A Way for Camp Kids to Zap Mail Home Faster

July 8, 2005 &#151 -- In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look at a new setup that lets kids at summer camp zap electronic messages back to mom and dad -- without using a computer. Plus, if you're looking for fun and amusements close to home, there's a Web site you should check out before you hit the road.

Your child's away at summer camp, and you're dying to know what and how they're doing. But since sleep-away camp is all about getting kids away from computer e-mail and experiencing the great outdoors instead, letters from camp may arrive at, literally, the pace of "snail mail."

However Bunk1.com, a New York City company that builds Web sites and online communication setups for more than 2,000 summer camps in the United States, has developed a way for kids to send word home nearly as fast and easy as e-mail -- and without using a computer.

Called Bunk Replies, the system is fairly simple to use. Parents sign up for the service by registering their e-mail addresses at Bunk1's Web site. The e-mail address is converted into a barcode which can then be printed onto blank paper and given to kids when they head off to camp.

When kids take time out of their busy camp activities, they can write letters to mom and dad using the bar-coded stationary. The notes are then given to camp directors who will fax them to Bunk1's toll-free fax line.

Computers at Bunk1 automatically scan the barcodes and route the digital faxes to the appropriate, registered e-mail addresses. The faxes arrive in parents' inboxes as digital images, allowing them to see their child's handwriting and whatever else they might have scrawled on the paper.

Ari Ackerman, founder and chief executive officer of Bunk1, says this hybrid approach offers the best of both old-fashioned mail and digital e-mail systems.

"It's like an e-mail in that the transition time is instantaneous, so as soon as the kid hand writes the note, basically [camp operators] can fax it through and [parents] can get it immediately," says Ackerman.