Entire Countries Research Articles

Grobalization: An Analysis of the Wal-Martization of the World

This article analyzes the Wal-Martization of the world by using a theoretical concept called grobalization. Grobalization refers to imperialistic goals, desires, and needs of large corporations, or even entire countries, to impose themselves in various areas of the world so that their power, influence, and profits can grow. As a form of unbounded capitalism and cultural imperialism, grobalization is both a specific and an extreme form of globalization. The rapid global expansion of Wal-Mart, the largest and most successful corporation in the world, exemplifies the reality of grobalization. The Wal-Martization of the world has revealed that local cultures are being overwhelmed by grobalization. As the grobal penetrates the local ever more, less and less of that local will remain uninhibited by grobal influences. As illustrated in the Wal-Martization of Mexico and China, cultures are changing as a result of grobalization.

ICCWC: Global collaboration to fight wildlife and forest crime

Blighting vulnerable nations, wildlife and forest crime has become a serious transnational threat to the security, stability and economy of entire countries and regions. The United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice have voiced grave concern over the indiscriminate plunder of natural resources and national heritage.

Nuclear Weapons and Existential Threats: Insights from a Comparative Analysis of Nuclear-Armed States

Nuclear weapons are uniquely capable of threatening entire countries’ existences, but not all nuclear weapons possessors are equally capable of posing such threats. This article explores the existential threats that nuclear weapons possessors pose with a new, empirically based metric called the Nuclear Annihilation Threat (NAT) Index. Using the NAT Index, we comparatively analyze the existential threats and vulnerabilities that nuclear-armed states face from one another. In particular, we apply these insights to gain a better understanding of the nuclear security threats and vulnerabilities of the United States and Israel and explore the implications of Iran going nuclear for both countries.

Where Do You Want to Meet? Assessment and Evaluation of Virtual Meeting Software

Like many other Canadian professional association executives, the Manitoba Association of Health Information Providers (MAHIP) Executive meets on a monthly basis and strives to maximize efficiency and productivity in their meetings. The average Executive meeting length is 60 minutes and the average travel time to and from any inperson meeting doubles the time of the meeting. Securing an efficient alternative to meeting in person therefore became a priority for the MAHIP Executive. Other Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) chapters, and health library executives or committees, have used virtual meeting software when their members were dispersed across entire countries (such as the CHLA/ABSC Board of Directors [1], the Medical Library Association Board of Directors [2], and the Canadian Virtual Health Library Task Force). Literature has shown that virtual meetings have been successful for conference planning [3] in instances where travel costs made national meetings prohibitive [4] and for rural association members [5]. However, it remained uncertain whether the challenges of meeting virtually would outweigh the challenges of travelling across a single city. The purpose of assessing virtual meeting software was therefore to determine the feasibility, value, and efficiency for MAHIP Executive meetings and to find the easiest, most convenient, and most cost-effective virtual meeting software.

Travel behavior and deferral of Dutch blood donors: consequences for donor availability.

Donors returning from areas with outbreaks of infectious diseases may donate infectious blood back home. Geographic donor deferral is an effective measure to ensure the blood safety, but donor deferral may pose a threat for the blood supply especially after holiday seasons. Insight into the travel behavior of blood donors is a first step to define appropriate deferral strategies. This study describes the travel behavior of Dutch donors, the actual deferral, and the consequences of deferral strategies on donor availability. A questionnaire designed to assess travel behavior (destination, frequency, and duration of travels) was sent to 2000 Dutch donors. The impact of travel deferral policies on donor availability was calculated, expressed as proportionate decrease in donor availability. The deferral policies considered were 1) deferral based on entire countries instead of affected regions where an infection is prevalent and 2) deferral after any travel outside Europe ("universal deferral"). Of the 1340 respondents, 790 (58.9%) donors traveled within Europe only, 61 (4.6%) outside Europe only, and 250 (18.7%) within and outside Europe. The deferral for entire countries and universal deferral would lead to 11.1 and 11.4% decrease in donor availability, respectively. Most Dutch donors traveled outside the Netherlands, while 23.2% traveled outside Europe. Universal deferral resulted in an additional decrease in donor availability of 0.3% compared with deferral for entire countries instead of affected regions where an infection is prevalent. Thus, the universal deferral could be considered as a simpler and safer measure.

