Evolving Web

Bigger Ears Make You Dumbo

Consider how the movement of a meme across the social media landscape spreads what looks good on the surface, but is fetid logic underneath.  A few months back I spoke at Social Media Breakfast, Seattle about Social Media, Lean and the CIA. A big part of that talk covered the danger of companies assuming that merely listening to people through Twitter was a standard of success.

Now let me tell you a little story about a recent experience I had with Delta Airlines, and how it relates to Chris Brogan's quote regarding assumptions on the Internet.

I was flying back to Seattle from Viet Nam. I had a ticket, but no seat assignment on the leg from Tokyo to Seattle. I was told that this wasn’t a problem, I could get one when I checked in at the desk in Tokyo.

My layover in Tokyo was nearly 10 hours long, before my 10 hour flight back to the States.

No problem, I thought. I would quickly check in, and then enjoy the day exploring the city.

I wend my way through the intricacies of Narita Airport, finally finding the transfer desk. It was unmanned. It was about 7 am at this point, so I went to the information counter and asked when the Delta people came to work. 

They told me 11:30.

Well, that’s pretty inconvenient. But I got myself some breakfast and proceeded to wait. 11:30 came and went, and yet there was still no one at the Delta transfer desk. A little after noon the desk finally opened. It took 15 minutes for them to process my request, after which they informed me I would get my boarding pass and seat assignment 15 minutes before departure.

I inquired why, and was told my ticket was so cheap I didn’t get a seat assignment. I said that this was leg four of a ticket that went from Paris to Beijing to Hanoi to Tokyo to Seattle and all the other legs had seat assignments. At that point I was told tersely that I simply didn’t have a seat assignment.

“Okay, how do I avoid having this happen in the future?” I asked.

I got my papers pushed back at me and never did receive an answer. I have no idea how to make sure this doesn’t happen next time.

So, I’m stuck in Narita for 10 hours now because I need to make sure that the moment they open the gate, I’m first in line for a seat assignment. I do what any red blooded netizen would do. I tweet that I’m annoyed with Delta.

The next day, Delta’s big ears hear my pain and tweet to me:

So they heard me.

And so I DMed them. Now…look up.

My story wasn’t short. But I had to mash it into several 140 character statements because Delta didn’t actually give me a higher bandwidth way to have the conversation.

I told them the fastest possible version of that story. Without any further communication, Delta gave me 2,500 frequent flier points. I don’t even fly Delta! This was pretty much the equivalent of Charlie Brown winning 5 free haircuts. “My dad’s a barber and besides, I don’t have that much hair to cut!” he lamented.

 Delta’s ears might have been big, but their execution sucked. No, their listening is not what I will remember them for, but rather, it is their consolation prize I will forever associate them with. I still have no idea how to not get stuck somewhere waiting for a seat assignment. That was all I really wanted: simple information.

What should Delta have done? Let me now share a story from an earlier part of that trip.

Due to a communication snafu, Orbitz messed up part of my flight. At one point, I was in real danger of being stuck in Paris with no way to fly onto to Hanoi or, to return home.

I tweeted my frustration and Orbitz responded within minutes.

They immediately gave me a direct email address and a phone number to Kristi, a real person, who could help (and who could take the time to get the whole story). Orbitz then fixed the problem I had and one other I didn’t know I had. Then they told me how I could avoid having that ever happen to me again.

Orbitz had big ears, but more importantly, they also had helping hands.

Delta’s system is built on productivity. They feel they did a good job by moving me through their process and giving me something. Orbitz is build on effectiveness. (I cover the difference in this post). They found the real problem, solved it, and made sure I was taken care of. Rest assured, both experiences will have a lasting impact.

(Oh, and Kristi later wrote to say she was glad I made it safely to Hanoi, and to thank me for the tweet.) 

