environmental, social and political context.

In adapting the Mandala to the World Reverence for Life University(www.worldreverenceforlifeuniversity.com) project, we are developing a core set of courses to address each of these areas, and yet we recognize that the lines drawn between these “disciplines” are only a functional, or organizational delineation. In fact, as stipulated in Systems Thinking, there is a desperate need to re-examine and recombine these perspectives into a comprehensive whole after study or examination.

The “petals of the flower” in the Mandala or Lotus depict the “outreach-service” delivery mechanism that I believe should be a part of all of our educational systems and endeavors. My emphasis on Outreach-Service (extension) has developed from the Land Grant University System that was so powerfully transformative in the United States. However, I agree with John Campbell’s critique of the limitations of the Land-grant system as it has matured, mainly that the “Outreach” has not been properly expanded and utilized. FYI my father was an agricultural Extension professor at Iowa State University for 28 years. I, inadvertantly, followed his footsteps and became and Extension professor at Texas A&M University.

The Mandala depicts a “nuclear reaction”, which is my vision to powerfully extend learning and research, to re-connect education to the world, which is depicted in the outer ring of the Diagram.

It is beyond the scope of this document to discuss all of the benefits of revitalizing the land-grant model while empowering it with information communication technologies (ICT), however, in brief, this approach will re-vitalize the educational experience for students. It will also help to connect education to the mainstream of society, delivering a multitude of benefits: essentially creating a recursive flow of ideas, information, people and business to a world that is clamoring for these outputs of our educational system. The outer ring of the Mandala Diagram shows the original vision of the Land-grant model which framed the educational system on three legs (Education, Research, Outreach). We add to the model the ultimate outputs of this inspired model – Learning, Development, and Service.

Look for Part Three of this blog soon. Sorry for the delay, I've started a new job, which has had a pretty steep learning curve.

All the Best! - Andy

The Mandala (the Lotus Flower) - Dr. Richard Ewing, and regional development - a Three part blog

2008-09-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

This will be a three part blog because of its length - Part 1.

I started working actively on regional development in 1996, while working at Texas Parks and Wildlife on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. Then in 1997 I was the original author for the Texas Heritage Trail Program for the Texas Historical Commission, where I really formulated the model that I am still refining to this day. Since that time, in one form or fashion, this idea of regional coordination has been a core theme of my work.

However, it wasn't until 2007, working with Dr. Richard Ewing the Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University that I was given the insight to create a metaphorical image that depicted the nature, or natural system that showed the character of my philosophical/theoretical approach. Without actually seeing the image previously, I realized that our efforts for empowering communities and places, and developing technologies and educational endeavors, mimics the nature of all that exists. It is represented in one of the most ancient symbols. The image is the Mandala (C.G. Jung) or Lotus Flower, or a more modern metaphor would be the nuclear reaction.

It is not my point to cite the history of these symbols. It is to recognize one of Dr. Ewing's final contributions before he left this world, and to associate this diagram as a grounding for our work for revitalizing economies and our educational systems. I will then provide a synopsis of the historical evolution of this model in my work and where it fits into the efforts of Solomon Source, to some of the projects that have been developing and are, apparently, going to be a central theme for our contributions to the world.

The importance of metaphor
Before I begin, I would like to make clear that my point is not to cite others ideas or writings about the importance of these ideas. I believe that often, especially in academia, other people's ideas are highly over-rated. Always, whenever a scholar proposes a new or novel concept they are required to provide a citation to someone's elses work. This to me is really "bass-ackwards" to the whole point of research and discovery. Aren't we supposed to be coming up with novel concepts, new thoughts, tapping into tranformative ideas? Or if not new ideas, new combinations or applications of old ideas.

Anyway, as I have matured in my life experiences, I have come to appreciate the power of the metaphor. Additionally, if a metaphor can be visually depicted in a picture, diagram or flow chart, I am even more gratified. I am not sure where this motivation comes from, but you will find riddled throughout Solomon Source conceptual models and diagrams galore. In fact, on practically any project that we work on, a new set of pictures and diagrams will be created to help visualize the flow, movement or relationships of the various parts.

I guess, having a background in geography, I have also learned that "visualization" and our sight, is one of our most powerful sensory capabilities. This idea is captured in the famous quote "A picture paints a thousand words". A metaphor on the other hand tells a story.

