Perry

Hewitt

Tag: travel

  • Friday 5 — 10.21.2016

    Friday 5 — 10.21.2016

    1. The Harvard Business Review launched a Slack bot to deliver insights from more than 200 best-practice articles, neatly chunked into do’s and don’ts (an editorial feat I don’t envy.) The bot will send you daily articles, and serves up related case and article links.
    2. What are the ethics around creating ever more addictive new digital experiences? The Atlantic explores the role of moral integrity in software design. And if you’re wrestling with digital attention, don’t miss Terry Gross interviewing Tim Wu on the myth of free content, and the clickbait rabbit hole we’re all tumbling down.
    3. Google’s flight-searching tool is my go-to for delays and gates — I’ve had airlines notify me of a flight delay an hour into a wait on the tarmac. Google has now beefed up its travel tracking with flight price notifications, handy if you’re late for booking tickets for the holidays this year.
    4. Facebook is moving beyond the comment to actual transactions. Now you can order food and buy tickets directly from Facebook Pages, with the social features rolled in from the standalone Events app providing a FOMO nudge. Per Techcrunch, “this is about stealing a little bit of the traffic currently flowing to Google, Yelp, Fandango, local news, and mobile food ordering apps.” And now you can gather your friends’ recommendations more easily.
    5. If you just shelled out the cash for a new iPhone 7, you’ll want to avoid this rave review of Google Pixel. (NYC folks: there’s a Google popup store to check it out in Soho.)

    Weekend fun: The frequent flyers among you will recall that, until very recently, the TSA would strip search you over 4.5 oz of shampoo while allowing a flammable Galaxy Note 7 to pass on through. This Halloween costume reflects a Samsung’s brand manager’s current painful reality, but the company proved less tolerant of a videogame modification. Related: the origin of the dumpster fire meme that’s burned up the web in 2016.

    Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Sign up for a weekly email.

  • Friday 5 — 5.6.2016

    Friday 5 — 5.6.2016

     

    1. Visual content is everywhere, and measurement and optimization are starting to catch up. Netflix already knows which pictures you’ll click on and why, and blogged some lessons learned — including the value of regional nuance, and of recognizable, polarizing characters.
    2. As a travel geek, I loved this compilation of 16 apps that will help you travel the world. Some tools, like Airbnb Live There, are geared toward a full-on nomadic lifestyle, while others like Tripomatic facilitate any kind of travel planning. Points deducted for the list’s inclusion of a plane that doesn’t exist yet.
    3. What does it mean to build an entire business around the GIF, a user-generated format around since the early web that’s become ubiquitous over the past few years? This long read on Giphy explains the company’s evolution from the initial idea to its emerging brand-focused business, stretching the art of the GIF as far as it can go.
    4. One for the user interface obsessives: a detailed examination of the pros and cons of infinite scroll versus pagination. Bottom line: it depends on your goals, and it’s complicated.
    5. This article claims that everything the tech world says about marketing is wrong. Read on for insights about the hyperbole of “content marketing,” as well as an argument for back-to-basics approaches to tactics and organizational structures.

    Weekend fun: I started a new job this week — frankly, lift-off has felt a little like this. Here’s hoping everyone enjoyed the #MayThe4thBeWithYou festivities, and that your week included at least one stormtrooper dance party.

    Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.

  • 7 opportunities for digital in educational travel

    7 opportunities for digital in educational travel

    There’s a lot going on at the intersection — some might even say collision — of mobile, social, digital revolution and the travel industry. Last week I presented at the Educational Travel Community summarizing current and emerging challenges, and offering seven digital opportunities to pursue.

  • Quick takes on Southeast Asia digital

    Quick takes on Southeast Asia digital

    I began 2015 with a few weeks off the grid in Vietnam and Cambodia. The trip was all about learning and exploration — touring, reading, reflecting — and a break from the hyperconnected day-to-day. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the rapid encroachment of technology, and compare digital behaviors to those back in the U.S.

    Asia will be a major contributor to the next billion internet users coming online, and this shift will have ramifications for internet language and culture. Vietnam, in particular, is eagerly adopting the internet and is investing in a strong tech sector to bolster its economy. Today, 43% of Vietnam’s population is connected to the internet, compared to 87% of the U.S. and just over 5% in Cambodia.

