Editorial: Old Tools – New Tools
Stroma and Skye
Misadventure and Redemption on the Otryt Trail
Meeqi’s Gift
A Boys' Trip on Dovrefjell
Tumivut: Traces of our Footsteps
New Site/Old Site
Piksuk Media's Nunavut Quest Project Progress Report
Media Review: Nunavut Quest: Race Across Baffin
IMHO: Let's Talk
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Editor: Sue Hamilton
Webmaster: Mark Hamilton
The Fan Hitch, Journal of
the Inuit Sled Dog, is published four times
a year. It is available at no cost online
at: https://thefanhitch.org.
The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.
Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org.
This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.
Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org.
This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
Boss dog Romulus in the driver’s seat. Photo: L. Peplinski
Let's Talk
by Mark Hamilton
In my December 2011 IMHO, reflecting on an overview of developments in communication technologies over the last forty or so years, I commented that, "Now cell phones have morphed into smart phones where the internet and its instant connection to any place else in the world travels with us in our pocket."
At least in part, the pace of our lives seems to have increased due to a virtual explosion of developments in communication technologies. Cell phones are popular to the point of being ubiquitous. Smart phones piggyback features like access to the world-wide-web on top of their ability to send and receive phone calls. Prior to this revolution in communication people away from their homes or work needed to find public phones just so they could make a call to another person. Now they can do things like send emails to multiple people, browse the internet and update their Facebook page while sitting on a park bench somewhere. That's very different. It's not at all like having fifteen errands to run and only three hours in which to accomplish them. These kinds of communications are a relatively new area of activity and it takes time away from the other things we love, enjoy and choose to be doing.
However, there is now a place where we can go and meet (electronically) to talk about things we do enjoy: Inuit Dogs, dog driving and travel on the land, to name just three. The Nunavut Quest website is now online and offers a broad range of resources to visitors such as their knowledge base, photo gallery and interactive online game as well as news, information about the race, Piksuk's six-part Nunavut Quest: Race Across Baffin documentary and their La Quête de Phillippe sur l'Île Baffin video.
The site also hosts a fledgling discussion forum. This is your chance to ask questions and be involved in discussions with potentially everyone from ISD enthusiasts to arctic dog drivers. In order for any discussion forum to thrive, the participants need to be truly interested in the focus of the forum, so readers of The Fan Hitch should feel right at home on the Nunavut Quest discussion forum. Good topics and good discussions attract more people and that results in the community growing. As the community grows discussions get even better and more topics for discussion are created. Right now readers of The Fan Hitch have a ground floor opportunity to be involved with both each other and the larger ISD community. Registry only takes only a few moments. You just need a screen name and a password. You can use your own name or an alias.
I think you ought to drop by the Nunavut Quest website, take a look around, catch up on the latest news and maybe try your hand at their interactive game. Then take a look at their discussion forum and consider registering. See you there?