Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category:
Challenges Of Technology For Private Aviation
Social Flights will soon release Part 2 of the Operators Whitepaper. Part 1 identified the intrinsic value of private aviation to a travel market. Part 2 will identify some of the technology challenges of integrating with the mainstream travel community.
In short, the next step for private aviation is to integrate with the mainstream market while offering seamless transition with other technologies and transportation modes. The following is a summary of Part 2.
The Technology Challenge
Technology is encroaching on every aspect of the travel industry from on-line travel agencies to Next Generation Air Traffic Management. It is no longer sufficient to have a great looking website, the data that private operators collects and distributes must be compatible with all other services that support the customer long before and long after they cross your threshold.
Compatibility of Pricing
One example is in compatibility of pricing; private airplanes are priced by the flight-hours imposed on a private aircraft. However, commercial airplanes are priced by the market availability of seats. There is no way for the customer to compare these two travel options; as such, these markets are segmented by price incompatibility. The trend is increasing through the unbundling of services like baggage fees and check in fees and convenience fees, hotel, and car rentals contracts, discount coupons, etc.
True Value / Time Value
A vastly neglected aspect of travel is called True Value. For example; the cost of traveling to a hub airport often exceeds the cost of the airline ticket. The time waiting for TSA screening and connecting flights often exceeds the in-route flight time. The total transit time often exceeds the time that the traveler needs to be at the location. Weekend travel is impossible without extra hotel stays and missing one or two days of work. Time is money. Lost opportunity is money. Life is short.
Alternate Technologies
Alternate technologies such as mobile connectivity and social media drive different migration patters of people, business and entertainment. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google offer alternate ways for people to communicate in lieu of travel, but they also expose more people to more places that are less accessible by commercial aviation.
The Integration
Today, the travel market is segmented in information silos where companies hoard information in the name of competitive advantage. However, when prices are comparable, the market can apply a time/value formula where alternate technologies enhance the value of travel. Then, and only then can the entire door-to-door travel experience can be fully integrated in an efficient market where everyone playing the travel game shares information, combines services, and collaborate in the best interest of the customer.
It’s a game, let’s have fun
Technologies to Revolutionize Everything
A visualization of Human Edits to Wikipedia where each color represents a different page
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal January 30, 2012 online edition: The Coming Tech-led Boom, identifies three technologies that will have as profound an impact on the world as electrification, telephony, and the dawn of the automobile age.
Even as we all see these technologies approaching, much like our 20th century contemporaries, most people cannot even begin to grasp the implications. One thing is certain, industries that are unable to adapt, will not survive in their current state.
Social Flights is Flying into the next century with eyes wide open
In January 2012, we sit again on the cusp of three grand technological transformations with the potential to rival that of the past century. All find their epicenters in America: big data, smart manufacturing and the wireless revolution.
Big Data and Wireless Technology
Big Data is at the core of some of what have become the most disruptive innovations of our time. Processing power, data storage, and data transmission are almost free. The handheld device has more computing power than the supercomputers the 1970s. The internet is moving into the cloud and away from the so called desk-top. All data is converging to a single place where it can be accessed and combined in countless ways. Every second of every day creates an astonishing amount of empirical data that creates an unimaginable diversity of information and new knowledge.
At thge top of the food chain is Social media creating data – data does not create social media. Data is made by people; data does not make people. People create, data does not, etc. Likewise for most services in the next century; people will determine where airplanes fly – airplanes will no longer determine where people will can go.
A hub airport does little more than sort people and planes. At Social Flights we use data to sort people and planes. What if we could replace infrastructure with data? All this would take is for communities to “perform a simple calculation” among themselves. Nothing is stopping this from happening today.
The implications of the radical collapse in the cost of wireless connectivity are as big as those following the dawn of telegraphy/telephony. Coupled with the cloud, the wireless world provides cheap connectivity, information and processing power to nearly everyone, everywhere. This introduces both rapid change [and great opportunity].
Many people don’t understand how this could happen but Social Flights sees the possibility everyday, for example: A handheld device will become the hub, the scheduling agent, the point of purchase, and the boarding pass – all with a swipe across the “reality augmented” sky. The data already exists that can determine how many people from any point on earth intend to travel to any other point on earth and when. Putting these data sets together creates a remarkably different landscape for air travel … and commerce in general.
Social Flights in new. Social Flights is visionary – anyone who joins us on this voyage will be joining a revolution much greater than simply a ride sharing service. The point should be crystal clear - Social media creates data, data does not create social media.
Understand this, and you will understand Social Flights.
Ashton Kutcher Invests in Social Travel
Investment in travel applications continues. Social Flights continues to track the convergence of these technologies and demonstrate where we fit into the new travel paradigm. This article features Gidsy.com, the “activity-booker-meets-social-networking” site - claimed to be the AirBnB of travel. Notably they are location in Berlin (not the Valley), and their lead investor is none other than @AplusK.
screen shot from Gidsy.com
Venture capitalist tend to invest in businesses that they understand and businesses that they can influence. Ashton Kutcher is well known for his influence in both old media and new media – but where is the connection between that and travel?…except that Ashton needs to travel to get to Berlin. Perhaps herein lies the answer.
From VentureVillage.
“What I love about Gidsy is that they are creating a movement and a strong, credible community of likeminded people,” said supporter Felix Petersen in an interview with VentureVillage. “It’s important that like-minded businesses and individuals in Berlin cross-invest and help each other out.”
On the other hand (from the same article)
Kutcher has invested in over 40 tech companies to date, some of which remain unnamed out of fear that his own publicity would overshadow the product itself.
How important is access to information?
Access to locations and access to information about location is critical to both the success of the people who live there as well as the people who go there. In this light, products like Gidsy take on new meaning and impact for communities and travelers.
Gidsy.com allows users to offer paid-for activities and courses to other members of the community, as well as full social networking integration. Initially launched for the Berlin area, Gidsy now covers Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco, with London to follow soon. Gidsy’s business model (charging 10% of each transaction) differs from similar US services like SideTour in NY (which charges a higher 20%) and Vayable (available in six cities, charging a 15% fee). How they will hold up against American competition is yet to be seen.
The Virtuous Circle
Basically, Gidsy allows people to book activities provided by real people. After listening to a recent program of TrendPOV by Dr. Amy Vanderbilt and her guest Reinhold Behringer about Augmented Reality, Gidsy.com seems to create the underlying dataset to this next level of travel technology. The ability to point your smartphone down a street and see what activities are happening is only an iPhone revision away. Proximity is a play on “location” and inherently invokes transportation. So it is easy to see that many applications and technologies are converging.
Back to Ashton Kutcher and travel
Airlines and airplanes are increasingly confined to major hub airports. Because everything is scheduled and booked far in advance, there is relatively little richness to the data that would drive an augmented reality experience in an airport. However, where schedules are fluid, and activities are localized, and people are being creative, new markets will inevitably emerge.
Not Trivial:
Social Flights provides the dataset and certification to publish flights out of smaller local airports with the flexibility of flying non-stop to other small airports. Combined applications such as Gidsy, augmented reality, and Social Flights can open up a new world of travel opportunities. Maybe the “Hollywood Augmented Reality” is not so far off the mark after all.