User:(WT-en) Pascal Brackman

Hi,

My name is Pascal Brackman, [] born as a Belgian, but living most of the time in Amsterdam (Netherlands). I started up a company called Ontrack Navigation [], together with Philiep De Sutter. Just go there to read some more about it, since it is not the goal of Wikivoyage to make publicity here.

Since years, I have been working in the navigation business. But I started off as a geographer/geomorphologist/remote senser, working in the Mediterranean countries, tasting the soils, rocks and landscapes of Greece, Turkey and Spain. I got more and more into the technology and the use of IT in the area of remote sensing and geographic information systems. But those names are a bit oldfashioned now. There is a tendendy to call all that geomatica.

I always was very interested in the mix of geographic information and making use of that with technology. But ofcourse, there is nothing better than absorbing the geographic information in reality, in the field.

I always liked the Wiki-concept, and Wikivoyage is just another wonderful example of the approach. So I will try to contribute some stuff in my free time. I always miss information in travelbooks explaining what you see of the landscapes, geology and geomorphology. So forgive me if my contributions overdo it a bit in that field.

Travels
Grew up in Ghent, Belgium. Studied Geography at the University of Ghent. During the exams of my 2nd year, I joined also a publicity campaign-contest for coffee: and bingo,... hit the jackpot and won a trip to Colombia at the time it was still safe there.

For my last year's thesis, I went for my first real field-campaign to the area of Pylos in the Peloponnese, in Greece. Hard work, but thé way to learn to know a country...

Later on I went to Aberdeen, Scotland for an M.Sc. in Environmental Remote Sensing. I continued at the University of Ghent for a Ph.D. in GIS and Remote Sensing, which I could combine with great fieldtrips in Turkey, Central Anatolia, Peloponnese in Greece and Spain, the Huercal-Overa-area and Zaragoza-area.

Later on, I got involved with a very enthousiastic and energetic organisation called the 'Landscape Foundation', which got me into contributing to the book "Along Ancient Trade Routes" and also into a few hot-air balloon-trips along the silkroad in Cappadocia, Turkey.

When I started working for Tele Atlas, in the navigation business, I got the great opportunity to travel to India, USA, Australia and ofcourse around Europe.

My wife is from Greece and we've got also family in Argentina, so we were able to get a few trips there too. If you want to read a few of our travel stories, go to []

Contact
You can email me at [mailto:pascal.brackman@gmail.com]. You can also read more stuff on my blog on http://brackiesblog.blogspot.com/

Docent
I'm also still teaching geomatics at the University of Ghent. []

More info
Some of my pictures on
 * Zooomr: http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/brackie/
 * Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brackie/
 * Riya: http://www.riya.com/ (just search on Pascal Brackman)

You can find my blog on http://brackiesblog.blogspot.com/

You can find out more about me on our website of Ontrack Navigation: http://www.ontracknavigation.com.

You can find more on an old personal website: http://home.scarlet.be/~pin69794/