Jimmy Wales Grows Them Good and Organic

My first evening in Beijing my new friends Fred and Pockey took me to a beautiful restaurant on HouHai Lake in the center of Beijing.  Very pretty at night with the lights on the water.  It was very dark though and we all struggled to read the menus by the light on Fred's cell phone.

So I'm picking out what I want to eat and going through the menu and something stops me in my tracks.  A collision between Web 2.0 and food in my first hours of Beijing.

I look down at the menu and say to Pockey, "Okay, I know my Cantonese is barely passable and my Mandarin is non-existent, but you have got to tell me what 303 is."

She says "What number?"

"Sam ling sam"

She finds it and starts laughing.

It is Stir-fried wikipedia.

So, after much discussion, here is what we think happened.

"Hey I'm making the new menu, what's the english name for those flat crispy mushrooms?"

"Um, there isn't one."

"Well what should I put down here?"

"I don't know, look it up in wikipedia."

"What?"

"Wikipedia!"

Wikipedia with peppers looks like this:

And it is delicious.

So, thanks Jimmy Wales, for adding to the experience.

Update:  Many people asked what the name of the restaurant was.  While I was in China, things were happening so fast that I just didn't notice.  But Pockey was quick to tell me.  She says:

• "South silk road (cha ma gu dao) is the name and its at the (hou hai)"

Another Update: Mr. Codeman38 in the comments to this post directs us to another photo of Wikipedia in Beijing!  Utterly bizarre.

 

Technorati Tags: wikipedia, web 2.0, food, beijing, menus, translation, jimmy wales

There is Nothing Like Doing

Sometimes things work out so elegantly.  A few weeks ago, I was on-line working late at night.  My friend Janelle was on line.  She had been living in Beijing so I IM'ed her and let her know I was about to be on my way to her city.

Unfortunately, she's relocated to Guangzhou.  But she introduced me to her friends and as soon as I arrived, they took me places.  Some places (restaurants), I expected.  Some places (Beijing Linux User Group meeting) I was more surprised by.

Their quick and effective effort to welcome me to Beijing and get me involved with local networks was wonderful.  Even though Beijing is a huge and rather ungraspable city, it has felt very comfortable to me because of this.

 As I write this, I've been here less than 2 days and have eaten in wonderful restaurants, seen the Great Wall, seen the Ming Tombs, been to my conference, met new business partners, discussed new business opportunities in China with my new friends and others, and slept a total of about 8 hours.

There's nothing like doing, like going, like being.  In places, with people, in situations.  I am a happy camper. 

Technorati Tags: china, beijing, great wall, linux, community, experience

No Geoblogging China

I was looking forward to geoblogging my China trip, as I've done before to other places.  But, as we see here, Google maps doesn't have cities in China.  Unless, of course, Shanghai only has 2 streets. 

So the services that use Google - like my favorite service, Platial - won't be very useful.  So we're just going to have to settle for non-spatial information on this one.  If anyone knows of a workaround, I'd love it.

Technorati Tags: geoblogging, neogeography, platial, google, google maps, china

Jim's China Tour 2007

On Sunday I leave for about three weeks in China.  I'm going for a conference and a tour of transportation technology facilities and an added seminar, but I'm really going for the food (of course).  I'll try to blog as often as I can.

Here's my itinerary:

Oct 7 - Fly out of Seattle

Oct 8 - 14 - Beijing

Oct 14- 17 - XiAn

Oct 17 - 21 - Hangzhou

Oct 21 - 24 - Shanghai

Oct 24 - Fly back home

Unfortunately, I'm fighting a cold at the moment as well, so it's going to be an interesting flight over.

If you are in any of these cities when I am, let me know!

Technorati Tags: china, intelligent transportation systems, its world congress 2007, its world congress

Scratching the Surface

This evening was the airing of Anthony Bourdain's new Hong Kong visit on his show "No Reservations."  We'd been waiting for it.

He started out the show by declaring it to be a food paradise and said "if you're smart you'll hit the ground running."  Essentially that you could go there and eat non-stop and leave  without being anywhere near finished.

