How impressive is the interactive Web site for the UW-Madison's Lakeshore Nature Preserve? Well, here's one measure: 2007 is not quite half over, yet PlacesOnLine.org -- a map-based portal maintained by the Association of American Geographers -- has named the preserve's site as one of its two choices for "Best Web Site of the Year" for 2007.
Judges hailed the site's comprehensive toolsets, which allow visitors to select layers upon layers of information regarding the preserve's natural and social histories, but also access captioned photographic resources that illustrate historical and contemporary features on the map in exquisite comparative detail.
Bravo and congratulations all around to UW history Prof. William Cronon for supervising the site's development; to Melanie McCalmont, a UW-Madison geography graduate and doctoral candidate in life sciences communication, who designed the site; and to more than 60 other members of the cross-disciplinary team that labored to build the Web site into a resource deserving of such prestigious peer recognition.