Социальное неравенство и проблема принципала-агента

Social inequality has a lot of reasons. One of them is managerial. Managerial duties are paid so high that it set the stage for discontent not only within individual organizations, but also entire countries. The principles (the people in the state and shareholders in the corporation) because the specific structure of their competencies can’t totally control agents (officials and managers). As to agents, the moral imperative to act for the good of the social system and reputation considerations (to be remembered as a good ruler or a genius manager) can easily rejected when there is an opportunity to make millions dollars without special efforts. As a result hundreds thousands of people across the globe in the corporate and government structures are enriched through specific solutions to the principal-agent problem, and social inequality becomes an integral inevitable part of the modern economy.

From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel by Robert Wistrich (review)

Reviewed by: From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel by Robert Wistrich Jack Jacobs From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel By Robert Wistrich. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012. Robert Wistrich has been writing about the relationship between Jews and the Left for many years, and has contributed a great deal to our understanding of that subject. He has published any number of works on related themes, based on extensive research in archives and libraries in Europe, Israel, and the US, and, in the course of his research, has located significant amounts of important, previously unknown, source material. Books by Wistrich dealing with subjects discussed in his latest volume include Revolutionary Jews from Marx to Trotsky (1976), Socialism and the Jews (1982) and Between Redemption and Perdition (1990). Indeed: those who have read Prof. Wistrich’s earlier works are likely to find substantial portions of his newest book quite familiar. The chapters of From Ambivalence to Betrayal dealing with figures like Marx, Bernstein, Luxemburg, Kautsky, Trotsky, and Kreisky, for example, often rehearse material Wistrich has discussed at other points in his career. To be sure, Wistrich’s bibliography in From Ambivalence to Betrayal lists many works published after Wistrich released his first books, such as Enzo Traverso’s Die Marxisten und die Jüdische Frage (1995) and Lars Fischer’s excellent monograph The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Imperial Germany (2007). Wistrich, however, appears not to have been heavily influenced by these or other more recent studies, and does not seriously engage with their arguments. Wistrich states his thesis clearly and explicitly: “A poisonous anti-Jewish legacy can be found in Marx, Fourier, and Proudhon, extending through the orthodox Communists and ‘non-conformist’ Trotskyists to the Islamo-Leftist hybrids of today” (xii). In general, Wistrich finds that contemporary leftist anti-Zionism entails contemporary leftist antisemitism, and argues that “whether intended or not, the ‘anti-Zionist’ campaign on the Left strikes not only at Israel but at the security and standing of all Jews” (470). Those anti-Zionists who are of Jewish origin, Wistrich suggests, regularly suffer from self-hatred. It is certainly the case that there have been—and are—vicious antisemites on the Left. But, as Wistrich is well aware, there are also profoundly important examples of leftist leaders, including orthodox Communists, who were not antisemitic. Vladimir Lenin was wrong on many crucial matters. He was, however, not an antisemite. In a recording made at the end [End Page 162] of March, 1919 (from which Wistrich quotes one phrase) Lenin proclaims that “only the most ignorant and downtrodden people can believe the lies and slander that are spread about the Jews. … It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. … Among the Jews there are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism.” Lenin’s strong condemnation of antisemitism, moreover, was not exceptional. In more recent times, for example, Fidel Castro—surely a major leftist—can and should be criticized for having dictatorial policies, but cannot be fairly criticized for his treatment of or statements about Jews. In other words: some leftists have been antisemitic, others have not. I do not agree with Wistrich’s contention that the legacy of the Left is (simply) one of poisonous antisemitism. Wistrich argues that there are entire Western countries in which antisemitism is endemic. He claims, for example that in Great Britain “antisemitic sentiment is… a part of mainstream discourse, continually resurfacing among the academic, political, and media elites” (537). If so, isn’t it possible that those British leftists who are antisemitic are no different in this regard than their counterparts from other parts of the British political spectrum? Why single out antisemitic statements made by leftists if such statements are found among individuals of many different political persuasions? I would also note that though Wistrich has read very widely and reads many languages, there are surprising lapses in this work. He begins his...