On our last trip to HK, we were there for a little over two weeks.  We ate five meals a day, with only a few exceptions.  Each meal .. very large.  We walked everywhere.  In the end, we gained no weight.

I only slowed down for one day, during which my body told me that binge eating was not appreciated.  I told my body we'd discuss it when we got back to Seattle.

I was glad to see that he hit many places I'd been that were off the beaten path.  Due to the constraints of the length of the show, he wasn't able to hit many of my favorites.  Next time, perhaps he should give us a call.

Anthony missed the outer islands - Lamma and Cheung Chau most notably.  And he missed Bo Toi O (a fishing village not on an outer island), which was pretty much the unexpected highlight of my last trip.

What the episode did capture fairly well is the speed at which Hong Kong comes at you.  It is not a destination for the languid.  At one point, Tony and his food blogger buddy are looking at some food and the woman is yelling at them in Cantonese "I don't want to be on camera, just buy your food!  If you're not going to eat it, don't look at it!"  Fie Dee!  Fie Dee!

That sounds annoying and at times it is.  But it is really Hong Kong.  Undeniable and blatant.

 Whenever I arrive in Hong Kong, I really feel like I'm there.  I really feel like I'm at one of my homes.  It is palpable.  It is tangible.

When I saw it tonight on No Reservations I felt a strange disembodied feeling.  No other show I've seen has made me feel Hong Kong like that.  It was more than a little unsettling.  I feel like I should be able to step outside my door and find myself in Tsim Sha Tsui where I can walk a block and get a late night bowl of mein.  Alas, Ocean Shores, Washington, will not satisfy me tonight.

Technorati Tags: Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, Hong Kong, Foodie, cantonese food

Grumbling for Gifts

In Seattle we are having some freeway construction.  It's fairly invasive and shuts down 3 lanes of a five lane freeway that is usually very congested at rush hour.  This means that the suburbanites can't rely on their main route into town.

These are generally the same people who vote against transit plans.

So now, they have to give up their highly subsidized means of commuting (driving) for a slightly less subsidized one (transit).  This morning, many of them drove to a park & ride to take the Sounder Commuter train.

They were very upset that there wasn't more parking for them or more trains.  On King 5 news this morning, the reporter was amazed at the number of people waiting for the Sounder commuter train.

The platform was about half full.

Meanwhile, the horrific,terrible traffic never occurred.

Why did it not materialize?

Because people actually planned their trips.  They took transit, they left later, they worked from home.  They were the solution to congestion.

Going clear back to 2001, we can see Seattle's traffic has been nearly the "worst in the nation".  This clearly indicates that this horrible wound that is crippling our economy is purely self-inflicted.  Further, it is a strong indication that the billions we are spending expanding our freeways (and not maintaining others) is wasted on people who cannot fathom that they are the problem.

We have met the commuter and he is us.

In the end, this is a networking problem, a social inertia problem.  Up until this morning, the assumption was that driving was the only option to get downtown that was socially acceptable.  But suddenly, there was an issue so big, so large, that people couldn't fathom continuing their usual routine - even though their usual routine wasn't working in the first place.

These commuters were already stuck in traffic for up to an hour.  These commuters already had alternatives available to them.  They already had the pain and the remedy.

But as a network, as an organism, the culture of suburban Seattle couldn't fathom taking transit, altering their commute times, or having flexible schedules.

Why?  Because the freeway itself is seen as an immutable object in suburban culture.  The freeway itself, according to suburban lore, is always under the control of the driver.  Congestion is other people's fault and interferes with the driver's freedom.  But the driver is never personally part of that congestion.

It often takes an outside disruptive influence to alter the behavior of a network.  In this case, WSDOT was the outside influence that disrupted this world view.  WSDOT told them point-blank, "Your beloved I-5 will shrink dramatically for two weeks."  This disruption was so profound that it altered their behavior, even though the status quo should have already warranted this.

