Travel Trends - Paperless Boarding, Bankrupt Design, Bloggers

Paperless Boarding - It's about time! Last month the TSA and Continental Airlines announced they would continue rolling out the Paperless Boarding Pass pilot program (it started last December) to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Newark (N.J.) International Airport and Logan International Airport in Boston during the month of May. Finally, we can stop carrying around those super-secure boarding passes...not to mention save a fee more trees.

And, see that little square bar code on that gentleman's phone? That would be your standard 2-D Barcode...get ready for your phone to take over simplify your life.
http://www.tsa.gov/

Bankrupt Design - Personally, I always find it fascinating how defunct companies 'soften' their websites to explain why they left you stranded in Chicago.
http://www.maxjet.com/
http://www.ata.com/
http://www.eosairlines.com/
http://skybus.com/

What (or who) is a blogger? - Interesting stats from the Center for Media Research. Beyond simply promoting ourselves, you should know that these are the people who are increasingly holding high influence over your consumers. (here's a secret, most of your consumers trust bloggers more than you!)

According to the BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey, 26% of all adults say they regularly or occasionally blog. Of those:

- 53.7% are male
- 44.7% are married
- 28.4% hold a professional or managerial position
- 10.4% are students.

Bloggers tend to be younger, averaging 37.6 years old, compared to 44.8 for adults 18+ (the "general population"). Ethnically:

- 69.7% of Bloggers are White/Caucasian (vs. 76.1%)
- 12.2% are African American/Black (vs. 11.4%)
- 3.7% are Asian (vs. 2.0%)
- 20% of Bloggers are Hispanic, compared to 14.8% of adults 18+

In addition, Bloggers report a lower income ($55,819 vs. $56,811) and are better educated (14.3 years of education vs. 14.2).

Although Bloggers are more likely to use new media, the analysis finds that more conventional forms of media trigger their Internet searches. Magazines, at 51.6%, rank highest, followed by:

- 48.8% reading an article
- 46.1% broadcast TV
- 44.5% cable TV
- 42.5% face-to-face communication
- 39.7% newspaper

Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch, concludes "Bloggers are a diverse group and not who you would expect..."

http://blogs.mediapost.com/

Get Outta My Website...And Into My Phone!

They look like pixelated puzzles, or maybe a printing error. But the indecipherable ink squares hold the promise of a new form of mobile information delivery that could change the way we interact with the world around us.

The ink squares are a new kind of bar code that can be scanned by camera phones, giving mobile users instant access to information on the fly. The technology is in its infancy in the United States but is well-tested abroad, where it enables users to download music and videos, read restaurant reviews, and get information on a variety of products and businesses. >>Full Story

Thoughts:// A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle describes an interesting mobile experiment taking place in the city. In one of the biggest large scale urban 2D barcode programs in the U.S., CitySearch will now be tagging more than 500 restaurants, shops and businesses with pixelated codes to enable cell phone users to interact with them. All you do is whip out your phone, scan the bar code and read reviews, watch video or access other relevant content from the Citysearch database. Based on reviews, you can keep walking down the street...or venture in for your next meal.

While these bar codes have become ubiquitous internationally (see "New Bar Codes Can Talk to Your Phone"), there are significant barriers to adoption in the U.S. For this to really work, you have to: a) own a cell phone that reads barcodes, b) download scanning software c) have mobile Internet access (the code opens reviews in a browser). The outcome of the experiment in San Francisco however, has the potential to drastically change the status quo and totally open up your content and engage consumers in dramatically different way.

Of course, it goes without saying that this is totally going to change the way Troy and I measure "engagement".

Travel Trends - 2-D Barcodes, TripIt, Ricoh 500SE

Smartpox - Create a 'pox' (2-d barcode, see the image above) with any information you like...restaurant review, link to a song, scavenger hunt clue...and stick it on a sign, wall, anywhere. Then, when users see your barcode, they can take a picture of it with their cell phone and download the review or song. Pretty much any type of text-based information can be contained in the barcode.
http://www.smartpox.com/

Semapedia.org - Using the same technology as Smartpox, Semapedia.org is a non-profit, community-driven project that allows users to create and distribute Semapedia-Tags (again, think barcodes) that link to the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. So, for example, you could be walking past Chase Field, see a 'barcode' and take a picture of it with your cell phone. Your phone would then pull up the Wikipedia page about Chase Field, telling you everything you need to know about the stadium.
http://semapedia.com/

TripIt - A new travel site from Hotwire co-founder Gregg Brockway, TripIt wants to help users keep all of their travel-related materials in one place, regardless of where they book online. Once a user enters a flight reservation (for example), TripIt will automatically add basic info for your trip (maps, weather, directions) as well as allow you to share the info with friends, family, etc...plus, the service is aiming to be widely accessible via the web, mobile or in your calendar.
http://www.tripit.com/

Ricoh 500SE - Map all of your photos with the GPS enabled, Ricoh 500SE. A glimpse into what is coming for the mainstream...GPS information embedded into portable, electronic devices. With this camera, you can download your images to create custom maps with pin-points for all of your photos. Never have to ask the question 'where was that photo taken?' again.
http://www.ricohsolutions.com/