http://duffelup.com/ – a new travel site that promises “roll your own” travel guides.

http://www.jackcheng.com/passion-projects the story behind it.

Sorta cool. Still haven’t been able to meaningfully check out IWGT, but I’ll clear some time soon.

http://duffelup.com/ – a new travel site that promises “roll your own” travel guides.

http://www.jackcheng.com/passion-projects the story behind it.

Sorta cool. Still haven’t been able to meaningfully check out IWGT, but I’ll clear some time soon.

We are starting to work on iwgt’s mobile application, hopefully we’ll launch it soon :)

The posts you shared with us looks great.

I would love to know any other comments you have when you start using iwgt.

thanks a lot!

We are starting to work on iwgt’s mobile application, hopefully we’ll launch it soon :)

The posts you shared with us looks great.

I would love to know any other comments you have when you start using iwgt.

thanks a lot!

i completely agree with the point that the best tools don’t change our behaviors. i believe the early tools we’ve seen take off cover an aspect of interaction that is not well defined and celebrated: Life Transactions. if we think about it for a moment, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook (just to name the usual suspects) all support simple ‘life transactions.’ specifically, and in the same order, they cover sharing pictures, moments/emotions, video/audio, and interests. none of them are perfect, but the insight here is that they are all working off of a base human instinct–to share and converse.

i think you’re exactly right that the next big thing that can pop through in travel is going to integrate seamlessly with the on-the-fly traveler. it seems that’s what maria is working toward here. so far, i haven’t seen one really work this way… where we can be at an intersection in a foreign city and know where to take the next turn for our greatest interest, even though we hadn’t though of it till just then. i’m hopeful that iwgt is heading in that direction. key to its success will be its proactive editorial efforts in order to make the experience rich enough in the right cities at the right times…

i completely agree with the point that the best tools don’t change our behaviors. i believe the early tools we’ve seen take off cover an aspect of interaction that is not well defined and celebrated: Life Transactions. if we think about it for a moment, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook (just to name the usual suspects) all support simple ‘life transactions.’ specifically, and in the same order, they cover sharing pictures, moments/emotions, video/audio, and interests. none of them are perfect, but the insight here is that they are all working off of a base human instinct–to share and converse.

i think you’re exactly right that the next big thing that can pop through in travel is going to integrate seamlessly with the on-the-fly traveler. it seems that’s what maria is working toward here. so far, i haven’t seen one really work this way… where we can be at an intersection in a foreign city and know where to take the next turn for our greatest interest, even though we hadn’t though of it till just then. i’m hopeful that iwgt is heading in that direction. key to its success will be its proactive editorial efforts in order to make the experience rich enough in the right cities at the right times…

You can read it, too, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johannaonvideo/2733141628/sizes/l/

The interesting thing (and the evolution of all these services) will be how they transition to the mobile environment, and what they provide to people who are in the middle of traveling and are outside of the “planning”–AKA lazy web surfing–mode of research.

If I think back to my travel planning experiences before the web, and the ones to which my father still adheres, it was heavy with AAA books, Travel Food books, and TripTiks, with emergency diversions coming at the recommendation of a helpful local. That’s where I see these sites existing in the most helpful, welcome way possible, in terms of integration into people’s actual lives. One of the things I like least about the proliferation of online tools (take that with a grain of salt, because generally I love them) is that they force me into new behaviors.

A couple other posts that might be relevant, and might spark some ideas in terms of how a travel site can truly be helpful and wonderful are here:

http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2008/08/geotility.html

http://www.houseofnaked.com/2009/02/12/see-the-full-picture-multi-level-partnerships/

http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2009/02/more-playful-utilities.html

I love the idea of “Playful Utility” … where a good travel guide might be able to help on a local/mobile level is “Emergency Utility”, which might be a great “hook” to draw people in to a long-term membership to the site.

Thoughts?

I’ll sign up for IWGT and probably write a post about all of this, if that’s cool.

- Clay

You can read it, too, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johannaonvideo/2733141628/sizes/l/

The interesting thing (and the evolution of all these services) will be how they transition to the mobile environment, and what they provide to people who are in the middle of traveling and are outside of the “planning”–AKA lazy web surfing–mode of research.

If I think back to my travel planning experiences before the web, and the ones to which my father still adheres, it was heavy with AAA books, Travel Food books, and TripTiks, with emergency diversions coming at the recommendation of a helpful local. That’s where I see these sites existing in the most helpful, welcome way possible, in terms of integration into people’s actual lives. One of the things I like least about the proliferation of online tools (take that with a grain of salt, because generally I love them) is that they force me into new behaviors.

A couple other posts that might be relevant, and might spark some ideas in terms of how a travel site can truly be helpful and wonderful are here:

http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2008/08/geotility.html

http://www.houseofnaked.com/2009/02/12/see-the-full-picture-multi-level-partnerships/

http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2009/02/more-playful-utilities.html

I love the idea of “Playful Utility” … where a good travel guide might be able to help on a local/mobile level is “Emergency Utility”, which might be a great “hook” to draw people in to a long-term membership to the site.

Thoughts?

I’ll sign up for IWGT and probably write a post about all of this, if that’s cool.

- Clay