I know doing mapping applications in Flash isn't a big deal anymore. I've never done one personally. but I did just make some mods to one I asked my work-study student to create.

This is a map of the upcoming construction season at Lehigh University. The site will be officially "live" sometime next week.

The projects on this map start this May and will continue (in some cases) through January of 2007. As you can imagine. it's gonna be kinda messy here for a while ;-) Part of that "messy" environment is the attitudes of some alumni towards a particular change to campus. Whatever...that's the group we have to actively inform in order to reduce opposition.

Point: this Flash map is going to be a big part of that communications strategy. We're going to drive a lot of traffic towards it. Sure. it's a 100kb swf. but I think we'll manage.

The coolest part is that we've hooked it in to a couple web services to track which items get the most attention and can see in real time the results. I love it and so do the folks who are catching most of the heat here (Alumni Director for one. VP of Facilities for another).

My hope is to have a blog up by May that someone (probably me) will maintain that will include frequent updates on the progress of various projects with pictures. Visitors will get a lot more value out of their visit and in turn. will feel like Lehigh's money is well spent.

For those of you who know me. you know that i'm really a musician at heart. I was reading Metafilter tonight and came across this link for the New World Symphony.

Not your standard "here listen to this" link...there are some very nicely done program notes integrated with the presentation as well as a synchronized display of which instruments are performing at that moment.

It's great for people new to the orchestra. Check it out even if you're well schooled in classical music...there's something for everybody (even the geeks).