Women on the map

One of the more lively discussion groups on Agriculture Online over the years has been its Women in Ag section. There you'll find people talking topics from livestock care and farm management to peanut butter cookies and the Sopranos finale. It's a friendly, intelligent kind of place on the Web.

About ten years ago, the discussion group inspired a face-to-face meeting of the contributors. Women came from all over the country to get together for a couple days at Living History Farms in Des Moines. It was one of the first times I started to fathom the power this new medium held for uniting people in positive ways.

A recent poster on the WIA board asked people where they are from, prompting one of our staff to create a Women in Agriculture map for the group. Check out this cool application, a beta product from a new company, Frappr.

It's not the same as meeting in Des Moines, but this new tool shows a nice little snapshot of where we all live in the world--when we're not on the Web.