    A few observations:

    • Internet Cafes are still popular in both Vietnam and Cambodia, and popular for those seeking convenient online access, P2P gamers, and high school students looking to avoid their parents — a universal shared value. Internet at home remains costly — white collar professionals gain access through their offices, and rely on mobile. In Vietnam, one in three adults has a smartphone, compared to over 60% of adults in the United States.

    internet cafe

     

    • Mobile technology is visible everywhere. Texting and driving are nefarious enough in cities with wider streets and recognized traffic signals — it’s utterly terrifying in a sea of motorbikes, cyclos, and cars. Mobile access is not prohibitively expensive; in Cambodia, the cost of a data plan is $5 USD/month — out of reach for many, but affordable for middle class professionals in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.

    mobile motorbike

     

    • Facebook is a universally acknowledged platform and service. In both countries, people nodded in comprehension at a mention of Twitter as something they’d heard of, shrugged at Instagram, but lit up at Facebook. Facebook and Messenger were mentioned repeatedly. Messaging services like Line and Skype also came up, and very occasionally Viber. In Vietnam in particular, Facebook URLs showed up on storefronts.

    facebook on storefront

     

    • In Cambodia, we saw a few informal gaming spaces set up for kids. These were desktop games, not yet internet-enabled, and drew an eager crowd. These boys were playing something called Age of Naga.

    naga game station

     

    • And in Cambodia’s Smart telco retail store, staff assured me that the iPhone was the most coveted device. Check out those prices — they’re in U.S. dollars! Hard to believe that price point is tenable beyond an affluent minority.

    iphone sign with prices

  • 7 tips for solo travel for women

    Seville 2013Back from a needed break in Seville — where the rains finally stopped to provide a hint of Spanish spring.

    In an era when many women are striving to Lean In professionally, I’m surprised how many still express trepidation at the idea of traveling alone. There’s a lot of sensible online advice for logistics, like useful safety tips (and bad things can certainly happen), but far less about how to enjoy it. Here are a few ideas for making the most of solo travel, whether for business or pleasure:

    1. Find your favorite travel services/apps, and become a pro-user. Kayak for deals; TripIt for social itinerary management; OpenTable or Yelp or Foursquare tips for meals and entertainment; Waze for wayfinding; Kindle for reading. There’s no one right service: find one that meets your requirements and master the app so you know how access what you need on the road.
    2. Plan ahead, but if you’re busy, keep it simple. My protip (a precursor to subreddit Explain Like I’m Five) has been to take out kids’ travel books on the area before going. If I have time for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon before a trip to Serbia, fine, but most of the time a short and quick read of greatest hits will suffice.
    3. Use social media to meet up with friends or friends of friends — or just get up-to-the-minute advice. Depending upon the kindness of strangers is easier than ever in the digital age, and far more empowering now that you can offer tangible tips back through online services. Whether you’re looking for recommendations for local theater tickets or the absolute best cup of coffee, I’m pleasantly surprised how generous people are with their ideas and recommendations. Use them, and reciprocate.
    4. Choose accommodations wisely. I’ve stayed low-end for startups and nonprofits and on the higher end for long-awaited vacations, but a safe, walkable location close to a city center delivers more value than any other amenity. Figure out the features (a gym? wifi? non-creepy bar?) that are important to you, and focus more on those than the starred reviews.
    5. Look up and speak up. Many of us, myself first and foremost, suffer from dopamine-driven mobile device habits. When traveling, put yours down and look around. At a conference, make an effort to meet the people you tweet with, and don’t worry if there as many misses as hits. Crowdsourced recommendations are terrific, but sometimes you do as well asking the person next to you where the best ice cream is (in Seville, the pointer to Heladeria Alfalfa was a hit).
    6. Learn to eat alone comfortably. Talking through a meal on a mobile isn’t the same as a dinner companion for you (or for your fellow diners). Learn to read, write, or just relax over a meal. Avoid room service — there’s nothing more grim than eating dinner in a hotel room. Tip appropriately for the local norm and the service you receive.
    7. Make a personal connection, and ask for what you need. Making a personal connection as you check into a hotel (front desk clerks have astonishing discretion for upgrades) can yield terrific results. For ideas, try an online community like flyertalk that’s populated by road warriors who are the Olympic gold medallists of the upgrade. Whether you’re speaking with a concierge or maître d’ or gym attendant, learn how to politely but clearly ask for what you would like. It’s still common to be offered the room next to the ice machine or the table by the kitchen; it’s surprising how much of an improved result a polite request can deliver.

    Traveling on your own can happens for a variety of reasons — a free day tacked on to a conference, or a planned trip to a destination of your dreams. Enjoy!

  • Down and out (of access) in Paris and London

    Was lucky enough to get a little time away this summer — never enough — and sneak off to  London and Paris. Managed to avoid the Jubilee and the Olympics for the former, and all the Parisians (and, regrettably, their best boulangeries) for the latter.

    It was eye-opening to me how much more digital and mobile London felt. Everything from finding location-aware Tube maps to evaluating museum passes to seeing what’s on around town at a glance on an iPad was easy and optimized for information on the go. Paris felt almost like the opposite — nothing seemed to render well for mobile and sites were organized more bureaucratically than with the user in mind.

    End result: easier to find and buy via mobile in London. Wired cities may begin to see investment in digital as more than streamlining infrastructure and engaging citizenry in governance, but as a key to unlocking tourism dollars via mobile commerce.