Idea for city books series

 

 

Idea of Check-in-Book format for city books series

What Check-in-Book (CnB) is?

It is a book as a memento of visit to any city or town. It is, in the same time, an individual gift for any tourist and a physical way to check-in which avows the visit. Also it could become kind of collectible object.

In clearly structured way, it contains important information about the city/town, its sights, interesting stories and facts, statistics as infographics, best photos of the place and themedpicture galleries, as well as pages and text boxes to fill in by tourist/book buyer after impressions of the visit.

As a book, CnB may have its own name, such as “My visit [to the city/town]” or “Memento for the visit [to the city/town]”.

CnB purchase can be a symbol of visit’s validation – besides, it can be combined with electronic check-in system stringed to social networks, standalone site and/or project application.

Based on the CnB concept, a gamefication system development is possible as it will allow keeping count on the visits and book purchases by users and publisher. For that end CnB can contain a special code inside the book; the code entered by user in the city/town of visit, which can be checked using GPS, will allow registering of book purchase and simultaneously, a check-in itself.

On the basis of purchased books’ count, places visited or other criteria, active users may acquire some certain statuses or benefits which will boost them to new journey and new purchases.

Target audience

Foreign tourists who will to buy some good and unusual souvenir and locals who want to give a present in memory to their friends, relatives or business partners.

CnB has its multifunctionality – this is a place’s enlightener, kind of impressions diary and set of souvenirs in the same time. In spite of its unusual content stuff which is described below, CnB may be provided with a pocket for small printed souvenirs, such as postcards, stickers, flat magnets (“Greetings from [the city/town]” or “Welcome to [the city/town]”). Thus, any torist which chooses to purchase CnB as local book memento will be released from the problem of choice as small presents to be given away to friends are already a part of CnB.

For locals CnB is, in fact, an ideal present related to their own city or town. Availability of such memento will ease difficulties in fitting of a proper souvenir for friends from other places.

Comparison of the concepts

	Guidebooks	Photo albums	Nasnaga Check-in-Book
Information about the place	Synoptic	Brief	Detailed and comprises lot of aspects
Information about points of interest	Detailed	No	Brief
Infographics	Seldom	No	Yes
Big pictures	Usually none	Yes	Dedicated chapter
Object-related picture collections	Seldom	Maybe	Yes
Dedicated space for the visitor’s notes	No	No	Yes
Set of souvenirs	No	No	Yes
Place and time of purchase	Usually before the visit	Usually within or after the visit or not related to the visit	Within the visit

Buyer to Check-in-Book interaction pattern

1. Buyer pays a visit to the city/town and buy there CnB which is dedicated to this place.

2. Sealed book contains a special code to be able to make check-in possible within the project. Buyer enters the code in his/her gadget via a special application or through the site. Fullcheck-in registration is possible only in case the coordinates of current buyer’s position coincide with coordinates of the city/town to which the book is dedicated, otherwise only the recording of the book’s acquisition will be made. In the proper city/town, buyer later will have a possibility to retry with check-in process.

3. For full or partial check-in buyer can earn some points; by achieving a certain number of points he/she will be rewarded by badge or status.

Check-in-Book content

Below you can find CnB’s chapters and headings which are sorted in accordance to methods of information flow. Order of thematic pages in the book determined at the editorialpreparation. The publication begins with an introduction; also in the beginning of the book a word from city authorities to the tourists can be placed.

Information issued as tables and text

• Praecognitum as a table (with referrals to other pages if latter have more detailed information) which contains such data as day of city foundation or year when city/town was heard first time; also here data about foundation of the community and its symbols, local holidays, geographical values, time belt, phone code, name of the city/town in different languages, square of community along with numbers of perimeter and dimensions north to south and west to east, amount of inhabitants, administrative division, main streets and squares, size of green belt, length of the local streets, number of bridges and square of residential space, will be placed.

• Transport connection data (subway, electric transport, buses) as a statistic table which contains number and length of local transport routes, amount of vehicles, passenger traffic incl. subway stations, with some additional information such as history and local transport features, number of undercrossings, subway diagram, etc.

• Data on railroad, bus, riverside stations and passenger ship terminals, as name, date of establishment, year of the opening, architects, positional information, design features and curious facts

• Distance to another places and cities/towns is for straight-line distance to the biggest cities of the world and also road distances to the cities/towns nearby

• Meat-and-potatoes about local landscape and basins (if any)

• Main key dates as a list of biggest events which were important for the city/town or for whole country

• Historical facts about streets, avenues and boulevards; information about personalities after which they are named

• Origins of local placenames

• Comparison of indices of the city/town to other places in the country or in the world (number of inhabitants, similar size, etc.)

