Web 2.0 on vacation

I'm on a ship, so this post will be fast, un-cut, un-spellchecked and un-edited (more later as to why).

While going on vacation I had the opportunity to have interesting experiences with Web 2.0 and how it can help and hurt a vacation.

Our journey with Web 2.0 started when we booked our tickets on airtran.com. This airlines uses Web 2.0 to enable it to nickle-and-dime its passengers. Get this...$4 extra per flight if I wanted to pick my seats on the plane. What a crock! But, it is amazing to see how technology can enable companies to charge for each and every type of service that they provide on line. Can you imagine an e-mail system that charges to send e-mail per word?

The next interesting experience with Web 2.0 was when we boarded the plane. The machine to check in passengers was broken, so we had to give up our home printed boarding passes when we walked onto the plane, and needed to remember our seat number. This, of course, caused great confusion especially with people who have trouble remembering things. Gone are the days of the multiple paper tickets that would have helped to alleviate this problem.

While it is great to have Internet access on the ship, it is overly expensive. Here we go (remember nickle and dimming?)....There are 5 different pre-packaged Internet pricing plans ranging from $0.35/min (500 min for $175) to $0.55/min for 100 mins for $55. There is also a pay as you go for $0.75/min. These prices are totally crazy and inflated. Don't forget the $4 fee to setup the account and the $0.50/page to print. Gosh, just printing out your boarding pass (on a slow satellite link) is $4 + $2 (printing) + 10 min @ $0.75/min = $13.5. Ugh. I got the 55 minute plan, but for other reasons.

We had a major noise issue on the ship, and during the many lengthy conversation with the front desk, I dropped the line "...and you can bet I'm going to post about this horrible experience, in detail with pictures, as soon as I get home on travelocity.com, crusiecritic.com, tripadvisor.com, just to name a few...". I am not sure if that line worked, but at least the expression on the desk attendants faces changed as if shocked that I'd do something like that. I felt empowered to be able to share with the word about how horrible this cruise line was. (In the end, it was all worked out, and we got a nice sized on-board credit [which I used to buy time to post]).

One of the ports that stopped at was extremely poor, crime ridden, rundown, and just plain scary. But, they had a huge sign that said, "Business center with Internet." I just found it funny, that the Internet was available even in very poor locations in the world, and that it would enable travelers to remain connected with the world.

In another country, our tour guide remarked that even poor and impoverished families had cell phones. I thought that this was interesting and was a nice example of how wireless technology is an excellent enabler and how it can help leapfrog the problems with installing hard wired lines. Similar thinking can be applied to bringing Internet access to remote locations that are in ecologically protected areas.

It was also interesting to see a poorly dressed elderly street peddler whip out cellphone while he was pushing his goods. I never expected him to have a cell phone.

Finally, the Australian born cycling instructor was showing me his music, and I realized later that he did not use iTunes to get his music. And he can't, since Apple does not allow access outside of the US. I am not sure about the validity of this statement, but it was interesting to see how user limitations that I had found odd, actually impact other people. ...Update - I just found out that he can access iTunes from the AU, but the pricing is in AU dollars and not US dollars. The conversion rate is about 77 AU dollars for each US dollar. Since the iTunes cost 1 AU dollar, Apple makes more than one US dollar for each song. It is interesting to see how the Internet can enable a company to make additional money based on the currency rates.

Time is ticking away, and I must save my time for my next post (least I get hit with more per-minute-charges...)

...Update - I forgot to mention two of the most interesting Web 2.0 items. (1) While traveling through the Panama Canal, I found out that our progress was visible real-time via www.pancanal.com. If I had known about this website prior to my departure, I would have alerted my family to watch us cross into the canal. (2) There was a wedding that was held on board the ship, and was being broadcast simultaneously via a web cam so that their friends and relatives could also watch. It was really interesting to see how technology can continue to connect people in real-time even when the subject matter is in the middle of the ocean.