Sep 25, 2013

Real-Time Web for Touristologists!

Internet is the most fabulous education tool I have ever seen! This summer I was perfectioning / sharpening up my skills in Django when, out of the blue, appeared a post in a blog talking about how the author switch from Django to Node.js. You know me! I’m only loyal to my Family and to OUR Science but when we talk about new technologies…. I’m very promiscuous!!! So, I read from the beginning to the end.
Node.js was already on my radar (you remember that Touristologists have a radar, don’t’ you?) but I haven’t gone deeper on this server-side javascript technology.
What do you mean by going deeper, Jordi? Well I mean to begin a tough and painful transformation! Basically,
A) To change my mental framework from Touristology to Web-Enginnering.
B) To change my laptop for creating presentations and answering hundreds of e-mails (literally!!!)  to one ready to test web-servers, Databases (Relational and NoSQL), my favorite frameworks (both server-side and client-side) and the incredible Eclipse (no Touristologists I’m not talking about vampires!!!). You know me, always trying to control everything! In Tourism the whole chain of value, in Web-Engineering to be a “full-stack” developer.
C) Last but, definitely, not least to change my attitude from I-know- what-I-am-doing-and-where-I-want-to-end-up, to let’s-trail-and-error-don’t-worry-about-the-pitfalls-and-enjoy-the-intelectual-journey!!!!
After reading the blog, I started a search in Internet, completed a master class by the creator of Node.js himself, practiced the ideas of this interesting blog to get my hands code-dirty and got a good definition of the Real-Time web “The real-time web is a set of technologies and practices that enable users to receive information as soon as it is published by its authors, rather than requiring that they or their software check a source periodically for updates.”
In a nutshell, the difference between normal web servers and Node.js is the same as between a trained mind dealing with multitasking and a normal one. The trained one will focus on one task when it is necessary and will focus on another when it is not. Not trained minds keep attention (resources / threads) in all tasks at all times. So they collapse or their productivity goes down!!!
Real-Time Chats… Server-Sent Events…seem to be the hot topics in Real-Time web. Are they able to deal with data in the server and in the client side? It seems so!!! Not so long ago, data-rich web application was an oxymoron (I love to use the word oxymoron, I use it to express that “To think that people willing to catch the new offer will become a loyalty customer is a good example of an oxymoron.” here).
Anyway, after getting the knowledge, I began to pass it through Touristology’s glasses (always two hands theory: Technological Scheme and Business Model, remember?) The incredible opportunities that node.js (or any of the existents and future Real-Time web utilities) provides to Tourism are, so obvious for a Touristologist that it is not necessary to provide any example…. just kidding Touristologists! Let’s see some ideas about how to use it in our beloved sector!
Imagine you want to create a mobile app which will allow a tourist guide to manage a group of 100 tourists. You want, in real time, to know where they are, to make a chat with each one of the members and to play a game (Gamification, remember?) in a customized way.
You also want to show the nearest restaurant to each one of the tourist, ordered by popularity among their friends (you choose the Yelp API to get information about restaurants and the Facebook API to get friends approvals/recommendations).
If you ask a programmer to do that they will say that it is tough: too many concurrencies, to many people accessing to your server… tough? Welcome to the Real-Time Web programming!!!
You know that one of the fundamental ideas of our science it is that we have to provide servuction from the beginning to the end of the trip, to make this possible the members of the chain of value have to get and share the 3 C’s (Content, Commerce and Community) in the ways we talked about here: Customized, Syndicated and Pro-Amized. With Node.js the creation of RestFul services in order to share the 3C’S is as easy as just wishing it! Then you can create Real-Time applications that work faster, something very important when you are thinking about mobile applications!
I find and share with this tweet and interesting example….
I know that our science is Touristology, Touristologists! But I also know that software is eating the world. Furthermore, when is more necessary the use of web 3.0 than in a trip when you (or/AND your customers) need and integrated and synchronized chain of value, able to provide the 3C’s in a fast and personalize way?
My advice? Be use to the two hands mentality Touristologists! You will end up becoming a better Touristologists!!!

Sep 19, 2013

Think two years ahead, Touristologists!!!