Estimating the opportunity costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions via avoided deforestation, using integrated assessment modelling

Estimates show that, in recent years, deforestation and forest degradation accounted for about 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The implementation of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) is suggested to provide substantial emission reductions at low costs, although cost estimates show large uncertainty. Cost estimates can differ, as they depend on the approach chosen, for example: giving an economic stimulus to entire countries, taking landowners as actors in a REDD framework, or starting from protecting carbon-rich areas. This last approach was chosen for this analysis. Proper calculation of the economic cost requires an integrated modelling approach involving biophysical impact calculations and their associated economic effects. To date, only a few global modelling studies have applied such an approach. In modelling REDD measures, the actual implementation of REDD can take many forms, with implications for the results. This study assumes that non-Annex I countries will protect carbon-rich areas against deforestation, and therefore will refrain from using these areas as agricultural land. The opportunity costs of reducing deforestation within the framework of REDD were assessed using an integrated economic and land-use modelling approach comprising the global economic LEITAP model and the biophysical IMAGE model. One of the main methodological challenges is the representation of land use and the possibility to convert woodlands land into agricultural land. We endogenised the availability of agricultural land by introducing a flexible land supply curve, and represented the implementation of REDD policies as a reduction in the maximum amount of unmanaged land that potentially would be available for conversion to agriculture, in various regions in the world. In a series of model experiments, carbon-rich areas in non-Annex I countries were protected from deforestation. In each consecutive scenario the protected area was increased, starting off with the most carbon rich lands, worldwide systematically working down to areas with less carbon storage. The associated opportunity costs, expressed in terms of GDP reduction, were calculated with the economic LEITAP model. The resulting net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from land-use change was calculated with the IMAGE model. From the sequence of experiments, marginal cost curves were constructed, relating carbon dioxide emission reductions to the opportunity costs. The results showed that globally a maximum of around 2.5Gt carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided, annually. However, regional differences in opportunity costs are large and were found to range from about 0 to 3.2 USD per tonne carbon dioxide in Africa, 2 to 9 USD in South America and Central America, and 20 to 60 USD in Southeast Asia. These results are comparable to other studies that have calculated these costs, in terms of both opportunity costs and the regional distribution of emissions reduction.

Solving genetic disease at the population scale

I will discuss the latest advances in genome sequencing technology, and the approach to the $1000 genome, with a focus on the status of the new Ion Torrent Proton Platform and how this can be applied in a systematic way to solve genetic diseases for entire populations. For this, I will present a process that identifies and removes all the bottlenecks in deploying genomic personalized medicine for entire countries. Examples will be provided based on specific national efforts already underway, in the USA and globally, and I will discuss the requirements that make countries or regions good candidates for this approach, and the opportunities for such countries to begin or accelerate the process.

Community-Level Income Inequality and HIV Prevalence among Persons Who Inject Drugs in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

Socioeconomic status has a robust positive relationship with several health outcomes at the individual and population levels, but in the case of HIV prevalence, income inequality may be a better predictor than absolute level of income. Most studies showing a relationship between income inequality and HIV have used entire countries as the unit of analysis. In this study, we examine the association between income inequality at the community level and HIV prevalence in a sample of persons who inject drugs (PWID) in a concentrated epidemic setting. We recruited PWID and non-PWID community participants in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam, and administered a cross-sectional questionnaire; PWID were tested for HIV. We used ecologic regression to model HIV burden in our PWID study population on GINI indices of inequality calculated from total reported incomes of non-PWID community members in each commune. We also modeled HIV burden on interaction terms between GINI index and median commune income, and finally used a multi-level model to control for community level inequality and individual level income. HIV burden among PWID was significantly correlated with the commune GINI coefficient (r = 0.53, p = 0.002). HIV burden was also associated with GINI coefficient (β = 0.082, p = 0.008) and with median commune income (β = −0.018, p = 0.023) in ecological regression. In the multi-level model, higher GINI coefficient at the community level was associated with higher odds of individual HIV infection in PWID (OR = 1.46 per 0.01, p = 0.003) while higher personal income was associated with reduced odds of infection (OR = 0.98 per $10, p = 0.022). This study demonstrates a context where income inequality is associated with HIV prevalence at the community level in a concentrated epidemic. It further suggests that community level socioeconomic factors, both contextual and compositional, could be indirect determinants of HIV infection in PWID.

Global research, practice, and policy issues on the care of infants and young children at risk: the articles in context.