Tomorrow, we shall see if people want to game the system by commuting tomorrow because volumes today were so low.  After that, we shall see if they learn any lessons whatsoever from this experience.

Technorati Tags: suburb, suburbs, suburban, freeways, congestion, construction, paradigm shifts, traffic, urban planning, pogo, walt kelly, community indicators, community

Plazes, Platial and MyMaps - Quick Praise

We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) extensively at Gray Hill Solutions and I just plain like maps.  They can communicate a lot of information elegantly.  I've been using three different services for mapping on the web over the last few years.  They are Plazes, Platial, and Google's newer entry My Maps.

I thought I'd share a few maps and discuss the services.   A bit of a disclaimer, both Plazes and Platial have sent me Swag and Google is really big and could squash me like a bug so I'm naturally terrified of them.

Plazes

I've been on Plazes since Summer 2005.  It tracks your presence via IP address which works well for most places (not at a T-Mobile hotspot any more).  I've logged my presence in Plazes in the US, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong.   

Plazes used to let you map all the places you'd been in the last month, year and lifetime.  I wish that they didn't get rid of that feature, I really loved it. 

As far as a gameable system, it's a fun one, you get points for discovering places, and a bit for reviewing and ranking them.  You also get points for new countries and new cities.

The funny thing is, now I've got this problem.  I subscribed to T-Mobile's Hot Spot account so I could easily find connectivity wherever I travel.  But now I don't want to use it anymore, because T-Mobile's network configuration isn't compatible with Plazes.

Plazes also comes with a nice desktop app called Plazer that lets me auto-track where I am and then transmit that vital information to my blog.

Platial

You've seen many posts about Platial here.  Hands down, Platial has the highest potential of any tool currently out there to help blogging evolve into something more than a chatter tool.

Platial is a massive vortex of potential.  I have one fairly regularly updated map on Platial, although the recent release has made it hard to update. 

This is a food diary of sorts as I eat my way around the planet.  I'm afraid that my food criticism is an evolving art form in and of itself, and I haven't quite found my voice. 

But Platial gives me tools to map locations and then incorporate those into an ongoing blog.  Platial also provides a portable mapping utility that you can incorporate into your other blogs or web sites.  Click on the map there to go straight to my food blog.

My Maps

Google sits and watches and then implements thinly.  Their new My Maps utility allows you to do some things that were perfected at some mashup camps.  It's a thin app.  It doesn't have the networking tools that Platial or Plazes do, but it makes clean maps quickly.  I have created a few maps there.

The first is my walking map.  As you can barely see in this smaller map, there are a variety of elements a map maker can employ to tell a story.  You have points, lines and polygons.  In this map, the big shaded area (a polygon) is my neighborhood, which I'm determined to walk on every street of between now and September.

In the map to the right we can see both the point data, which in this case is my house.  It's the little blue flag down there.  and then various walking paths I've been taking on my quest for neighborhood pedestrian domination.  As you can see by looking at the map above, I've got a long way to go.  But I just started on Tuesday, so give me a break.

Also here we can see the additional data one can get by clicking on a feature on the map. The data is displayed directly on the map and can be created with Rich Text, so there's plenty more formatting that can be done.

Google's My Maps doesn't include the blogging power of Platial or the flexibility of externally linking to specific objects.  So it's got a ways to go before they catch up with Platial. 

But they do have multiple data types, which neither Platial nor Plazes can offer.

I've also been testing this by creating a Places I've Blogged From map and a Jim's Summer Tour map.

Endpost

It's exciting to see the slow integration of spatial communication and blogging.  Recently people have been lamenting about what will come next in blogging's inevitable evolution.  I'm certainly hoping that in our quest to add more crap to our blogs (video, audio, etc) we look closely at adding more information.

Both video and audio are very slow ways to impart a message.  Maps, however, can be very effective at relating huge amounts of information very quickly and in a very small space.