This is my advice to you today Touristologists! Detect game-changers, rule-breakers, breakthroughs… two years before they happen. Learn about them, create a team, then begin to dream about your start-up and/or offer your services as a consultant and… wait. Usually, after two years you will find a niche or get some response.
Why two years? Innovation in technology, social behavior, economic rules… can appear early, BUT they only become important when they reach a critical mass (enough people using it).
Some of the companies I advise are big enterprises, usually they tend to be not as fast as SME (small and medium size enterprises) or start-ups in adapting to new technologies. As a matter of fact, start ups not only have to adapt to new technologies, they must use them to revolutionize their sector, break the rules and be successful (here we talked about the steps to follow in order to achieve this).
On the other hand, big enterprises don’t have any interest, whatsoever, in breaking the rules. At the end of the day, they are their rules! They have a consolidated business model , they usually have technology equipment (hardware) and software that fits the Business Model and they, usually again, focus on cashing-ing from this situation/scenario rather than try to search for “The new, new thing” ,by the way, a very good book about  Jim Clark, dealing with innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Let’s enjoy this video in order to learn a little bit more, shall we?
-What? Now we have to see and old video from the 90’s? I strongly recommend it Touristologist! You will realize how similar and timeless innovation’s rules are. As you know, I strongly believe that time isn’t linear, it is cyclical. Remember?
I recommend that you think /learn/prepare yourself for the new, new thing that will spread two years from now.
I developed (and hopefully I help you to do the same!!!) a kind of radar to detect breakthroughs. I try to pick up things that nowadays are not important but they will be.  I train myself, set-up a team, dream about a company, offer my services as a consultant and… wait. Like Hermann Hesse’s character Shidrarta “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.”
Two years ago, it was mobile ecosystem (you know that I prefer a broader vision like ubiquitous computing, don’t you?) what appears on the radar. I try to convince big enterprises to develop a mobile strategy (you know me, always the two hands mindset/framework!).
They said - Interesting, Jordi! They use a tone very similar to the one used by my Touristologists when I propose an OPTIONAL study case!!!
So, I wait…I use the knowledge to seed the desire of being a developer to my children (you can read about the experience here. By the way, they also said…. -Interesting, Daddy!
I use the knowledge to improve my classes and the other way around. You know…  "The best way to learn is to teach" Frank Oppenheimer
Finally, this summer I got a call from one big company. Can you give us a seminar about Mobile Strategy? It seems there is a big gap between creating easy apps and complicated ones. Can you help us to fill it? (We talked about the big gap here, remember?)
Of course- I reply! We can learn about how to create views both declaratively and programmatically. How to use Sqlite as a Data Base cache and how to use cloud computing feeding a big Data Base with web services and web scrapping. - I leave this in your hands, Jordi, but can you begin next week?
Do you realize, Touristologist? When they’re really interested they don’t say interesting! They just act…fast…faster!
Some of you put bizarre faces when I don’t express any desire at all to see the latest movie in theaters. How is possible that you don’t see the last film of…? Well - I calmly reply- I just wait until they pass it through television.
- What? I want to know now!
I hope that you have the same mentality with new technologies and the new Business Model they will bring, Touristologists. Do you want to meet me to see the lastest movie? I’m busy (or as you say -Interesting!) Do you want to discuss new technologies, the new business model that they will allow and foresee how to use it in Tourism? I’m all yours!
Like, for instance, how specialized tourism base on creation and management of specialized virtual communities will open wonderful opportunities for Touristologists, the lodging industry and Tourism destinations.
Or how the capacity of creating groups with an international scope can give us a competitive advantage!
Or how Touristology can train people and make them capable of creating, communicating and commercializing tourism products as we saw here.
We are living interesting times, things are moving fast and they’re radically changing our society and our lives on all levels (economically, politically, personally…)  and that means opportunities but also threats. I will put all my effort into convey to my Touristologists how to make the most of the opportunities and how to avoid the pit-falls. We are game-changers, we are the best minds working in the best sector ever. We are Touristologists!!!!

Sep 12, 2013

Touristology is a paradigm shift!

I like to be up-to-date with complex systems. I use related methodology while doing my PhD and I found (still find, indeed) great applications for it in our beloved sector. What do you think? “Complex Systems … investigates how relationships between parts give rise to the collective behaviors of a system and how the system interacts and forms relationships with its environment.” Different parts (Inhabitants, Public sector, Lodging, Intermediaries and infomediaries, transport companies, companies not related to the trip but to the motivation of the travel…)?... giving rise to a collective behavior?  It sounds very Touristologistly, to me!
Recently, I read a book about the evolution of complex systems. The author describes it as a paradigm shift because it changes the basic assumptions of a field. Well, in this case, my fellow Touristologist…. Touristology is, clearly, a paradigm shift!
Let’s review three examples, shall we? The first related to Tourism destinations, the second related to the lodging industry and its flavor of the month: Revenue Management. Finally, last but, definitely, not least related to intermediaries, basically, travel agencies.
- On-line travel agencies (OTA) or normal travel agencies, Jordi? Do you still divide enterprises by if they are integrated to internet or not? I don’t know about you but… I don’t go to Internet anymore…. I live there!!!
Touristology is a paradigm shift for tourism destinations, among other things because claims/proves that granted specialized and mass/generic tourism usually must coexist, in all the cases, always better: First specialized then Generic. It also claims/proves that bottom up strategies are fairest and far more effective than top down ones.
Touristology is a paradigm shift for hotels and any lodging facility. Because If we, seriously, want to increase Revenues and Profits (at the end of the day, this is what Revenue Management is all about, remember?) we have to focus on providing a good service NOT ONLY when the customer is inside the building but from the beginning to the end of the trip! We have to detect segments, customize our services and use or build different chains of value (with different collaborators, intermediaries /infomediaries… Does 1,2,3 theory ring a bell for you?
Of course, we can use Social Networking Sites! But what about creating our own virtual community, not only related to the travel but also to the motivation of the tourist?
Touristology is a paradigm shift for intermediaries, as well, which will try to manage its chain of value instead of selling packages create, communicate and commercialize for others. Intermediaries, which will aim to stop battling for a commission and will began to create, communicate and commercialize their own packages knowing that this is the way to go in order to be (and remain) competitive.
Intermediaries, which will provide services for a segment, using customize suppliers and managing the trip both in the country of origin and in the tourist destination. 1,2,3 theory, remember???
Who has to discover, implement, study… this paradigm shift? The same actors in the tourism sector focus on mass and local tourism? The ones who proudly are waiting for others to bring tourist to them?
I doubt it! I share my life with the best Psychopedagogist in town and her mind and her bibliography (Howard Gardner “Leading Minds”) say something similar to: For what we know about human cognitive development, it’s improbable that a professional in a “way of doing” see and  lead a different approach.  So, who will do that? YOU TOURISTOLOGISTS!!! If not you.. Who? If not now.. When?