Preserving the legacy of Bay Area Action’s environmental work from 1990–2000 and beyond.
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In the summer of 1998 longtime BAA volunteer Jason Ulibarri approached the BAA Council about a project to create an online magazine for travelers interested in ecotourism, which he called Action Planet.
Ecotourism emerged as a concept in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it rose rapidly in popularity and mainstream adoption during the 1990s, as environmental awareness and the idea of sustainable travel gained global traction1234. The 1990s saw ecotourism become a significant sector within the travel industry, with growing investment, the establishment of best practices, and international recognition, such as the United Nations declaring 2002 the International Year of Ecotourism123.
Jason became a full-time BAA employee in May 1998, responsible for raising his own salary (source: “Jason Ulibarri employment contract, 07-1998”). He rented a desk in the back room at 715 Colorado Ave.
In July, Jason and Mark Bult brainstormed names for the project and searched for available domain names. Action Planet and Adventure Planet were Jason’s early favorites, but unavailable as URLs. Mark suggested AdventureScapes, and helped him register the .com, .net, and .org variants. Jason began building the framework of a website while the domain remained parked with a “Coming soon” message.
Jason also traveled extensively to research destinations and write content for the site, including trips through the Southern US and Central American countries such as Belize, which Jason reported was “the emerging ecotourism capital of the world because of its enlightened government policies, its protected natural resources, and its use of English as an official language. In Belize I met with the Minister of Tourism and several business leaders not only to interview them for articles but also to get background information about the ecotourism industry. I also visited some of the country’s premier ecotourism destinations.”
Plans for the website included:
By late 1998 a demo site was launched as Jason added more content. It was similar in structure to Yahoo! at the time.
During his time working out of the BAA offices, Jason also helped out with numerous events, such as an open house and Earth Day.
In 1999 Jason reported the project was relatively dormant while he concentrated on two other priorities: Finding paying work and learning more about web user experience design. “I’m pursuing paying work that will allow me to develop my web skills,” he told the council. “Secondly, I’m organizing a research group, called Eco-tech, at the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. The lab studies interactive technologies that influence human behavior and attitudes. Eco-tech is a subset of the lab and it studies and develops persuasive technologies that improve your ecological impact.” The lab was founded in 1997 by BJ Fogg, who had invited BAA to participate in various studies and research.
“Through this work,” said Jason, ”I’m learning how to make software interface design compelling and persuasive. I look forward to bringing the new knowledge back to my work at AdventureScapes.”
Technology available to build a website was very limited in the late 1990s, and Jason struggled to make significant progress as a one-man team; he did have the help of an intern at one point (but that person’s identity and input remains unknown at this point). AdventureScapes eventually foundered and the project was later shuttered.
Mark Bult still owns the domains Adventurescapes.com, Adventurescapes.net, and Adventurescapes.org, and will entertain purchase requests at a realistic price.
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