More virtual less reality?!

What do people understand under a "Virtual World?" An interactive simulated enivironment which can be accessed by multiple useres through an online interface.




A virtual world can also be known as "digital worlds" or "simulated worlds". There is a wide range of virtual worlds but they all have something in common, which is:

1. Immediacy: Real time 
2. Interactivity: a virutal world allows users to collaborate and work together
3. Persistence: no matter what time in the day the world is there
4. Socialization: Encouragement of in-world social groups like teams, guilds, cliques, housemates, neighborhoods...etc.
5. Space: Many users can access the platform at the same time and use it

MMORPG is a very commonly used term in regard with virtual world - it means "massively multiplayer Online Role Playing Game". and propably the largest form of virtual worlds. However, gaming is not the only purpose of a virtual world - socializing, education, political expression or even military training are areas in which simultated worlds are used as well.

Commercial Gaming

Are games that focus on a singular fictional theme and consistently follow formal conventions! e.g character-focused avatars, progression through an interactive narrative storyline, and a series of competititive events.


Socializing/Online Community Building
What is meant by that is, there are socaial communities that emphasize rather on socializing than gaming and are based on text/based chat rooms. Even though small casual games may be incorporated into a social world the participlants rather focus on socializing with others and decorate a personal space. 

Education:

Education is also the purpose of some virtual worlds. Academic institutions or non profit organizations are usually responsible for such virtual experiences. Educational worlds come in a wide variety of forms, including 3D recreations of museum and gallery spaces, computer programming tutorials, virtual libraries and meeting spaces for online universtiy courses. 

One of the largest networks of educational worlds is "Active Worlds Educational Universe"

Political Expression:

The use of a virtual world is not only based on games or socializing but also to serve as forums for political expression and debate.  Even experiments in various types of self-governing online communities are helping politics in expaning their reach to people. (a great example of a virtual world with a political focus is AgoraXchange)

All these above named areas are only the beginning, since these technologies will develop tremendously over the next years. Virtual worlds will be used in all kinds of areas, as people begin spending more time with them. 

Success Factors in Social Media Marketing

a Lecture held by Clemens Koeltringer and Christoph Berg


Social Media is a topic that regards us all, but how does it effect companys that lay trust on those specific networks/programs in order to promote their company, hotel or organisation. 


In the Lecture held by Mr. Clemes Koeltringer and Mr. Christoph Berg exactly that topic is being discussed and explained.


The first question I want to engage you with is "What are the true motivators to engage in social media for private persons and companys, that actually try to do promotion for their companies??

• direct contact (being able to connect directly with your potential business partners)
• information (easy and simply access to information about an organisation)
• modern image (we all have to adapt to Web 2.0, and so do companies)
• interaction (using letters and emails is not enough, it has to be brought to another level)
• and last but not least feedback (knowing how people feel about you/the comapany that you work in, or you own)

In a case study in which 10 different countries participated, facebook was on place 1, the followers right behind that were twitter, youtube, flickr....etc. When it came to the question on how much time people actually spent with the applications of Web 2.0 the highest number was 40 hours per week. Which is amazingly high. What was interesting to see was, that the most time spent in the WWW was around the middle of the week, during working hours. 

Mr. Koeltringer suggested that 3 levels of SoM expertise could be detected which are:

1. Level 1:  which is basically learning by doing. Sometimes also contracting online marketing agencies to kick of SMM activities
2. Level 2: People who follow a predefined Social Media strategy, contracting online marketing agencies to cover specific predefined target markets, people like this invest up to 10 hours per week in SMM
3. Level 3: SoM stretegy in line with the overal strategy, Contracting online marketing agencies to creat and implement buzz building campaigns or to cover specific predefined target markets.

Another really interesting question was "How does social media really deliver visitors and reveue for city tourist organizations and convention bureaux?" and "What do we truly want from the Social Media Market"

The answer to that was simply to define sucess, the define the indicators for success, and last but not least measure and compare the success. But how can that be done. 


An simply example can be given. e.g on facebook or twitter and other Social Media websites the daily or weekly traffic, the interaction between members, recomendations of a specific website, or what the true PR value or a website is can be measures by tracking the number of visits and what was clicked on. And that right there is the answer to the above asked questions. 

And exactly those "User Behavior Matters" help understand how a company works and how compatible it is. The online world is transparent and leaves traces everywhere. 