 

Technorati tags: geographic information systems, gis, plazer, plazes, platial, google, mymaps, blogging

Blogged at my house in Seattle with Live Writer

How To: Get Through Airport Security Quickly

I have decided to resurrect my series of How-tos because behind every how-to is a why-do.  And behind every why-do is an interesting system.  And examining systems helps us design better software, relate better as people and maybe even find ways to make the work a little better.

This How To involves getting through airport security.  So, first we examine the Why-dos around this how-to.

Why-Do #1:  Why do TSA agents seem mean?

Well, let's think about it for a minute.  First off, TSA agents are human beings first, family members second, baseball fans third, and maybe somewhere down the line in the self-concept they are TSA agents.  So when you treat them like an individual race, it's demeaning and upsets them.

Second, TSA agents have one job and one job only: stop people from blowing up airplanes.  Understandably they take that seriously.  Regardless of the statistics of how many planes have been blown up intentionally versus the number that have blown up because of faulty maintenance, they need to take that job seriously.  So why does that make them mean?  Because travelers seem to think their jobs are to tell you how big a quart bag is or to tell you to take your shoes off or to move plastic bins around.  And travelers make them do those things 8 million times a day.

Third, TSA agents are agents.  They have little control over whether they are working at 4 am or 10 PM, let alone set policy on what can and cannot be in your carry-on bag.  Not only are they not interested in your theories of why taking your shoes off is pointless, they are actively tired of hearing about it.

Why-Do #2: What's My Carbon Footprint Have To Do With This?

Well, probably not very much.  But I can tell you that I've been on flights that have been delayed because of delays at security.  I have also been on flights where the crew has been stunned and amazed when everyone is on-board and seated with their seat-belts fastened ... early.  The less delays at airports, the more efficient they operate.  Air travel is nasty for personal carbon footprints.  The more efficient you can help your flight become, there is a chance you'll decrease the carbon footprint of the airport.  And no, I don't have any evidence whatsoever to back that up.

Why-Do #3: Because I'm standing in line behind you.

Here's the most important one.  People are standing behind you.  If it takes you two minutes to dig out your bag of gels, queuing theory says you will cause about 6 to 20 minutes of delay down the queue.  Your dithering makes people miss flights.

Why-Do #4: If You Look Like You Know What You Are Doing, Life Goes More Smoothly

People love competence.  People love the poetry of motion when someone knows what they are doing.  You can gracefully go through security.  TSA agents notice.  The people in line with you notice.  People remark about it.

How Can I Get Through The Airport Security Line Quickly?

Over the last several months, I've flown an awful lot.  Here are some quick, easy, (like completely easy) rules for getting through airport security.

#1.  Dress for Success

Buy slip on shoes.  You want to be able to get them on and off without looking at them.  I have nice leather Eccos and some athletic Merrills and even a pair of stylish Diesels - all of which require no digital intervention to put on.  See "Remember Re-entry."

Bring a jacket with sealing pockets. Even if you are flying from LA to Houston in the summer, bring a light jacket with sealing pockets.  If it's winter, use your coat.   You want the pockets to seal with either Velcro or a zipper.  And you want the pockets to be empty.  Why?  See "Plan ahead!"

Get a Better Belt - Your huge solid steel belt may have looked good at the rodeo, but it just isn't working working for security.  Get a belt that doesn't set off the metal detector.

#2.  Plan Ahead

BEFORE YOU GET TO THE LINE do the following things.  Not in the line.  Honestly, security lines move a lot faster than you think.  It's really hard to fumble with things in line.

Put Your Crap In Your Coat - Put your wallet, phone, car keys, trombone - ANYTHING - that you have in the pockets of your clothes in the coat.  When you go through the scanner, only have your ID and boarding pass with you.  Why?  Because you'll miss things if you don't do it completely and, more importantly, because you'll misplace you're boarding pass if your pockets have stuff in them and you'll find yourself searching for it later (trust me).