This Special Issue includes articles that contribute to (a) the global research base pertaining to the development of infants and toddlers at risk, primarily those who are institutionalized in lower resource countries; (b) interventions in institutions and to promote family alternatives to institutionalization; and (c) attempts to create modern child welfare systems emphasizing family care in entire states and countries. This introduction places these articles into the broader contexts of the literature in these three domains of interest. Across the world, urbanization, migration, armed conflict, epidemics, and famine disrupt families. Add poverty, abuse, neglect, and parental incapacity due to substance abuse and mental health problems, and the result is millions of children without parental care who come under governmental responsibility, often to be reared in institutions, and at risk for long-term developmental deficiencies and problems. Over the last 2 decades and especially recently, national and international governments and nongovernment organizations have increased efforts to help such children, especially those in low-resource countries. Two types of efforts have been made: one to improve the quality of care provided by institutions and the other to minimize the use of institutions and promote family residential care alternatives. The latter effort includes preventing family separations in the first place, reunification of children with birth families, and developing systems of kinship care, foster care, and adoption. This Special Issue of IMHJ is devoted to reports pertaining to issues in the research knowledge base, program practices, and countrywide policies for infants and young children at risk. We attempt in this introduction to place these reports in the broader context of this field, identify their unique contributions, and highlight lessons learned that can contribute to improved care practices and better child welfare systems.

Types of the National Tax Systems and their Harmonization in the Conditions of Globalization

At the beginning of the XXI century the dynamic development of the processes of internationalization of economic life has overcome entire countries and regions of the world and results in the investigation of rapprochement and convergence of the national tax systems. As world experience testifies, the modern tax systems that were formed in different countries of the world have become the result of difficult co-operation of economical, political and sociological factors. But at the same time the obvious differences of the mentioned factors create the necessity in the development and introduction of compatible mechanisms of the fiscal adjusting, that will deepen the international investment co-operation. That’s why it should be noticed that without the maintenance of formal tax sovereignty of all the countries of the world as a subject of international economic relations, co-ordination of tax policy, that was started in the middle of the XIX century, it is impossible to develop global economics in future. The purpose of this article is the analyses of the types of the national tax systems in the conditions of globalization, their description and determination. In this connection it should be noted that the processes of harmonization of the tax systems purchased the strongest embodiment within the limits of regional integration, where the level of economic co-operation and interdependence of countries is the biggest, and consequently the subsequent development of regional integration becomes impossible without intergovernmental convergence of the tax systems of countriesparticipants, that is supported with the standardization of their taxes, strengthening of co-operation and coordination of the tax systems.

Wie weit ist die Verschuldungskrise in der Europäischen Währungsunion überwunden?

In the first years of the eurozone debt crisis, European governments were busy struggling to achieve short-term financial stabilisation of banks and entire countries. Now, after the OMT programme and other stabilisation measures have calmed investors, attention has shifted to two issues: Firstly, are there signs of recovery in the real economy? Secondly, what will be the long-term institutional structure of the eurozone? This paper argues that the economic situation in the periphery countries is still fragile, despite significant adjustments that have taken place. Moreover, the most important institutional challenge is to avoid a situation in which national control over fiscal policy is combined with mutualisation of government debt.