Traffic Sources Bounce Rate

• Useful segments
• acquisition (where do they come from)
• Behavior (what do they look at, what topics are most interesting)
• Outcome (are they just interested in information or what are they really looking for)

A very interesting point Mr. Koeltringer also suggested was the fact that quantitative data has limitations in understanding  the WHY. What is meant by that I believe is, that primary data can not "understand" the data it gets. Which means, why are people visiting the website and what is the primary purpose behind it.  Another question would be weather the visit was successfull, did the visitor find what he/she was looking for and if not, why? And last but not least, was there a good site experience and did it satisfy the customer.

Besides twitter, facebook, myspace and all these social networks another Web 2.0 application is emerging more and more - blogging. But on what does the success of a blog depend on - I guess the number of unique blogs that link to your blog and how many people forward your blog and make puplicity for it, is a good start i believe.

When making a website, what are the most important things you should consider?

• whats the purpose of the websites
• what are the business objectives
• set specific goals for your website
• and last but not least, focus on measureing your macro (overall) conversations, but identify and measure your micro conversions well.

Possible tools that show a company how it does, in comparison to its competitors:

• Benchmarking
• Google trends (compare different websites on how they perform)

Podcast - changing the world mind by mind

Podcasting, or also referred to as non-streamed webcast, is one of the great evolutions of Web 2.0. What is a podcast and how does it work it the question I want to answer along todays blog. Podcast. (2010, November 6). Retrieved 16:50, November 7, 2010, from http://blog.podcast.com/podcastcom-faq/what-is-a-podcast/

A "podcast" is either a video or audio file that is availabe on the World Wide Web for people to download - an easy example would be, as we discussed in our Tourism and Hospitality Business Applications Lecture, the possibility to listen to a podcast about a specific city, their sights, important history and information - avoiding the necessity of a tourist guide. Podcast. (2010, November 6). Retrieved 16:50, November 7, 2010, from http://blog.podcast.com/podcastcom-faq/what-is-a-podcast/

You can simply download an audio file, put it on your Ipod or MP3 player and listen to it while your stay at the destination of your choice - easy and for free. Which is of course questionable which regard to the tourist industry, since a very common problem appears which is the replacement of manpower by a machine, or atleast in this case by a datafile. When using the word "podcast" it is usually refered to the entire series and not just one audio/video file. Another question is, we all are well aware of the fact that video, just as audio files have been made available on the internet for a long amount of time - so WHY are podcasts different? Podcast. (2010, November 6). Retrieved 16:50, November 7, 2010, from http://blog.podcast.com/podcastcom-faq/what-is-a-podcast/

To understand the word Podcast I will break it down into two words, which are: 

• Pod: a podcast can either be listened to on a computer or transfer the date on to your portable audio/video device - which therefor means that file is Portable and On-Demand because it is available at any time and any place.

• Cast: means file is sent out to people oer the internet, in the way of broadcasting comes to you over the radio or TV airwaves. But instead of using TV or radio, the Internet is used. 

Podcast. (2010, November 6). Retrieved 16:50, November 7, 2010, from http://blog.podcast.com/podcastcom-faq/what-is-a-podcast/

The history of podcasting:

"podcasting began to catch hold with the public in late 2004, though during the 1998–2001 dot-com- erathere were multiple "podcasts" done by major companies, such as Real Networks and ESPN.com. Many individuals and groups contributed to the emergence and popularity of podcasts. Adam Curry is credited with coming up with the idea to automate the delivery and syncing of textual content to portable audio players, and the first application to make this process feasible was iPodderX, developed by August Trometer and Ray Slakinski. Since the 1930's there have been radio talk shows and news programs. Today, through the evolution of the internet TCP capabilities, along with cheaper hardware and software, audio podcasts are doing what was historically done through radio broadcast stations." Podcast. (2010, November 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:50, November 7, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Podcast&oldid=395104189

How telephones developed to become portable computers that we can easily fit in our pockets....

