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The unfair process of the US primary
03.29.08 | Permalink | View CommentsOnce in a while I’d like to digress from travel, technology and marketing on my blog. I have other interests and one of them is politics.
The US presidential election fascinates me on a lot of levels. In a lot of ways its great. It takes so long that there’s no way you won’t understand the differences between the candidates at the end of the process. Compared to Dutch and Canadian politics where election season is limited to a couple of months or so.
What I don’t understand is why I haven’t heard anybody talk about the complete unfairness of spreading the primary elections over months. Currently, there’s a lot of talk that Clinton should quit the process so the democrats can focus on the general elections. The reasons for this is that Obama is ahead in the delegate race, has won more states and has a majority lead in the popular vote.
This is based on the schedule of the elections. A candidates momentum is based on the last primary. Take the democrats for example. Obama won the first, causing huge media attention. Clinton won the second, and the momentum shifted to her. And on and on it went. Then other candidates started dropping out.
Maybe one of the other candidates could have won a state with an election months later. Just because Iowa and New Hampshire are first, it means that if you don’t appeal to these states, you’re done because the momentum has now swung to other candidates. Not fair to people living in other states who might like that candidate.
And imagine if the schedule of the primaries would have been something like New Hampshire, Arizona, Ohio, Rhode Island, California. These states were all won by Clinton. Obama would probably been forced to drop out; Clinton’s momentum would have been to much.
Montana and South Dakota (the last democratic primaries on June 3) probably won’t matter anymore. And if they do, it’s because of the extraordinary year for the democrats. The voters in these state essentially don’t have a say in the election of their party’s candidate. I seriously don’t get it. -
Internet, Travel & Tourism, personal
Travel Bloggers Summit
03.05.08 | Permalink | View CommentsThe Travel Blogger Summit was great yesterday. Just like Orlando, we had a lot of turnout for the blogger private meetings. The discussions were great. Not just about blogging, but we talked about a range of relevant topics that’s impacting the travel industry. It was really nice to have a bunch of smart people in the room to share thoughts with.
The workshops were well attended. We had a Phocuswright style session, complete with the professional AV set-up. The panalists were very diverse, both from different areas of the industry as well as different countries. Jens and Yeoh Siew from Shyventures did a good job moderating. I received great feedback from the audience including some who emailed me since (thanks for emailing me the picture below Barrett)
On the workshop pannel.
Next time I think we can make the sessions even better if we take some of the conversation from the private sessions and take them into the workshops. Either by introducing an unconference format, or by having the panelists talk about the topics of their blog. I think people were checking out a bit after two hours of bloggers talking about blogging
Now it’s 5:30am and I’m wide awake again and hungry. Gotta love a jet-lag. Breakfast in one hour. -
Internet, personal
First Workshop started at Phocuswright Bloggers Summit
03.05.08 | Permalink | View Comments
There are two workshops happening today. I’ll be on the second panel. The first panel just started and the only reason I’m posting this is because they will show my blog on the screen later and I’d like to have this picture up there
There’s a lot of interest it seems, there are a large number of people attending. -
Internet, personal
Bloggers vs. Journalists
03.02.08 | Permalink | View CommentsThe subject of this post is the panel I will be participating in during the workshop at the Phocuswright bloggers summit in Berlin on Wednesday. I don’t think it’s an us vs. them at all. There’s a place for both.
Journalism is turning data into knowledge. A journalist has the tools and skills to gather all information (the data), get to the core and communicate his/her conclusion. I always learn a lot from traditional media when I don’t know too much about something.
The bloggers I like either give me their knowledge, their opinion, or data I can use to gain knowledge. Often the value is the conversational aspect. Even though they might not posses the communication skills a journalist possesses, their subject matter expertise compensates for it.
