Mapped Travel's Michael McDonnell interviewed by Multimedia Squawk Box

Jan. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- Multimedia Squawk Box (MSB) interviewed Michael T McDonnell (MTM) of Mapped Travel on 01. Jan 2011. What follows is a transcript of this exciting conversation.

INTRODUCTIONS
Multimedia Squawk Box (MSB): Welcome, Michael, thank you for finding the time to talk to us.
Michael T McDonnell (MTM): Thank you, my pleasure.
MSB: Michael, could you briefly introduce yourself for our readers?
MTM: Of course. My name is Michael Thomas McDonnell and I am the Communications officer of mappedtravel.com.

WHAT IS MAPPED TRAVEL?
MSB: Thank you. Let's jump straight in: what is Mapped Travel?
MTM: Mapped Travel is a website that can be found at http://www.mappedtravel.com. It is a free community where anyone and everyone interested in travel can share their knowledge about any city, sight, hotel, restaurant, bar, transport option, etc. with others.
MSB: Isn't that already the idea behind the big gun: Wikitravel?
MTM (laughs): Of course, now that you mention it it seems like we have been wasting our time for the past 4 months... Seriously, Wikitravel is a great website and we like it a lot and Mapped Travel and it are similar in that they encourage unedited submission of material from anyone. There are two important differences though, that make Mapped Travel very much stand apart.
MSB: The first?
MTM: Whenever I use Wikitravel, I love the short but clear information on sights it provides, I print them out, I go to the city and then I never find the sight. That's where Mapped Travel comes to the rescue. The information on our website is very similar, but it is all put directly where the sight is located, on the map. Even I can hardly miss it in that way. Particularly when I have used the Print Guidebook function before travelling.
MSB: And what is the second?
MTM (smiles): We are much smaller.
MSB: Err, that is an advantage?
MTM (smiles broadly): Not necessarily for us, but certainly for our community. Any good idea one of our users has and submits to us may very quickly be realised if we agree with it: there are countless examples of interface improvements and new features that went live within weeks. Unthinkable on any of the huge websites.
MSB: I see.

WHAT IS THE FAVOURITE SPOT YOU DISCOVERED ON MAPPED TRAVEL?
MTM: Is there a favourite spot that you yourself have discovered with the help of the website?
MSB: Several. But what springs to mind is watching the sunset in Casablanca (http://www.mappedtravel.com/africa/morocco/casablanca-tra...). Someone added that as a sight and initially I thought we had to delete it, till I had a look at the picture. Then I simply had to book a flight and see it for myself. It definitely was a real sight...

WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
MTM: What are your plans for the future?
MSB: We will focus on fine-tuning the user experience and making the website even easier to navigate. We will also re-emphasise our efforts to explain the map-based concept to internet users everywhere. The past teaches us that there is an initial learning curve that throws many potential community members of track. Those that persevere find the interface easy and effective, but we will make it clearer how to get there and why you should keep at it.
MTM: Anything else?
MSB (laughs): Exponential growth of users and entries.
MTM: Good luck and thank you for the interview.
MSB: Thank you.

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Mapped Travel is a free community website that provides interactive online guide books on the travel map.