Jan 15, 2013

Web 3.0: A Touristologist’s vision



The other day I shared this post with my fellow Touristologists:

Today, I would like to provide a little bit more of information about this post… First, I believe that foodspotting has created a very good app. A good example of LBS (Location Based Services) and social sharing application following the winning philosophy of… “Develop and Design for mobile first
But, as happens with most of the applications in the tourism field, this app shows a lack of integration of all the members of the chain of value and I strongly believe that the future of mobile apps pass through providing support to the tourist, before, during and after the trip. To me this is the real RE-EVOLUTION in the web. The real Web 3.0!
For starters, almost everyone agrees that Web 1.0 was all about INFORMATION one direction only. Whoever organizes the information the best, wins (GOOGLE).
To me, web 2.0 and therefore its business model  is also UBIQUITIOUS computing (not only mobile) and syndication which brings the possibility to get and send 3 C’S over internet. You also can complement syndication with web scraping.
When we try to define Web 3.0 there are as many definitions as experts you ask.
For some, it is all about MOBILE. Mobile is indeed very important in the future of internet but I think that is far away from a change of paradigm. To me, mobile computing is sharpening up web 2.0, making compulsory to add the features provided by ubiquitous computing and syndication.
Whoever makes the best mobile app wins???? I doubt it! For instance, Wehostels, recently won a prize in the PhocusWright conference as the most innovative startup company.  Surely, it will allow their owners to earn a lot of money AND it will be a beacon about how to create a native app useful and easy to use!
I don’t say that this app is not important BUT My prediction is that in less than two years this app will be sold to another member of the chain of value. It can be a new chain of hostels or one of the OTA that appears in the video…


Unless they choose to focus on chain of value’s leadership using the web 3.0 features we will discuss later on… Unless, they choose to first specialized then generic...
It has happened before. Do you remember worldmate? The native app we saw here, recently they were bought by Carlson Wagonlit Travel. The same happened with Traveldoo bought by Expedia… making me say…

So, to me AND from Touristology’s point of view…Mobile is an improvement but not a RE-EVOLUTION!
For others, web 3.0 is all about the semantic web (Big Data, NLP : Natural language processing, NoSQL…) and YES Machine Learning that we talked about the other day. I’m sure that semantic web will be very important BUT, because, it will make it even easier to develop/grow the key features of web 3.0 for the Tourism sector: 
So, what will be web 3.0’s most important characteristics? INTEGRATION and SYNCHRONIZATION.
An example about synchronization can be the service provided by netflix; no matter which device you use they know what the last frame you saw is. Paraphrasing…No matter which member of the chain of value the tourist talks with before, all the members of the chain of value will know about that conversation and deals (of course, in a customized way and  with total privacy for the customer), making easier service customization, service recovery, happier customers and prosperous business!!!
Integration allowing you to break departmental silos. As we pointed out here in one example for Revenue Management. Integration, also in the chain of value giving support to the tourist from the beginning to the end of the trip!
Integration and synchronization means the possibility to provide a good servuction inside this metadepartments and metaenterprises, which usually Touristologists call chain of value inside 1,2,3 theory!!!
There is plenty of room in the fields of Touristology and Web-Engineering and we, as  Touristologists, will have plenty of opportunities to build successful careers!!!

Are you able to build up a chain of value for specific segments?
Are you able to apply integration and synchronization in your chain of value?
If the answer is YES!... Welcome to Web 3.0 for Tourism, Touristologists!!!
 
 

 

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