Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Postcard revival

Sending a postcard to friends while you are travelling is a time-honored tradition that is rooted in the desire to share experiences. Today there are other options, like e-mail or the telephone, but there's nothing like an old-fashioned postcard.

The postal-loving people over at Postcrossing have taken postcards one step further. They promote sending postcards to random strangers. It's sort an pen-pal system, powered by the Internet. In just five years, Postcrossing has facilitated more than 4.7 million postcards sent by more than 190,000 members to about 200 countries.
The service is free. Once you join, you put your address into a secure database. When you are ready to send a card, they will give you an address somewhere around the world. At the same time, your address will be given to someone else who will send you a card.

It's an interesting way to teach geography and help international affairs.

5 comments:

grannybunny said...

I think it's a great idea and plan to join.

Anonymous said...

I joined PostCrossing a few years ago. You can be as active as you want. It would be a wonderful tool for a school classroom. Writing and geography skills are both covered. You can specify the type of postcard (like art or nature or a local picture) so you don't receive anything unwanted. The stamps on the cards you receive are interesting too.

PostMuse said...

I've been a member of Postcrossing since its "birth" (I'm Zmrzlina there) and have connected with many wonderful people over the years.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful way to support the mail. I am joining. I am also going to share with my family and friends.

Anonymous said...

I joined today and am telling the school here in town about it as well as others! I love the concept!