From the American Heritage Dictionary we learn the definition of "metaphor" to have two primary meanings:

1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).

2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven" (Neal Gabler).

For this discussion I am most interested in the second definition - symbology. In fact, as I have contemplated the import of the Mandala, I have realized in its full potential it points to things like the nature of the Universe, or life, or cellular existence. Carl Jung, was obsessed with the symbol and spent years trying to discover its deeper meanings, although I haven't been as dedicated in my pursuits.

My purpose is to adapt the image to my efforts and to help others learn the value in the simple, but powerful utilization of imagery. My introduction to the Mandala came through Dr. Ewing (although I do not think he was aware of the term, Mandala - we did not discuss it).

In November of 2007 we were working together to pursue a project to create an Institute in a middle-eastern country that is building a new university. He called together a team of some of the most esteemed mathematicians in the world to prepare a pre-proposal. As the process began, he did not create an outline, table, or cite a bunch of equations - he drew a picture of a flower (Lotus or Mandala).

I was a little baffled. Here was one of the most esteemed mathematicians and visionary computational scientists and administrators of one of the most powerful institutions in the world (Texas A&M University) drawing pictures of flowers. At this time, I was working very closely with Dr. Ewing and agreed to create a digital version of his picture he drew on the white board. I guess, during the hours of creating several images for the pre-proposal, I began to contemplate the image and its import. Why after a whole life dealing with vast projects, in countries throughout the globe, would he make this kind of an image? (By the way, Dr. Ewing has over 350 publications to his credit).

In my reflection, I believe he had a deeper need to share the fundamental character of the growth of organizations, endeavors and ideas. The need to focus on a "core" to establish a critical mass of energy (or influence) and then have the vision for that energy to explode in its potential to touch many lives. In some respects, I see that this symbol is possibly one of his last most important contributions to the world. Dr. Ewing passed on December 5, 2007.

And, I might suspect, that I am the only person that saw the import of the message. I realized, in some form or fashion, that this metaphor has been the symbol for all of my life's works. From the first regional development proposal for the Texas Heritage Trail in 1997 to my current efforts, I have been possessed with the idea of 1) creating a center (or institute), 2) developing the products and services to a critical mass and, then 3) use the Internet as the delivery vehicle (this is a very succinct overview of a much more involved process).

This is a good spot to pause in this series of three blogs - to the left find the current form that I am utilizing for our regional development efforts (from our Jamaica Reverence for Life University). The beauty of the Mandala is that it can be adapted to any project that one hopes to create.

I will be traveling in a couple of days, so it may take a bit of time to get the second post up. All the Best! - Andy

Taking Care of the Whole (person, community)

2008-09-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

Here is an excerpt from a proposal prepared for the Reverence for Life University initiative in Jamaica - the 4th "R" initiative.

As Wallace D. Wattles so clearly stated, in The Science of Getting Rich (1910),

“Those who do not quite fill their present places are dead weight upon society, government, commerce, and industry; they must be carried along by others at a great expense.” (Wattles 1910).

An analogy for an individual that then could extend to communities, nations and the world might be that if a person was to only take care of half of his body (if that could be done): to literally not feed it, bath it or take any efforts to assist it to be a healthy partner to the other half of his body. One can easily imagine how healthy or happy that person might be, dragging around a half dead body.

This may seem to be a ridiculous analogy because there is no way that a person could only sustain half his body. However, is the analogy that ridiculous? If we extend the analogy to the world only about ½ of the world’s population has access to clean water. That would seem to be the most basic human right, but one half of our “body” or “collective being” is not getting the most basic needs fulfilled. Now, if we take this hypothetical situation and extend it to any other “body” that exists in the human condition – a community, a nation, the world, wouldn’t the actions of leaving behind and not caring for a significant portion of the system denigrate the whole?

Throughout human history we can see that this has been the case. Take the civil war in the United States, what was the result of the two halves of the nation fighting – tremendous strife and suffering. An endless number of examples could be cited. And currently, if one looks from this perspective across the globe, one can easily observe this “ailing body” syndrome. Dis-ease (allegorically used) is rife, poverty and human blight are ubiquitous, and extremely denigrated environmental conditions exist in every corner of the globe.