Today´s generation is more than familiar with cell phones and the use of computers. The vision held by a growing number of people in the industry of computers is, that "one day your primary, computer, the device you use for the majority of your work, will be mobile, easily fit in your pocket, and be completely integrated with your mobile phone." Article, Roy Watt - When cell phones become computers (2010, October 18). Retrieved 12:58, October 30, 2010, from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MPRV.2009.40


The question we have to ask ourselves is the following - What are the driving forces behind this new trend?? There are 2 major constraints for any mobile device, that is
- battery life time and the ability to use the phone for the longest amount of time possible (between  recharging)
- size and weight (must fit pocket/purse) […]

Cf. Fig.1 Article, Roy Watt - When cell phones become computers (2010, October 18). 12:58, October 30, 2010, from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MPRV.2009.40


For more then a decade the industry was able to fit those conditions perfectly fine. But the industry grew, the demand became bigger and so did the demand the clients had torwards a communication device. In the past year, the the estimated number of industries shipping mobile phones to companys was 1,2 billion. An enormous number, considering that cell phone customers represent a subscriber market of 3.3 billion - which is about half the earth´s population  […]


Basically a cellphone can be architecturally divided into 2 basic components: Firstly the communication processor and secondonly the application processor. The engineering trend nowadays is, to build both of these components into one piece of silicon, which is often referred to as system-on-chip (SoC). This can help save cost to a very high level. To distinguish between smartphones and a regular cell phone it is firstly tired to make the application processor become a computationally powerful computer in its own right - in a regular phone there is only one fundamental function, which is the communication center.  […]

Now what might be interesting for us to find out is, how big the smartphone market is relative to the cell phone market.  […]

"In 2007, it was estimated to be a little less than 10% at 116 million units, growing to 181 million units in 2008, or 14 % (see Fig.1). Therefore. smart phone have a way to go before they embody the majority of cellular sales, currently about 1,2 billion." Article, Roy Watt - When cell phones become computers (2010, October 18).Retrieved 12:58, October 30, 2010, from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MPRV.2009.40


The numbers keep growing and growing, and one day I am sure of it - It is going to be more than normal that a cell phone can book flights, make reservations maybe even send a print-demand to a computer. Innovation in cellphones/smartphones is growing tremedously and so is every computer based system around it. I believe that the smartphone is just the beginning. In maybe a 100 years there is going to be a computer based device which is almost unimagable for us today, but then the youth of that age is going to feel the same way about it, as we feel about smartphones today.

photosynth.com picture insertment exercise

Does IT matter?!

In today´s blog I am going to deal with the wideranging topic Information Technology. The article, that was supplied for us to summerize on our E-moodle desktop, was composed by Mr Nicholas Carr and was published in May 2003 edition of the Harvard Business Review. He examines the evolution of information technology in business and shows that it follows a pattern strikingly similar to that of earlier technologies like railroads and electric power.
c.f.  (2010, October 14). Nicholas G. Carr Webside, Retrieved 12:37, October 16, 2010 from http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/articles/matter.html

Nowadays, hardly anybody would arugue the fact,  that IT has developed to be become the fortitude of commerce. It supports operations of individual companies, ties together supply chains and mainly and most importantly links businesses to possible future costumers and the ones they already serve. In 1965, according to a study by the US Department of Commerce´s Bureau of Economic Analysis, less than 5 % of the Capital expenditures of American companies went to information technology. After the personal computer was introduced in the early 1980s, the percentage rose to 15 % and reached 30 % by the early 19990s and by the end of the decade it nearly rose to 50 %.
c.f. "Does IT matter?", Article supplied by Modul University of Vienna, Tourism and Hospitality Applications


Also the first so stuck up managers that wouldn´t even look at a computer, simply for the fact, because it was seen as a machine for low-level employees like secretaries, analysts, and technicians, now can not even imagen a step in their business without the every day use of their computers. It is routinely talked about the strategic value of information technology, by Chief executives. IT is also of high importance to gain a competitive edge, about the digitization of their business modes. [...]

IT can be propably be best described as the latest in a series of broadly adopted technologies that have reshaped and improved industry over the past 20 years. [...]

Correspondents have also discovered a connection between the expansion of IT, mainly the Internet, and the shrinkage of earlier technologies. Mostly the comparisons focused on  either the investement pattern (associated with the technologies), the boom-to-bust cycle - or the technologies roles in reorganizing  and finding new shapes for the operations in a company. [...]


