Travel Technology – Page 15 – Travel Technology Consulting Inc.

December 20, 2007

Conversation with Aircell Senior Management

Tweet For some time I have been talking about ubiquitous computing and the always connected traveler. I just received a briefing from the senior management of Aircell about their plans to implement Wi-Fi connectivity on commercial aircraft. Back in 2001 the buzz about this subject concerned the Boeing Connexion roll out with Lufthansa airlines. Last August Boeing announced that it […]

November 28, 2007

Backlash from the Facebook Beacon advertising program

Tweet Facebook’s attempt to exploit its social network for advertising purposes has raised some major concerns from their users. The Beacon advertising platform is designed to broadcast purchases made by users to their social network. The issue has been taken up by the progressive political organization, MoveOn.org claiming the program violates privacy. Over 50,000 Facebook users have signed the MoveOn.org […]

November 28, 2007

Verizon tears down their walled garden

Tweet The announcement this week by Verizon that they are opening up their wireless network has significant importance for the development of new mobile travel applications here in the US. Unlike the rest of the word that operates using GSM technology, Verizon’s network is based on CDMA technology developed by Qualcomm. This makes cross networks application development problematic. Despite this […]

November 21, 2007

Mobile Technology

Tweet In his classic book, Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold described two possible futures for mobile technology. The first is a highly personalized smartphone that filters content based on personal preferences. In this vision the smartphone becomes an electronic personal assist that provides specific content that matches the user’s situation, preferences and location. The other vision is an advertising platform that […]

November 15, 2007

PhoCusWright – Expedia CEO part II

Tweet During his closing speech at PhoCusWright, Dara mentioned briefly an effort at Expedia to re-platform their technology infrastructure. So what does re-platform mean? Often the plumbing aspects of travel technology are not a common topic at any show including PhoCusWright, but here the re-platform initiative has a direct bearing on how Expedia works with suppliers. It concerns re-engineering their […]

November 15, 2007

PhoCusWright – Expedia CEO

Tweet Dara began with a nod to the new media based deal with IHG. He said Expedia’s focus is to change the traditional impersonal relationship with consumers to be more individualized. Three areas of focus: (1) email (2) Segmentation (3) Search experience – lodging search experience to the next level.(1) Email – described Amazon’s email follow-up after search. Booking window, […]