The solution to this dilemma seems to evade us. Yet as one looks in another place, in the lives of some awakened people, there seems to be great harmony, peace, prosperity and abundance. Is the solution so elusive and difficult that only a few can utilize and implement it? No! And this truth is well established in literature and spiritual traditions that has come to us throughout the ages. The solution is clearly stated in Wattles’s book, to move from the
competitive to the creative, or to awaken.

Now the challenge appears to be to identify why “the masses” are not able to grasp or get access to the tools by which to improve their condition. We believe Wattles addresses this in his book somewhat indirectly. The word “Rich” appears to rankle people, or maybe more accurately causes fear. Wattles is specifically referring to money in his book, but is also addressing the idea of abundant living in the form of “improved lives”.

All the Best! - Andy

The Paradox of Technology - New Science & Hyperpectral Sensors

2008-09-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here I am at 1:30 a.m., Sept. 10, in Colombia, South America paralyzed. Why? Because the Internet is down, I can't sleep, I want to tell the story about an amazing technology that I worked with last year at Texas A&M University that were adding to the Solomon Source "Toolbox" of Services. It's called a hyperspectral sensor. I was laying in bed thinking, is this what blogging does to a person? Laying there thinking about what I wanted to write, numerous other ideas flowing through my head. I've been a "blogger-holdout", but now I realize I've have too many ideas that I want to share, much I have already written - this is going to be fun!

Well anyway, what about this title "Paradox of Technology". I remember thinking many years ago, as I began to wear my "environmentalist" hat, that the mindless pursuit of technological advancement was the cause of many of our environmental dilemmas.

By the way, a little digression, I don't really call myself an environmentalist anymore, mainly because I don't think the tactics, or mindset contributes to solutions. I think it causes more "separation" and conflict, and the participants tend to have victim mind-set. I have learned through much self examination and observation that victims are really at the center of problems - "wherever I go, there I am". And the traditional environmentalist approach operates from an "us" versus "them" mentality. This will never solve the problems ultimately, but this is a topic for another blog.

So, one side of the paradox is the pursuit of technology and "advancement", (whatever advancement means), causing incredible problems. It is the "evil" driver of so many issues, to numerous to cite. The scope of these problems today are so vast that it boggles the mind. Scientists as they look at the complexity of just the weather, are discovering that mini micro-climates, down to potentially neighborhood sized areas are heavily influential into the making of our weather patterns. Or take any other scientific problem that we are confronted with. Everything that we pick apart with the scientific approach (a discussion for a future blog) becomes so complex and cumbersome that the human mind cannot manage the quantity of data, processes, or analysis.

This is the paradox. I would contend that computers are probably the pinnacle of technological advancement. And without them we cannot solve the problems we have created. The scales and quantities of information that needs to be processed for the various models of natural systems, can only be dealt with by a computer. So paradoxically, technology becomes our apparent worst enemy, because the pursuit of industrialization has been the cause of most of these problems, but it is also the solution to our problems.

So what about this hyperspectral sensor? In simple terms a hyperspectral sensor is a very large camera that can take a picture of all that we can and cannot see. Typically the device is flown in an airplane or satellite, and is aimed at the surface of the planet, at least in the applications we are interested in. The device captures reflected light - many bands of data across the light spectrum that can be used to understand the characteristics of the objects and substances captured in the image based on their spectral signature. The device I was working with at Texas A&M was built by Texaco in the mid-90's, called the Texaco Energy and Environmental Multi-spectral Spectrometer (TEEMS). The device captured about 250 bands (sections of light wavelenth) across the ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectrums. The bands are critical for seeing the various "substances" that you are looking for. The amazing thing is that these spectral signatures are like "finger prints" for everything. Every substance, including your hair, or my hair, or whatever, each has a unique spectral signature.

So what's the big deal? It's a huge deal! This device can help us see all kinds of phenomena that is invisible to the naked eye, pollutants floating on water, insect infestation in crop fields, fault lines showing up in avalanche prone areas, leachate seeps from landfills polluting a river, etc. etc. In fact, since we haven't even looked very much at what we can see with these devices (except for military applications), the potential is unlimited. The opportunities exist in the questions that we ask, and our willingness and capability to break the data down and analyze it. The more I looked at this device and its potential last year, the more astounded I became.