A differentiation must clearly be made between  proprietary technologies and infrastructural technologies. Proprietary technologies is described by investopedia as follows "A process, tool, system or similar item that is the property of a business or an individual and provides some sort of benefit or advantage to the owner. Companies that are able to develop useful proprietary technologies in-house are rewarded with a valuable asset: they can either use it exclusively or profit from the sale of licensing of their technology to other parties." c.f  (2010, October 14). Investopia Website, Retrieved 15:21, October 16, 2010 from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/proprietarytechnology.asp


Infrastructural technologies are refered to as technologies that "offer far more value when shared then when used in isolation". In the text of Mr Carr he refered to an example of a company, possibly in the nineteenth century, which plans to create a railroad. The company could either go for the proprietary technology way, meaning throughout their supplies, its factories and its distributors and run its locomotives and railcars on the tracks. But for the braoder economy, it would make a tremendous difference if an open rail network, connecting many companies and many buyers, would be built. c.f. "Does IT matter?", Article supplied by Modul University of Vienna, Tourism and Hospitality Applications


What mainly is to be said about infrastructural technologies just as proprietary technolgies is, that infrastructural technologies and their influence is more felt at the macroeconomic level and not so much on the level of the individual company. The example provided in the text was that in a country which for instance lags in installing the technology, its domestic industries will suffer mostly. [...]

Just to give you some numbers on how IT and computers developed over the years Mr. Carr stated that the number of host computers connected to the internet grew from 80.000 to more than 125 million.  Also over the past 10 years, the number of sites on the WWW (World Wide Web) has grown from zero to nearly 40 million. Those are quite impressive numbers and I do think that it will continue to grow more and more.[...]

It seems that Nicholas Carr, in his article, wants to raise awairness to the fact that he is of the opinion that IT buildout is much closer to ist end than it’s beginning . He names several reasons for  this statement such as that IT has become affordable for pretty much everybody and the major point he named was „the investment bubble has burst, which historically has been a clear indication that an infrastructural technology is reaching the end of tis buildout. „ (Nicholas Carr, Article) 

So now the question is – What are companies to do? How much should really be invested into IT and IT management. A clear example was stated that we all are nowadays well aware of, but back some decades ago it was so new to people as IT was to us some years ago – Electricity. [...]

Nowadays there is no company that actually builds its business around its usage of electricity  Operational risks related to IT could be as follows, technical glitches, obsolence, service outages, unreliable vendors or partners..... etc. But he main risk that companies are facing regarding IT is simply overspending. IT is clearly a commodity, and its cost also fall quickly and surely. The most important thing to consider is therefor, companies have to be able to seperate the most neccessary investement from those which are of low importance fort he business or even counterproductive. [...]

Finally, Nicholas Carr suggests the following: „IT management should, frankly become boring. The key success, fort he vast majority of companies, is no longer to seek advantage aggressively but to manage costs and risks meticulously. The challange will be to maintain that discipline when the business cycle strengthens and the chorus of hype about IT’s strategic value rises anew.“ [...]

In my opinion, IT is almost irreplaceable for todays businesses and companys. It places advertisments and marketing on a whole new level. Accessable for everybody, with almost no effort. Bringing the product to the customer has become highly innovated through the introduction of IT systems. As also Mr. Carr stated, I think that hardly anybody could imagen going anywhere or doing anything without carrying their computer with them, using the wide range of possibilites with the World Wide Web. Research, Information search, interaction with possible future customers has become so easy with the help of IT and the Internet.  [...]

CRS - Computer Reservation Systems

Computer Reservation Systems are of high importance for today´s travel and tourism industry. Originally CRS were created to facilitate transactions and bookings related to air travel and at a later date in order to help travel agencies to ease bookings of customers. CRS is a computerized system in order to store and retrieve information and store transactions related to air travel.
cf. (2010, October 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:03, October 10, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Computer_reservations_system&oldid=389527103


It is used by airlines, hotels and other facilities to manage their inventory properly and allow direct access through terminals to check for availability, make reservations and to even print tickets.
cf. E-Business Slides, Modul University of Vienna, Dr. Irem Arsal

[..] Now it is for us to distinguish between CRS and GDS (Global Distribution Systems). CRS developed to become GDS (Global Distribution System) - GDS enable costumers to compare and access information about travel, leisure and many other tourism related information. [..]


[..] CRS mainly focus on direct reservations (eg directly in the hotel) and GDS are more of a global database which soley manage and organize the reservation data. However without an appropriate CRS it is sometimes impossible to access GDS. But both systems allow and enable tourism providers to control, promote and sell their products internationally.
Computer reservations system. [..]



Evolutionary Development of GDS Technology

cf. The Role of Global Computer Reservation Systems in the Travel Industry Today and in the Future, Dr. Axel Schulz, Lufthansa Systems GmbH, Time of Access: 10.October.2010 citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.96.7450&rep..., PDF Data