Volunteer Vacations, 10th Edition

n occasion it’s worth emphasizing previously stated points, and this is one of those occasions:  Publish Chicago is a supporter of using technology to enhance publishing.  Do we like the Kindle?  Yes, we do.  Do we like blogs?  Yes, we do.  Are we sad that newspapers are struggling?  Yes.  But BBC news online is so much better, in so many ways.  I bring this up because what I have to say about Volunteer Vacations is that it’s a fantastic body of information that would be so much more useful if it were to be placed on the web than it is in its current, printed-book format.

Volunteer Vacations is essentially a giant list full of lots of information about volunteering programs around the world to which one could travel.  The book opens with a few inspiring words about why one should be excited about volunteering as a vacation, then it dives headfirst (alphabetically) into their list of programs.  Each program is categorized by project type; the mission statement of the project, year it was founded, number of volunteers the previous year, funding sources, location, time line, cost, needed skills, specific details about the work that they do, and details about how to get started with them is information that is supplied for each project on the list.  It’s really a fantastic set of information for anyone who might be thinking about taking a volunteer vacation (which I believe is now called voluntourism).  The book seems to assume that the reader will already understand what voluntourism is and what being on a volunteer vacation might be like, because it doesn’t go into great detail on this subject.  If you’re looking for this kind of information, you probably want to look elsewhere.

About this book, I have to pose the question:  couldn’t this information be shared more effectively on the web?  Instead of having to search through a book for each project that might be in the “Rural Development” category, one could simply click on a “Rural Development” category link and see all the projects in that category in one convenient list.  The information could be constantly updated, which would be both helpful for the reader (who doesn’t want to be reading out-of-date information) and for the environment, as copies of this book wouldn’t need to be reprinted every single year.  The book features a story every few pages from a reader who worked on a highlighted project, but online there could be an entire, enormous section full of participants’ stories, thus giving the newcomer a much better look into what these projects might actually be like.  I cannot think of single reason as to why this book should not be turned into a webpage.

Let me re-emphasize my earlier point that this book is not bad; it is, in fact, a great resource for anyone looking into voluntourism.  It’s the format that I propose changing.  There’s a reason encyclopedia and newspaper sales are down.  Some information is just better presented on the web.