A call for more fundamental science in regional hydrogeology

Regional hydrogeology is becoming increasingly important, but at the same time, scientifically sound, universal solutions to typical problems encountered on the regional scale are hard to find. Before explaining this statement in more detail, the use of the term “regional” in hydrogeology needs to be discussed; “regional” is used in widely varying contexts and to address a rather wide range of spatial expanses, which can lead to confusion. To the best knowledge of the author, no attempts have been made to systematize scale-related terminology in hydrogeology as has been done in surface hydrology (see e.g., Bloschl and Sivapalan 1995). The usage of the term “regional” in hydrogeology can encompass anything from areas that are just outside the radius of influence of a pumping well to entire countries. In this essay, it is used for areas in the range of 10–10 km in size. In the context of water-resources management, areas of this size often represent medium-to-large-sized river basins. The significance of river basins (larger catchments) as the main target of water-resources management was acknowledged early (Downing 1993; Sharpe et al. 2002) and is now highlighted for example by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD; Directive 2000/60/EC). While waterresources management approaches are often surface-water centred, more groundwater-related definitions of the regional scale in hydrogeology such as “regional aquifers” or “regional aquifer systems” are possible. So, why is regional hydrogeology becoming more important? Firstly, the regional scale plays an important role in integrative assessment and interdisciplinary management of (ground-) water resources (Bouwer 2002; Holman et al. 2012; Refsgaard et al. 2010). It is only at the regional scale that social, economic and ecological impacts can be integrated and balanced in a meaningful way, due to large distances between recharge and discharge areas, between contaminant sources and affected areas, consumers and suppliers, etc. (Hojberg et al. 2013; McGonigle et al. 2012). To address the interactions between different parts of the ecosystems, as well as human interference, it is therefore necessary to take into account areas that are much larger than those that would typically be studied from a disciplinary view point (Foster and Ait-Kadi 2012). Consequently, most definitions of integrated water-resources management (IWRM; see Rahaman and Varis 2005) highlight that IWRM has to take into account entire river basins. A second reason for the increasing importance of regional hydrogeology is global climate change (Green et al. 2011). Global circulation models are very coarsely discretized, so that a look at the regional scale remains a necessary intermediate step in order to include global scenarios in the evaluation of local water-management issues (Holman et al. 2012; Varis et al. 2004). Yet again, studying climate change impacts on groundwater requires integrated modelling and scenarios (Soboll et al. 2011), which heightens the need for regional-scaled approaches. The need for integration and the demand for climatechange-impact studies form problem-oriented justifications for regional hydrogeology. A third motivation is that regional-scale hydrogeology becomes increasingly feasible, not only because of the ever increasing availability of highperformance hardware and powerful codes (Zhou and Li 2011), but also due to the increased accessibility to wellorganized regional data sets (Refsgaard et al. 2010). These are just a few convincing arguments for the significance of regional-scale hydrogeology. The following sections will discuss whether or not the scientific community currently effectively responds to these questions.

Water resources management in Sub-Saharan Africa: a status review of Niger Republic

Water determines the survival, health, and welfare of human beings and other biotic and abiotic communities, as well as destructive agents in some situations/times. More than a billion people do not have access to potable water and more than two billion people lack proper sanitation globally. For any environmentally sustainable usage of water resources to be meaningful a sound management practice and procedure that will take into consideration the needs (clean water for human consumption and other domestic uses, to support agricultural industries and other manufacturing industries, hydro-power generation, mining, fisheries and fish farming) must be in place. Water resources management in Niger Republic has been prioritised in line with the above needs, as in the millennium development goals (MDGs) while achieving the set target in targeted year 2015 cannot be guaranteed, Niger as other Sub-Saharan countries and the entire African countries have put enormous efforts to meet this MDGs target but more is nee...

Biotechnology: a case of delayed international convergence?

Catching up and leapfrogging regularly occur in capitalist economies, both at the level of entire countries and specific industries. The USA has taken the lead in biopharmaceuticals and has kept it for over fifty years. Biotechnology is now helping the US pharmaceutical industry to keep its global leadership patent and product figures or biotechnology drugs indicate that the USA is keeping its lead, and is not going to be left behind by any other nation, advanced or emerging, in the foreseeable future.

Quality Improvement Initiatives in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Networks: Achievements and Challenges

Neonatal intensive care unit networks that encompass regions, states, and even entire countries offer the perfect platform for implementing continuous quality improvement initiatives to advance the health care provided to vulnerable neonates. Through cycles of identification and implementation of best available evidence, benchmarking, and feedback of outcomes, combined with mutual collaborative learning through a network of providers, the performance of health care systems and neonatal outcomes can be improved. We use examples of successful neonatal networks from across North America to explore continuous quality improvement in the neonatal intensive care unit, including the rationale for the formation of neonatal networks, the role of networks in continuous quality improvement, quality improvement methods and outcomes, and barriers to and facilitators of quality improvement.

Estrategia estatal de conservación de las cícadas (Zamiaceae): una propuesta para el estado de Hidalgo, México