My imagination was even further fired after listening to the new Albert Einstein biography (by Isaacson). 18 CDs - the whole set as I drove from College Station, Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico and back. I learned emphatically that Einstein's contribution to the world came from his study of light. And here I am looking at a device that tells us, who knows what, and it all is from light.

I began to imagine that the light was even intelligent. Trying to communicate with us. Or that it is like DNA, carrying whole new sets of knowledge, asking/inviting us to decipher the puzzle to help save us from our self imposed crises. Embedded in the light, is information waiting to be discovered that will tell us the core issues of our misguided ways. Then I concluded that "light is life" - we wouldn't be here if the sun wasn't producing it. To scientists who study this, or spiritually enlightened individuals, this is probably like "duh", so what else. But to me, it was a huge awakening, and epiphany.

Then amazingly enough a friend, whom I had confided in about my realization, showed me a book that sychronistically validated my thoughts - this quote has been just the first validation of many over the last year.

"He looked at his hands, he felt his body, and heard his own voice say "I am made of light; I am made of stars."

He looked at the stars again, and he realized that it's not the stars that create light, but rather light that creates the stars. "Everything is made of light" he said, " and the space in -between isn't empty." And he knew that everything that exists is one living being, and that light is the messenger of life, because it is alive and contains all information.

Then he realized that although he was made of stars, he was not of those stars. "I am in-between the stars," he thought. So he called the stars the tonal and light between the stars the nagual, and he knew that what created the harmony and space between the two is Life or Intent. Without Life, the tonal and the nagual could not exist. Life is the force of the absolute, the supreme, the Creator who creates everything.

This is what he discovered: Everything in existence is a manifestation of the one living being we call God. Everything is God. And he came to the conclusion that human perception is merely light perceiving light. He also saw that matter is a mirror that reflects light and creates images of that light--and the world of illusion, the Dream, is just like smoke which doesn't allow us to see what we really are. "The real us is pure love, pure light," he said.

The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz

Working with the TEEMS device, I had the great fortune to work with Robert Moss. Robert is our fearless leader when it comes to hyperspectral. He has worked with it for most of his life: builds the devices, writes the software, understands the science. I would suspect that Robert knows more about hyperspectral sensors that any other person in the world.

I called him as these thoughts haunted my mind last summer - I was ranting on the phone, going on and on. And then I said, "you know Robert, after hearing about Einstein's discoveries, I have realized with this hyperspectral sensor - it's like a 'New Science'". Robert's response was ... "Andy, you're preaching to the choir!"

So why hyperspectral sensors with Solomon Source? - well if you happened to read my last blog I told the story of the foundations of our endeavors - the environment - protecting Mother Nature. And now, we are going to add to the mix of our services, environmental assessments, prediction, etc. utilizing these exciting new technologies. I had worked to build teams and strategy at Texas A&M, and ran in to some challenges. Now we're going to do it in the private sector where we have no obstacles.

Well, I suppose this blog has gone on long enough. I can guarantee you'll hear more about hyperspectral, and paradoxes too. It has been my conclusion that behind every great, spiritual truth, that there will be a paradox.

BTW: If you are an expert in the application of hyperspectral in a certain discipline (mining, forestry, waste management, water, etc.), and you are looking for opportunities to collaborate, we would love to hear from you. Drop us an email at solomonsource@gmail.com

All the best! - Andy

Foundational Principles of Solomon Source

2008-09-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Solomon Source as a consultancy developed from looking at issues behind environmental degradation that are usually driven by economics, and ignorance of the ultimate costs of environmental destruction. The solution has to do with educating people and providing opportunities for people to get exposure to the wonders of nature, and for them to experience nature in new ways - in the hopes of an awakening of the spirit. To this end the founder of Solomon Source has been on a personal mission to develop solutions that can be adapted and utilized in the current socio-economic paradigms.

Initially, our approach seems to focus on tourism. However, on closer examination, it is apparent that tourism is used as a vehicle for interaction, and a platform to establish opportunities for people to experience the out-of-doors. We used the term "Experiential Tourism" to describe this opportunity space, mainly because there has been so much fragmentation in the tourism industry, with new terms being constantly created (e.g. ecotourism, nature tourism, heritage, shopping, etc). Ultimately it all comes down to experience. Satiating people's curiosity and providing them with meaningful, memorable experiences.