• Level of local prices (immobility and rent, hotel expenses, essentials, nutrition, books and press, etc.)

Information issued as infographics

• Inhabitants flow chart – number of inhabitants, incl. old times; dynamics for the last century with ten years step; historical facts that affect this number significantly

• Square growth dynamics, as a diagram with city/town patterns in different years in comparison with its current map; potentially, territories which most likely will be added to the city/town in the near future, also can be marked

• Length of the streets and avenues can be represented as a bar chart where roads took place of image columns and some drawing objects that are typical of that streets/avenues, will be shown

• Information about the industry and main activities of the population

• Cities and points of interest on the same latitude and longitude as the city/town: list of cities will be followed for additional presentation by schematic representation of the globewith demonstration of longitude and parallel of city/town location

• Chronology of objects’ appearance in the city/town: years of opening for significant buildings and monuments, etc. as chronological table or a schematic map of the city; objects will be represented with icons which indicating year of their construction and/or reconstruction

• Main local associations or symbols – monuments and other landmarks

• Local climatic features contains some graph of average temperatures within a year, schedule of rainfall, wind rose, amount of sunny days per year, a brief description of the climate(regular, irregular and anomalous phenomena, other features), weather records (absolute minimums and maximums)

• Schedule of regular events such as day of the city/town, local events, festivals, periods of blossoming, with an indication of best periods to visit the city/town – issued as calendar gridby month

• Most famous cultural places of the city/town such as theaters, museums, galleries, permanent and seasonal expositions, etc.

Information issued as lists

• Rubricated list of attractions with the possibility to make marks about visits already made or desired ones, sorted by category (places of worship, monuments, historical sculptures, modern urban objects, etc.)

• Twin cities/towns with a short summary for each one, a small photo, coat of arms or other symbol, beginning of association (date)

• List of notable persons were born or reside in the city/town

• People of name buried on local cemeteries

• Celebrities who had visited the city/town such as artists, politicians and other public figures

• Reference on the city/town in literature, big names’ quotations, proverbs, songs, etc.

• Shootings made in the city/town – information about well-known films, TV shows and music videos

• City administrators with portraits and short data about years of life and deeds most important

• Ways and famous habits of local people

Descriptive texts about the city/town

• Reviews of the city/town from the Internet and other sources with quotes from tourist impressions

• Local myths and legends from ancient times to the latter days

• Short and funny stories – two-page opening with most intriguing short stories about the place and its dwellers

• Facts of interest as a page or two-page opening with pure facts

• Records and achievements of the city/town within the country (or the whole world) incl. a chronology of first appearance of some objects (newspaper, tram, steamship, etc.)

• Legend(s) of the founding – this part can also be added with information on the problem of determining the exact date of foundation or first mention of the city/town

• Local and/or regional dishes, especially the ones that have a name of the place in its description

Topical collection of pictures

• Best views of the place (possible with panoramic and aerial views)

• Lost in time – for objects from old photos and pictures

• Locations that have changed dramatically over time as a comparing two or more photos

• Local windows, doors, arches, terraces and balconies (special page or dedicated part of a page for each element)

• Domes on local churches and buildings

• Stairs – famous and non-famous

• Courtyards – most unusual and locally specific old courtyards

• City/Town clocks – mechanical, electronic and floral clocks, sundials

• Pictures of local rivers and their bridges

• Fountains

• Letters and numbers in signages – separate pictures in series (A to Z / 1 to 20 or more)

• Tables with city names and numbers – locally specific and some unusual

• Subway stations (most remarkable ones with apposite design and ornaments)

• Street art and city non-official graphics

White pages for notes of the owner

• Certificate of the visit as a pastiched letterhead

• Page for note of impression – may be right after the two-page opening with printed reviews of different sources

• Reasons to pay another visit to the place or invite some friends to come

• City/Town map to draw own paths with marks of places visited; may be sketchy but will contain all the main streets

• Quiz to the knowledge of the place: 10 to 15 multiple-choice questions (with a page with right answers in the book)

• CnB ends with a page with announcement in form of complimental ticket for visiting the place again.

Use conditions

• Creative Commons* license: CC-BY-SA
  • the concept can be used for commercial purposes (requires coordination with the author)
  • revision and re-development of the concept is allowed
  • for any publication based on this concept to specify the concept of authorship the following sign is required:
    © Conceptualized by Nasnaga.com
• Any publishers which take this concept as a basis for editorial preparation of its publications, is obliged to notify the author of the concept.

Contact: via https://www.facebook.com/nasnaga/

Created in Ukraine

Concept © Nasnaga.com, 2013-15

© Concept by Nasnaga.com, Eugene Prudky

© Translated into English by Volodymyr Litvinenko