Faced with an ailing job market, one author traveled the world with his family--using new media tools to create a new kind of travel book.

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was John Higham, an aeronautical engineer who always dreamed of traveling for a year with his family. After saving for more than ten years, they took the trip--a journey recorded in his book, "360 Degrees Longitude." His print book includes Google Earth links inside the narrative, testing this new technology that will someday revolutionize digital travel publishing.

Here's an excerpt from Higham's interview: "Until such time that e-readers have high-end video cards and things like that you won't get the full rich experience [of a digital book]. I do think someday travel books will have a digital version where you can hit a button and get a Google Street View of where you are standing. I think that's a natural evolution. That's a few years down the road, but I think it's coming."