a1290: Re: a1206: Antoine responds to Hudicourt on Traveling database (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy Antoine <GuyAntoine@gajma.com>


"What if Corbett or Guy Antoine maintained a list of suggestions for places to
stay in Haiti and places where one can stop to make a phone call, to eat, or
find a clean bathroom."  J. Hudicourt

Thanks, Josiane... as though I needed more work, but I will graciously accept
the challenge.  But with a string attached: I set it up, you all do the work. What
do I mean?  Well, first the design, then the information.  First, you can start by
telling me or other webmasters that may be interested (Do you hear me, Pascal?
By the way, Pascal Antoine, the webmaster of HaitiXchange.com is a dynamic
and youthful webmaster who is very much up to date on the Haitian hip hop
scene... a scene where all would greet me with "Hi Pops!" if they were in the
mood for some cross-generational experience), yes tell us just how you would
want all that information categorized.  Would it be as a directory of service
businesses or public utilities, arranged first geographically, then alphabetically...
and how fine should the geographical distribution be  (departments, cities,
communal sections, etc) or just alongside major roads (I suspect, everything
being relative, that some of them may be called "major") ?  What other indexing
methods could be used?

Then, I could design an interactive forum or database to capture all that info
on hotels, restaurants, public phones, restrooms (hmm...), ATM's, shopping
marts, food stores and snack bars, repair shops, churches, peristyles, mosques,
and temples, pharmacies, dispensaries, clinics and hospitals, and so on and so
forth, without forgetting of course the favorite places where Corbett List
members love to gather. "Hi, Josianne, I am stranded. Can you put me up for
the night?" (Or better yet, how we could all crash together in a single room at
the Oloffson!)

Then when it's nicely designed, I would open it for input.  Hey, you would not
expect me to put in all of this information myself.  This would have to be a
community effort (And, come to think of it, shouldn't we also have a section
called "Places where one is most likely to catch a glimpse of... x, y, or z "?
Oh forget it, this section would only have one entry and of course, that's the
Oloffson!

Now, we have our design and our database, of greatest utility to the Corbett
List and even maybe a few other people at large.  How would we pay for such
a service?  Well, the answer to that is easy!  Every Corbett List member would
send me a penny and I'd be set for life!

So, let us begin, Josianne!  If I falter, Pascal Antoine will pick up the slack... in
brotherly fashion, though I swear to you there is no Pascal in my immediate
family.  He's just one of those curiously named Corbett List members who
did not bother to check the rules that there could only be one Antoine on the
list.  If he did not have such a cool website, I'd sue him.

Well, Josianne, I'll tell you my first input into such a database.  When I last
visited Jérémie, I went for lunch a couple of times at a small resto called
"Chez Patou".  I swear... he made the best sandwiches I ever had in my life.
Could anyone else vouch for that outrageous claim?

Jwèt pou ou. (Your turn.)

Guy S. Antoine
Editor-Webmaster
www.haiti2004.com
www.windowsonhaiti.com