Mexico has the second largest cycad diversity in the world, and the Sierra Madre Oriental (SMO) is one of the richest biogeographic regions for these plants. Despite there is a general Cycad National Program in the country, there are no state-level cycad conservation strategies or programs. Thus the aim of this study was to propose a cycad conservation strategy for the state of Hidalgo, which is located in the Southern part of the SMO. For this, a cycad species inventory was made in the state, for which three methods were used: review of published literature; consultation in the main Mexican herbaria to verify botanical specimens; and exhaustive field research to compare findings with previously reported species and to recognize new records at the county and state level. The proposed research work strategy combined the following elements: prioritize the county and local areas with greatest cycad species richness; prioritize the species least resistant to environmental change and/or having restricted geographic distribution; and to consider the main uses of these plants by local residents. The results showed that Hidalgo has three genera and eight species ofcycads: Ceratozamia fuscoviridis, C. latifolia, C. mexicana, C. sabatoi, Dioon edule, Zamia fischeri, Z. loddigesii and Z. vazquezii, all of which are considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This study added two new species records for Hidalgo and 21 at the county level. The species are distributed in 26 counties, of which Chapulhuacán and Pisaflores are notable for their high species richness. Hidalgo has the fourth-greatest cycad species richness among Mexican states, although its area accounts for only 1.07% of the country. The state's diversity is greater than in other states with larger area, and even than in some other entire countries in Mesoamerica. The presented state cycad conservation strategy proposes that a total of some 11,325 ha to be conserved in nine zones, including different vegetation types, distributed in seven counties. The strategy involves a mixed scheme that incorporates conservation in Protected Natural Areas (ANP), Small Farmer Reserves (Reservas Campesinas) and Environmental Management Units (UMA in Spanish). This proposal will be useful for government agencies to take into account in the process of designating land use for the Cloud Forest Biological Corridor (CBBMM in Spanish), a ANP in creation. The state of Hidalgo urgently needs a detailed analysis of trends in changes in vegetation cover and land use, and demographic studies of the cycads. It is recommended that the implementation phase of this state strategy be carried out jointly with local communities, academia, and state and federal agencies responsible for biodiversity conservation.

Geomatics and virtual tourism

The most recent technological revolution, concerning web and “ICT”, not only changed individual and collective behaviors, but also allowed experiences no possible before: a real time communication, regardless of the distances; an extended access to disjointed data and sources; the shift in different realities – missing or entirely imaginary. Nowadays, we can think about a new concept of museum, much more inclusive than “objects container”: now the museum involves entire countries, entire ecosystems, entire regions. We can speak of “museum outside of the museum”, to extend museum “storytelling” to a regional scale, beyond the walls of the traditional museum. On a regional scale experiments entirely convincing have not yet been carried out, but from this point of view cultural lands can be visited as great open air museums, to find objects, artworks or signs: the whole land is a “collection” to be preserved, to be presented and to be interpreted. Thus the visit allows to elicit outstanding objects, to read into landscapes with different filters. Both the physical and virtual visit seem to be a “tour” (Minucciani and Garnero, 2013). To create a virtual tourism prototypal station, we need several and unconventional geometrical data (shared geographic databases, DTMs, digital orthoimages and angle shots, modeling with spherical cameras, ...), thematic data (related to cultural content) and no conventional input units to move and to observe how and where the observer prefers. Authors report here their experience to carry out a prototypal station, able to relate geomatics references to cultural content and to offer a whole experience, involving users also from the sensory point of view. That’s nowadays a specific purpose of new technologies applied to cultural heritage.

Geomatics and virtual tourism

The most recent technological revolution, concerning web and “ICT”, not only changed individual and collective behaviors, but also allowed experiences no possible before: a real time communication, regardless of the distances; an extended access to disjointed data and sources; the shift in different realities – missing or entirely imaginary. Nowadays, we can think about a new concept of museum, much more inclusive than “objects container”: now the museum involves entire countries, entire ecosystems, entire regions. We can speak of “museum outside of the museum”, to extend museum “storytelling” to a regional scale, beyond the walls of the traditional museum. On a regional scale experiments entirely convincing have not yet been carried out, but from this point of view cultural lands can be visited as great open air museums, to find objects, artworks or signs: the whole land is a “collection” to be preserved, to be presented and to be interpreted. Thus the visit allows to elicit outstanding objects, to read into landscapes with different filters. Both the physical and virtual visit seem to be a “tour” (Minucciani and Garnero, 2013). To create a virtual tourism prototypal station, we need several and unconventional geometrical data (shared geographic databases, DTMs, digital orthoimages and angle shots, modeling with spherical cameras, ...), thematic data (related to cultural content) and no conventional input units to move and to observe how and where the observer prefers. Authors report here their experience to carry out a prototypal station, able to relate geomatics references to cultural content and to offer a whole experience, involving users also from the sensory point of view. That’s nowadays a specific purpose of new technologies applied to cultural heritage.