I’ve been on similar panels before and the editorial argument often comes up. This is interesting because it touches upon the editorial team vs. the wisdom of crowds. And both work, for different purposes. I trust the BCC or NY Times to tell me the most important news. I trust Digg or Techmeme to let me know what’s most popular or what’s discussed the most.
Times have changed, and will continue to change. The key is to embrace change find your new role, models to operate under and the opportunities that comes with it.
I look forward to the discussion on Wednesday, and I hope to see you there. -
Internet, personal
Connecting my network of online services
02.26.08 | Permalink | View CommentsAs I was signing up for yet another Web2.0 service, I realized that the interoperability between these services is growing. I’m starting to rely more and more on specific websites to take away the job that PC applications and other communication tools used to take care of. There are some core communication hubs and supporting technologies.
My communication hubs are:- Facebook is more a necessity than a choice. All my friends are on Facebook and it’s often used to plan my social life. But has also become a tool to stay connected with my professional network.
- Plaxo pulse. This is my “behind the scenes” network. It’s got potential, but I’m not promoting it yet. The really cool thing about Plaxo is that it allows me to sinc my calendar data and contact data between my corporate Outlook and my gmail.
- Why bother with an email client and calendar when you can use an online service and access every email you’ve ever received anywhere? I use gmail.
I still consider my blog to be the centerpiece of my online presence. My supporting technologies are:
- Flickr is where I host my photos. Storing photos online is a much safer option than on a hard drive. Never again worry about backups. It’s also much easier to share photos with friends.
- The same idea applies to video. YouTube is where I post videos I’d like to share with people. There are limitations about the lenght of videos, and I use Google video for longer videos.
- Twitter is where I can quickly share what I’m doing right now and share things in the moment. I can post a “tweet” through SMS. I also follow a lot of people who keep me up to date about things that interest me.
- I ust started using Utterz. It’s Twitter+. Instead of just text, it allows for adding pictures, video and audio. I can phone in a quick message if I like. The reason I still use Twitter is because that’s where the people I like to communicate with are.
- Last.fm is a great way to discover new music.
- Del.icio.us is where I post links to websites and articles I’d like to share with people for a long time. Posting a link on Twitter only has a shelf life of a few days.
Using all these tools and services might sound chaotic. And in a way it is. For me they all serve a specific purpose. I sign up for a lot of these services to try them out, but these are the ones that stuck.
There is overlap. Twitter, Utterz, Facebook and my blog all have “status” for example. But through web services I’m able to update them all in one shot. If I update Utterz, it will automatically create an entry in Twitter and that in return triggers a status update in Facebook and on my blog. That’s the cool thing that’s happening on the web today.
Below is a diagram of how all my services “talk” to each other.
Some other examples:
A new Photo on Flickr will automatically appear on my blog.
The last music I’ve listened to shows on my Facebook profile through a Facebook application
My last delicious entries are displayed on my blog.
My latest blog entries are displayed on my facebook profile
By connecting these services, I can create relevancy for the people on my networks. Showing the last songs from Last.fm doesn’t make sense on my blog because it’s primarily oriented to my work, but it makes perfect sense on my facebook profile because it is a lot more about my personal life.
There’s still a long way to go but you can see the potential. We’ll see more of these services starting to connect better hopefully. A few services won’t let you extract data yet for example. I can use my Flickr images everywhere I want, I can embed them and there are API’s. But my images in Facebook are locked in. But Facebook has a great tool to help you share your images. So right now I end up uploading some pictures twice for two different purposes.
I’m also unable to transport my “social graph”. A social graph is a person’s network of relationships with other people. Right now I need to befriend everybody all over again for every service I sign ip with. I should just be able to tell all these services once who is able to be my friend where. I also should be able to create groups of people. A “friend group”, a “family” group, a “colleagues” group, a “soccer team” group, etc. I should then be able to assign privacy levels to each group. My friends and family can see my all photos, my colleagues can’t see any, and my soccer team only the pictures tagged “soccer” for example.
