Twelve Days of Christmas 2.0

[With thanks to Les Explorers]

On the first day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
A tip to expand my business globally

On the second day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the third day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Eleven podcasters podcasting,
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Twelve Stumblers stumbling,
Eleven podcasters podcasting,
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

Merry Christmas to you all...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@PhoCusWright 07 - Real Life of Second Life

Similar to the Travolution conference earlier this year, an entire session devoted to Second Life.

On the panel are Scott Hyden (STA Travel), Daniele Mancini (Costa Cruises) and Burt Rosen (Starwood Hotels), all of which have dabbled/are dabbling in the virtual world.

Rosen makes a good point in that in the early days of Second Life, when the business press (us included) gushed about its potential, many articles contained a reference to its experiment with the Aloft hotel - good PR, in other words.

But over the summer this year there were a series of scathing pieces in the media about Second Life, criticising brands that have wasted spent a fair deal of money in the virtual world, but often find themselves with embarrasingly empty buildings or land.

[Wired's article]

There is a critical point to consider over these sporadic forays into Second Life by travel brands. With a potentially tougher market looming (especially here in the US), companies are probably NOT going to R&D or marketing budgets in virtual words.

The wind in the sails of Second Life earlier this year suddenly feels like little more than a gentle breeze.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Second Life works...sometimes

Shock, horror! Hold the front page!

More than ten people in the same place in Second Life at any one time!

STA Travel held a party last week in conjunction with Australian mobile provider Big Pond at the Ayers Rock replica in SL.

The Outback Bush Party apparently attracted some 60 people.

Some evidence:

More pictures.

The popularity of the event hardly disputes Wired's scathing analysis on the commercial benefits of Second Life but at least there is hope for those willing to be imaginative enough.

Clearly STA Travel came up with something innovative to attract trendy avatars to what was essentially just one of many events featuring pixelated people dancing about in a silly manner club nights in Second Life.

But what of the long-term prospects for this kind of thing? Answers via the comments section please...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: second life sta travel outback ayers rock

Tour de Ed

Those of you who attended this year's Travolution Summit will undoubtedly remember Comtec's product director Ed Whiting thrashing around Second Life on his bike, wreaking havoc with the locals.

Of course, Whiting is a keen cyclist in real life too and deserves a round of applause for completing the five-day, Race Against Time charity bike ride from Land's End to John O'Groats.

Whiting completed the 874 mile stretch yesterday, raising thousands of pounds for HIV/AIDS work in South Africa, particularly work with orphans and vulnerable children.

Well done, Ed!

You can find out more about the Race Against Time charity and trace Whiting's experiences by logging onto his personal blog, which he updated regularly along the way via his mobile phone --no surprise there.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Technorati tags: tour de france john o'groats land's end cycling

Learning to dance in Second Life

Okay. Curiosity got the better of Travolution last night, so we decided go into Second Life for the first time in months to take a look at the new ship belonging to Costa Cruises.

The virtual version Costa Serena, which was launched yesterday at the same time as its counterpart in a real dock in Marseille, is moored alongside a passenger terminal on one of the many islands.

[It is easy to find: type "Costa" into the Search tool and the site currently appears in third position]

See below for some screen grabs from our little adventure, which culiminated with a bit of a boogie - courtesy of a very accommodating fellow Second Lifer who patched us some of the best moves - in the ship's discotheque.

We were also on the receiving end of a rather cold shoulder from one of the Costa crew members, who didn't take kindly to being asked some questions about the ship.

Altogether, a rather bizarre experience...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

I name this ship...Virtual Costa Serena

Anyone kicking about in Second Life today can bear witness to the first ever launch of a cruise ship in a virtual world.

Costa Cruises will simultaneously smash the champagne against the hull of its newest ship, the Costa Serena, in the French port of Marseille and in Second Life.

[Costa Cruises microsite]

After the SL ceremony there will be various bits of entertaintment including a treasure hunt, live DJs and fireworks, as well as the opportunity to stroll around the entire ship.