We promote tourism development, within context, while at the same time empowering rural communities and their citizens to expand the economy, creatively and responsibly (especially agricultural). Tourism must be blended and be complimentary to the existing economy. At the same time, careful considerations are made for a holistic approach to protect the environmental, social and cultural characteristics of the communities and the region. We also focus on rural, but it is important to note that a critical relationship exists in what is called the "rural-urban nexus". In short, these two exist in absolute dependence. Rural places provide the food, water, natural resource management and respite from urban life, while the cities utilize the products of the rural places. We have said for some time that "everyone can't live in the city", nor would we want them to. However, if we don't support rural places through policy and through rural and agricultural innovation, we will have even more serious problems than we currently do.

So if you look at Solomon Source, it appears that we do many things. We do. But it is necessary to look at the bigger picture in order to blend these new opportunities into the environment and to advancing humanity. We build teams from our experts, but more importantly we emphasize empowering the local citizenry to be the "masters of their own destiny". Because, at some point in time, our team will go home and the community will need to carry on. So again, the solution is about education, and empowerment.

We are also very excited about how the Internet, and new emerging technologies can support these efforts. It is our opinion that we have barely tapped into the potential, however, we need to remember that these new technologies are only a tool. Ultimately we see tremendous hope for the changes that are happening, people awakening and developing "grass-roots" initiatives and recognizing the urgency of our task - to take care of each other, and the planet.

For more information please drop us an email. If you decide to contact us, please tell us how you found us.

All the best - Andy

Synchronicity and Solomon

2008-09-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Interestingly enough, I received a message from my friend John Campbell about the new Web site. It was sychronistic because I had referred to John in yesterday's blog, and I haven't heard from hum in nearly a year. He sent me a very kind message and some suggestions.

I'd like to share with you my response to his second message of the day. It might help explain why I chose the name Solomon Source.

John said: "The word "Solomon" suggests wisdom. Remember the wisdom of Solomon...it is Biblical."

And my response . . .
John,
Thank you for your kind words. I am absolutely honored to have you communicating with me. I still remember very fondly you driving through a snow storm last year to meet with me at my hotel. And what you said about being honored for my visit - I am the one who is tremendously honored to have you as a friend.

Solomon is an interesting story. Our family name was Solomon before it changed to Skadberg when my grandfather moved to the Skadberg farm as a young man in Norway. Then my grandfather ventured over to the U.S. at age 17. He did not like the mountains and ended up becoming a farmer in Carrington, North Dakota. The place is the second flatest place in the world I have been, the 1st, I think, is Levelland, Texas.

I didn't remember my family name story interestingly enough until I came to Colombia this January to pursue a project with a large gold mining company that wanted to manage impacts on the nearby agricultural community. The project (rumored to be the 2nd largest discovery in history) has been shut down by the government for several months due to concerns about environmental impacts.

Finally, your reference to Solomon takes me back to a conversation with a boss, Jack Carls, who when I was 26 got me promoted from a custodian to become the maintenance supervisor at the North Grand Mall in Ames, Iowa. It was a very proud time for me, although I realized I wasn't cut out for mall management. It didn't have much meaning for me.

Jack told me two very important things that I will always remember. He was a wise and kind man. First, he taught me to always keep the restrooms clean. And second, he told me about the wisdom of Solomon - his genius to surround himself with the best advisors. And I suspect, what I have learned in the last few years, Solomon probably knew to keep harmonious relationships with them.

I don't know if I am a decendant of Solomon, but I have strangely enough collected elephants, which I understand is one of the symbols of Solomon. It is the only thing I collect. Surprisingly I didn't make this connection until I was meeting with another wonderful friend Desmond Green for our project in Jamaica a few months back, after reading one of his treasured aphorisms about an elephant.

I concluded the message to John with my gratitude for his taking the time to send me a message. He also approved me to feature his paper that he presented about Land Grant and Education in India here on Solomon Source. Look for that article soon.