Initiative like Open Social are looking to solve this problem, but not everybody is playing along yet. Primarily because it’s in their interest to “lock” people in. But that will change. The internet is an open architecture and “walled gardens” have never, and will never work.
[UPDATE: here's a nice interview with Google's Kevin Marks about Open Social and the Social Graph API's] -
personal, tourism bc
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
02.11.08 | Permalink | View CommentsI know I’ve been light on postings in recent weeks. January and February are busy months here at Tourism BC. I hope to pick up the pace soon.
In the meantime, here’s where you can find me in the next few weeks:
- Vancouver, February 21 – Tourism Industry Conference, Tourism BC concurrent session.
- March 5, Berlin – Phocuswright@ITB, Travel Bloggers Summit
- March 12, Vancouver – Content Convergence and Integration 2008, Changing demands on content in tourism.
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Internet, Travel & Tourism, personal
Canada-e-Connect video interview
11.14.07 | Permalink | View CommentsPhil from rezgo interviewed me last week at the Canada-E-Connect conference last week. I just walked out of a conversation with another DMO who expressed frustrations about the office politics. That probably skewed my response. And I want to apologize to Jeremy for confusing his trend hunter company with trend watchers.
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Internet, Travel & Tourism, personal
Blogging Workshop – Blogging with the long tail of travel
11.13.07 | Permalink | View Comments
We just finished our blogging summit and panel at the PhoCusWright conference. Ram Badrinathan, Jens Thraenhart, Kevin May, Stephen Joyce and myself talked about our blogs, the opportunity User Generated Content brings for the travel industry and how blogs can be used in corporate PR. The room was packed, probably 50 people or more. The conversation was very diverse and insightful. Lots of people stayed after the session to ask questions and gave good feedback about the session. I’m very please about it.
Our blogger summit was also a great success. I was wondering how it would unfold. The first session before our panel was attended by about 15 people, most of whom blog. It was very nice to meet some of the people I follow online, and also to meet new people who blog.
The session after our panel was huge. The room was packed with people and was almost a continuation of the panel conversation, but this time with the whole room. Very cool. Lots of travel companies are struggling about developing strategies about how to deal with social media. Marthy from aimClear provided valuable insight and entertainment about social media marketing.
I’m very proud of a new term I invented when we were talking about the Tips from the T-List book; offline link baiting. That’s essentially what the book is.
The hour and a half flew by. I had a great time. Thanks everybody for attending the sessions. -
personal
New Look
09.29.07 | Permalink | View CommentsI just launched the new look for my blog. Only for the homepage; not very professional, but I need to put pressure on myself to finish the other templates. The old template was the default Movable Type template and I wanted something more personal. Some details:
Header
The identification in the header is my own handwriting for a personal touch. The picture on the right is taken by my friend Steve on our trip in Holland, just after we arrived. So it’s me without sleep for 20 hours and a 9 hour flight.Colour schema
Yes, it’s busy. But that’s intended. I wanted a geeky look and took my inspiration from a Dilbert cartoon and the colour schema of van Gogh’s Starry Night.Web 2.0
I added two areas above my blog entries that are syndicated from Twitter and del.icio.us. The Twitter box grabs my latest tweed my my latest thoughts. The del.icio.us area displays the last links I’ve bookmarked. There is also a Flickr area in the right column where the last photos I’ve uploaded on Flickr are displayed.I’m reasonably happy with it.
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Internet, personal, tourism bc
Interview on the Canada-e-Connect blog
09.20.07 | Permalink | View CommentsChris Clarke interviewed me on the Canada-e-Connect blog. If you’re visiting from this blog and are interested in more information, check out these posts:
- Results of HelloBC.com’s User Generated Content strategy
- User Generated Content and HelloBC
- Mapping Tourism Businesses on HelloBC
- My presentation at the Tourism Industry Conference
Karin Schmollgruber from the Fastenyourseatbelts blog also interviewed me a while ago.
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