Nice idea. We'll check with Costa next week to find out how many people actually turned up.

Costa is the latest travel-related brand to enter Second Life. Travel technology provider Comtec has showcased its new Travel.co.uk travel comparison engine in Second Life. Starwood Hotels also built a prototype hotel there last summer.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: second life maiden voyage

Travolution Summit--Second Life: Oiks, stoners & huge possibilities

Will Second Life impact the online travel market?

That is the question Ed Whiting, product and marketing director of Comtec, tried to answer during his recent tour of the fledgling virtural world-- an experience he shared much to the amusement of Travolution Summit delegates.

Known in Second Life as Ned Kidd, Whiting (a real world cycling enthusiast) biked his way around various islands (built by Dell), befriended a builder who helped him construct his Second Life operation, and went on a short break to Italy with Travolution publisher Simon Ferguson (aka Stepen Wolf Voss).

Among other lessons Whiting learned were that Second Life builders are just as annoying as real life ones; Italian avatars don't like English avatars; oiks abound; and marijuana is abundant (Like Brixton???).

What Whiting didn't learn is whether Second Life will in fact impact the online travel space and, if so, what will the impact be?

"Will Second Life help our business?...I'm not sure. But there are a lot of people out there so it's worth finding out."

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Golden opportunity in Second Life

Here is a great chance for all you out there that might be curious/bemused about the role of Second Life and virtual worlds in general and their impact - if any - on travel.

Reperes, a cutting edge French market research company, are speaking at the Travolution Summit on April 24 on the subject of how travel might find mileage in using virtual worlds to target and utilise consumers.

They have offered, rather kindly we think, to conduct a survey of actual people in Second Life about how they might interact with travel brands and products in the virtual world.

• Would you be more inclined to take notice of travel advertising messages in Second Life?
• If travel companies road-tested products in Second Life, such as the Aloft Hotel project, would you see that as a useful method of canvassing the opnions of consumers?

That sort of thing...

Better still, Reperes is allowing Travolution to gather the questions of readers/users ahead of the survey being carried out in late-February.

Please email any questions/ideas you may to us or post them in the comments box below.

[Read about our first visit to the Aloft Hotel in October last year]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Who is the Sauron of Second Life?

Just to confirm that Travolution had nothing to with the attack on Second Life over the weekend by a mystery worm, known as Grey Goo! [Us amateurs are often accused of all sorts in SL!]

Seriously: the attack apparently came in the form of spinning gold rings planted in various around Linden, which sent the system into a spin when residents tried to interact with them.

The Lord of the Rings - pun most defintely intended - has yet to be identified.

Aloft Hotel virtual tour

The Second Life guys have put together the definitive tour of the recently completed Aloft hotel.



[See Travolution's first night in Second Life and the video of the hotel's construction]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@PhoCusWright Hollywood

Madeleine Wood from Spannerworks reports from the PhoCusWright conference in Hollywood, California:

Three days of “two dot ohhh”… So what’s the theory on the future of online travel from the other side of the Atlantic?

Prostitution is not the oldest human profession – travel writing is.

According to Lonely Planet chief executive, Judy Slatyer, we are compelled to share our travel experiences and learnings. Cave paintings show detail of where to get water, meat and shelter.

They even show evidence of rating systems, in the form of palm prints for useful content. Such communication is an inherent part of the human nature and has been for 20,000 years, making it -20,000.0.

Web 2.0 just means we have a fancier array of tools and gadgets through which to share our insights.

One third of those who use MySpace also use CNN.com, says a survey by Yahoo!-ComScore.

That’s not teenagers; it’s the general public of 35+. Social media isn’t just trendy or about planning for where future customers will be. In the UK and in the US, it’s where travel consumers are now.