To conclude my thoughts for the day, I have been almost haunted with synchronicities in my life. It is a wonderful thing to be haunted by. It is gratifying to experience the magical connections, that I think pervade all things. But sometimes it is perplexing, to figure out their meaning and the subsequent actions I am to take. I'm still trying to figure this out, the larger meaning of synchronicity (from the great Carl Jung). At this point, I have come to the conclusion that they act as "signposts" showing me that I am headed in the direction of my desired destination.

I am grateful to my friends and to the opportunity to be sharing my experience with ya'll ( a Texas remnant).

All the best! - Andy

Building Bridges of Service

2008-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today the idea that has been bubbling around my head is of building bridges. There is this desperate "reality" of locked-up systems - of money and encumbered bureaucratic entities. Dealing with these "apparent" obstacles and entities is exhausting if one finds oneself falling into the trap of frustration and resistance - as per the amazing quote from Carl Jung "What you resist, persists".

However, during this very reflective time, since the beginning of 2008, I have come to believe, and now know, that this "reality" of systems is only as real as we believe. We human-beings made it this way - we can change it.

In the past year I have been exposed to people who are spiritually and consciously advanced so far that I have to stretch myself beyond my current thinking paradigm to grasp a small portion of their message. And yet as I make the effort, I find my problems and struggles melting away like ice in summertime. These beings (and there have been beings through the ages who have been similarly enlightened) show me that there are dramatic changes happening in the world and the "Golden Age" is coming.

And yet, on the other hand, I work and see and meet people who are so far away from this "new reality"- many people walking the streets, working at their jobs, struggling with their families and lives. They cannot comprehend much beyond their day to day existence. How are we to assist these people?

I think this is about building bridges. We need to bridge the gap between these two, apparently, disparate realities. Another idea along these lines would be one of an "interpreter". Since I began my professional career in the early 1980's, I have found myself in positions where I can see both sides of situations. I won't bore you with examples, but the most distinct is between "scientists" and people who needed their knowledge. It has been my observation that most scientists are not very interested in "interpreting" what they learn down to the level of the lay person. In fact, it seems that often the various disciplines actually encourage their science to be more and more obscure, complex and incomprehensible to us "regular folks". And yet when this new knowledge can get into people's minds and hands, sometimes astounding changes are brought about. Two acclaimed scientists who were the exception to the rule are Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan. They both saw that the contribution they could make to the world was dependent upon "the masses" understanding what they had discovered. I believe both of these enlightened individuals made their respective sciences meaningful to everyone. And their influences continue even after their deaths.

So, what does this all have to do with Solomon Source? Well this is a Blog, and so it can be based on random thought, and yet these ideas have been in my mind since my Leisure Studies degree began in 1984. I am not suggesting that I am in the league of these great scientists, but I see that there are important "gaps to fill", or "bridges to build".

I see that we need to start connecting the dots of the fragmented "reality" that science has helped create. We need to put the pieces of the "puzzles" together (in context) and communicate applied, pragmatic solutions to people who are struggling day to day with survival. In language that they can comprehend. This was the vision of the Land Grant University system (an idea signed in law by Abraham Lincoln) - and Extension was to be the vehicle. However, this area of Service has fallen way short of its intended goal, in my opinion. For more great thoughts on the role of the Land-Grant, look into John R. Campbell's (past president of Oklahoma State University) work "Reclaiming a Lost Heritage: Land-Grant & Other Higher Education Initiatives for the Twenty-First Century"

Additionally, we need to be building bridges between the great spiritual truths that are being broadcast globally on a scale that is mind-boggling. Not just as a "get rich quick" scheme, but as a solution to people's day to day struggles. Introduce to people that life is not just a series of problems and obstacles to be overcome, but one of abundance, joy and true freedom. One that is guaranteed since the beginning of human experience on this planet, it's all a matter of our thoughts and conscious awareness. We can deliver a message that will allow people to understand that they can create their own individual "new reality" based on what is truly valuable. As Earl Nightengale suggested - the BEST things in life are free - family, friends, love, life!

We won't necessarily be able to deliver this message from a pulpit or a mountaintop. I think this message will be delivered over the bridge through a true desire to be of Service. A bridge that disregards, and melts the idea of separation, in any form. A bridge that is based on what the greatest teachers have suggested to us in all their messages. That bridge is Love.

All the Best - Andy