Put Your boarding pass and ID in a pocket that you have sworn you'll not put anything else in later.  When you go through the line and when you get to the metal detector, you will be asked for one or both of these.  You want them handy.  Brain-dead handy.

Your gel bag NOW!  Make sure your gel bag is never under anything and that it is in a place where you can quickly get to it and re-stow it.  You wouldn't believe the number of people who seem to delight in stowing those things at the bottom of their suitcases.  (See 3-1-1 page for guidelines) 

Make your laptop accessible. You need to take your laptop out and put it in its own bin.  If you are like me, your laptop has a bag that fits inside my briefcase.  Before I go through security, I like to have that bag prepped for the line - meaning already unzipped.

#3 - Remember Re-entry

If you follow the tips above, re-entry will be a breeze.  Just put on (slide into)your shoes and your jacket (it's about 68 degrees in the airport, even in summer), sheath your laptop, drop in your gels and walk away.

You won't be fumbling for your keys and everything else.  You won't be trying to repack your bags.  No one remembers re-entry.  Often you get otherwise dignified people trying to stand on one foot and tie the other.

#4 - Don't Be an Idiot.

In the last month I've seen people try to go through security with gallon bags of gels instead of quarts TWICE.  But the best was the woman who had about 8 tonnes of bling.  This woman looked like she was a spokeswoman for the World Costume Jewelry Association.  She was like a white female Don King.  And she was SHOCKED that she had trouble with the metal detector.

Happy and Well Adjusted

Well, there you go.  If you follow these easy rules, you are much more likely to get through security quickly.  Then you can get inside and buy a bottle of water for $4 and relax.

 

Technorati tags: TSA, airport security, airports, how To, why do, don king, costume jewelry, zip lock bags

Blogged at my house in Seattle with Live Writer

What Makes Good Transit

This is my reply to an article on nowpublic where someone rated the top 10 transit systems.  The post got a good bit of responses and I tossed in my 2 cents after someone requested to link some of my MTR photos to it.

The photostream this brought about is very impressive.

 

What Makes Good Transit? 

The top 10 list of world transit would include no US transit systems.    I'm not saying this to be snobby, I've worked on building or improving many of them in the US.

However, a good transit system requires four main components:

1. Wayfinding - A city with good transit is impossible to get lost in.  Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Berlin fit this nicely.  There are so many stations all attached to the system, that only minimal wandering is necessary before finding a station and re-orienting yourself.   This is vital especially for Americans who are afraid of the small windy streets of HK or Tokyo.  It is much easier to find your way around there because both cities have ample signage.

2. Coverage - A city with good transit makes it easy to get around without a car or a cab.  This means enough of the city is covered by transit to make its use unavoidable.

3. Comprehesibility - When you look at a subway map, you need to know where you are and where you are going.  For most US systems - which are mostly bus - this is very difficult even for experienced users.  Headways in the US (length of time between buses) are seldom less than 20 minutes.   This means you have long wait times and the need to micromanage your trip goes up.  Transfers become more problematic.  The selection of the perfect succession of buses becomes imperative. This increases your travel time beyond merely the travel - you have to invest time up front to figure out exactly when you need to appear in specific locations to make your trip.  This drastically decreases the usability of the transit system.  In many cities world wide transit is a convenience.  In the US it is a hindrance.

4. Popularity - I have been a transit user in almost every major city in North America.  I can't say any are personally popular with me.  The top of the US for me are:  Portland, Oregon - the Bay Area (only because BART finally goes to the airport) - Boston - Washington DC.  But you can't really call any transit agency popular when our rider marketshare is so universally low.  In Hong Kong, the cleanest place in town in the Subway.   The MTR is clean, safe, efficient, convenient, and indispensible.  It is extremely popular and universally used throughout by people from all income classes.  It's also privately run.  

 

Technorati tags: transit, urban planning, reviews, wayfinding, government, transportation, hong Kong, tokyo, BART, MTR

Blogged at Gray Hill Harbor Offices in Seattle using Windows Live Writer