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February 15, 2011

Sentient Things and NFC

We have entered a new era of sentient things. The world around is now being augmented with tags. Whether they are Quick Response (QR), Microsoft Tags or an NFC enabled sticker, the world around us has come alive with information and links. Howard Rheingold author of Smart Mobs, first talked about sentient things in 2001 predicting: ” Information in places: […]

February 8, 2011

Travel Distribution 2011 – an Update

Since my December post, a number of developments have occurred on the evolving travel distribution front: Sabre and AA have called a temporary truce and are in negotiations to resolve their conflict Priceline has embraced the AA direct connect strategy clearly following an independent path from Expedia and Orbitz USAir has signed a multi-year agreement with Expedia which includes the […]

December 22, 2010

Orbitz – AA Ruling – Is 2011 the year we will see Permanent Changes in Air Distirbution?

News this week that AA successfully defeated the Orbitz motion for a temporary injunction allowing AA to remove its content from Orbitz has uncovered some interesting news that may foretell major changes in air distribution for 2011 and beyond. As reported in the Beat, sources are indicating that Priceline may be the first of the four major OTAs to contract […]

December 7, 2010

A GDS App Store?

There is no question that 3rd party software developers have had a major impact on the technology market. Whether you look at the role of Zynga providing top Facebook apps such as Farmville or the thousands of 3rd party apps in the mobile app stores, no one can deny the impact of third party development on innovation, but what about […]

November 23, 2010

Inside the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit

It was my pleasure again this year to be co-chair of the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit 2010. The event brought together 33 companies in a fast paced series of 9 minute presentations/demos of innovative travel software. TIS is the brainchild of Bob Offutt (my co-chair) and Philip Wolf, CEO of PhoCusWright. TIS was modeled after the annual Demo Conference where […]

November 10, 2010

Open Axis Group – “Who’s Asking?” – But Do Airlines Really Know?

The Open Axis Group, the not-for-profit industry organization promoting XML- based airline distribution connectivity has produced a video and whitepaper in an effort to persuade the indirect channel (TMCs, Corporate Booking Tools & GDS) to adopt their XML schema to access airline content including ancillary services. A key thrust of this effort is to allow airlines to provide more personalized […]