According to director of interactive marketing for hotel chain Sheraton, Jeff Mirman, Web 2.0 wasn’t a seismic shift in their online strategy. Second Life, for example, which parent company Starwood used to showcase its new Aloft hotel, was simply about evolving their marketing in line with the new platforms people engage with.
[See Travolution's visit to the Aloft in Second Life]

So, Web 1.0 was about price led aggregation of content, Web 1.5 was Meta Search and Web 2.0 is about aggregation of content with product and relevancy. Users have moved beyond online travel as being about cost saving.

Web 2.0 is about fulfilling the function of the travel agent – inspiration, personalisation and trust.

The commercial benefit to social media is generating online loyalty, engagement and an emotional connection to inspire the purchase.

TripAdvisor, Travelocity and Starwood all say they generate significantly higher conversions to purchase following exposure to social media content.

So that's the business case we've all been looking for...

Madeleine Wood, business development manager at Spannerworks

First night in Second Life

Travolution entered Linden, the virtual world created by US-based Second Life, for the first time last night.

We have been tracking this new world over the summer ever since it emerged the Starwood hotel group had commissioned developers in Second Life to build an exact replica of one its new Aloft hotels.

Last week we gave birth to Kevinluke May, our own ‘person’ in Second Life [another Kevin May already lives in Linden – and we will be looking for him!], ahead of our arrival.

After grappling with the control console, which unfortunately for your average home user requires some pretty hardy kit such as a fast graphics accelerator, we set about assigning clothes, hair (or lack of), facial features and the like to Linden’s newest citizen.

[It was certainly a rather unnerving experience to find oneself without any outer garments on arrival in the drop-off one where other all new residents also begin their adventures]

The drop-zone is actually a bizarre but, on reflection, probably sensible place to start.

With the population increasing every day as us immigrants arrive, it actually resembles not much more than a nudist colony for the insane.

Every other new resident is also frantically running around, learning the controls and busily trying to add clothes and ensure they have a passing resemblance to their real self [or, in reality, someone they aspire to look like] as quickly as possible.

As promised last week, Kevinluke May then decided to find the new Aloft hotel.

A directory of places in Linden quickly located the Aloft island and within seconds – via the handy teleport button – a now fully clothed new resident of Linden found himself standing outside the new hotel.

A quick tour of the hotel revealed everything is in place for the hotel’s official opening this week.

Picture shows our resident standing by the pool at the Aloft.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Having a Second Life

After closely following the construction of the virtual Aloft Hotel over the summer we thought it was about time Travolution became a resident of Second Life.

We have now registered under the name Kevinluke May and hope to move into Linden shortly. There is, alas, another Kevin May among the 900,000-odd other citizens in the population

We will try and make our first visit one to see how work is progressing at the Aloft.

Here begins the adventures of Travolution in Second Life!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Aloft hotel built in 71 seconds

The Aloft virtual reality hotel is nearing completion and the Second Life team has produced a fantastic video of the hotel’s construction.

The YouTube video below, “shot” from a perch high above the site, charts its growth in little over a few months.



Visit the Aloft blog to see more of the latest developments.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

More from the Aloft in Second Life

The Aloft virtual hotel is looking very promising, with developers recently adding textures to hotel rooms and the lobby area.

The quality of the graphic rendering is absolutely fantastic.


Only a few weeks to go until the official “opening” of the hotel. Mine's a Pina Colada by the pool...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Latest on Aloft hotels in Second Life

We recently highlighted the Second Life experiment – a series of virtual worlds being built by some seriously clever people in the US.

Starwood Hotels has partnered with the creators to build one of its hotels within the system, ahead of a “real” hotel being constructed in a few years time.

It’s a fascinating project.

Recent events have included putting the finishing touches to the exterior of the hotel and its surroundings – a rather nice island, in fact – before heading inside to install everything else a hotel might need.

Perhaps the most bizarre recollections on the creator’s blog – and one that will perhaps reinforce opinions of those critical of the “virtual world” experience and its effects on people – comes in the form of a promotional photoshoot for a magazine.

More updates here in the coming weeks, ahead of the hotel’s grand opening in September

Kevin May, editor, Travolution