Open Source | Richard Kastelein - Adventures in Social Media and Online Publishing

A Marriage Made in Heaven – Social TV and the Hotel Industry?

by Richard Kastelein (originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

Social TV in Hotel Whilst the mainstream media players are quietly pushing their technology and innovation teams to the maximum across the world in a race to marry Social Media and TV, most of the public remains oblivious and left out of the loop, mainly due to offerings being in Proof of Concept (POC) stage or not even… and still on the chalkboard.

However, one sector, the Hotel and Hospitality is one of the earlier beneficiaries from the advances that have been made provision and delivery of TV and other services over Internet Protocol will likely be early corporate adopters of Social TV now that network technologies that include the provision of Ethernet networks in hotels is now a standard requirement. Add a wireless keyboard and an advanced TV remote, you can do pretty much anything.

And buzz is starting to generate in this sector as hotels are coming out of a slump and are looking for new ways to attract the web and media savvy 25-45 year old, Gen X and Y generations who are a lucrative target group in many of their marketing strategies. Social TV in a hotel would certainly be an historical PR victory for any marketing team.

IPTV distribution system in hotels is pretty straight forward… providing high quality, full screen digital TV over an Ethernet network using an existing IP network. Not only can digital satellite and terrestrial channels can be broadcast directly to TV’s anywhere in a hotel – but now there’s the opportunity to implement Social TV as well.

We live in a networked society, and our contact list, for most of us who will never see a cradle to grave job, is paramount. Imagine if you could not only sleep in a hotel, but also create a profile in the social TV network and then find others in similar business paths, or potential new partners right in the hotel… whom you could have lunch with or meet up in a pub. Or imagine you could organize short seminars, get people to sign up and do mini ‘unconferences’ or conferences with others whose businesses can converge with you own.

This is great, not only for the guests, but also for the hotel. They will not only be able to offer better service to their clients, but also be able to come to understand their own demographics more… with a Social TV Facebook social media scenario or clone, there’s plenty of data to be shared to everyone, including the hotel… giving them more opportunity to build better services.

Want to book a restaurant? Do it on the TV. Add it to your bill in the Hotel’s Property Management Software (PMS) program and don’t worry about pulling out a credit card. Feel like going to a concert or sporting event while you are in town? Click or type and buy.

Want to download an iPhone or mobile map application with directions from anywhere back to the hotel and listings of all the offerings of the city you are visiting? Plug your PDA or mobile phone into a USB port and suck it down. Need to book the conference room? Do it on the TV. Need to order some food? Pick up the TV remote and choose from room service or an array of restaurants that deliver in the area.

I could even see, in the foreseeable future, a Wii or Xbox network for gaming and sports in hotels. Why not? Feel like a bit of tennis but can’t book a court? Play your neighbor in room 602. Or shoot at the guys in rooms 562 and 788. (continue your reading )

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Twitter Updates for 2009-04-29

@ralphtalmont Hi Ralph, did you get my email post #tnw ? I contacted Code06 VC … Martijn should know. #
Just joined a twibe. Visit http://twibes.com/Groningen to join #
Just joined a twibe. Visit http://twibes.com/socialmedia to join #
Just joined a twibe. Visit http://twibes.com/newmedia to join #
Installed web-based Open Source ERP for WTS – To give them a sandbox to churn ideas. Took me 20 minutes. Custom ERP 6 months to build? Why? #
Expathos is number one on google search for ‘s ocial media netherlands’! http://snipurl.com/exgoog #

Tags: 20 Minutes, IP, Media, Netherlands, Open, Open Source, Social, Twitter

Twitter Updates for 2009-04-29

@ralphtalmont Hi Ralph, did you get my email post #tnw ? I contacted Code06 VC … Martijn should know. #
Just joined a twibe. Visit http://twibes.com/Groningen to join #
Just joined a twibe. Visit http://twibes.com/socialmedia to join #
Just joined a twibe. Visit http://twibes.com/newmedia to join #
Installed web-based Open Source ERP for WTS – To give them a sandbox to churn ideas. Took me 20 minutes. Custom ERP 6 months to build? Why? #
Expathos is number one on google search for ‘s ocial media netherlands’! http://snipurl.com/exgoog #

Tags: 20 Minutes, IP, Media, Netherlands, Open, Open Source, Social, Twitter

Twitter Updates for 2009-04-21

John Vassallo, legal rep for MS EU on Panel told me my question about open source in relation to IP was off track.Right. http://bit.ly/BekRd #

Tags: IP, Open, Open Source, Twitter

Liferay Social Office – Using Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software in Business.

We are about to test Liferay Social Office interally here at Moho in Groningen.

Link here – http://ww.liferay.com/web/guest/products/social_office/features

This Open Source software almost meets all the parameters I was looking for and I am sure will streamline internal tasking, collaboration and build more ‘teamness’ at the company.

But the biggest hurdle in implementing new software such as this is convincing people to use it. Some basic training is required to make people comfortable using it, and if people don’t feel comfortable with the software, they simply won’t use it. Employees should be given incentives to contribute and the rewards could be either financial or psychological.

Shifting a corporate culture from being competitive to being cooperative is no small undertaking but the staff is young here and more easily adaptable than Gen X’ers like me – and if the software used (built internally or from and outside vendor) has well-built, intuitive and intelligent architecture, the learning curve should not be that steep.

My original synopsis on needs:

The new collaborative work/communication/tasking product(s) should allow management (and staff in certain cases) to:

1. …assign track-able tasks to individual and/or groups of staff and define what is urgent. Include management and staff alerts by email and Gizmo (see #3). The idea is for management to better plan their tasks and duties, that of staff, as well as projects and, most importantly, track the progress. Management needs to see what the team is doing and what they need to do, discuss stuff that they are working on and generally have a firm grip on what is going on and what needs to go on. In my opinion, the current system of email alone is not a very good tool to manage projects and tasks in the company. Especially with current projected and anticipated growth.

2. …create Wikis (with WYSIWYG and Versioning, Revisioning) to start building corporate information database – documents on nuts and bolts of company. It’s my experience that when management and staff take time to write down and better define their role and duties they instantly increase performance. Company Wikis also build an excellent knowledge database for incoming staff and management – thereby making it simpler to integrate new people into the company by providing them with the data needed to do their work and understand the work of others.

3. …instantly communicate with other management, staff and possibly clients and vendors – using free Gizmo (Skype-like tool with Instant Messaging, Two-way SMS, Group Chat, Voicemail, Call Recording, Chat History, File Transfer. Video Calling, Conference Calling) for text-based and audio discussion and interaction in real time. The problem with using email as a core tool for communications is – it tends to create lag time from the top down because of uncertainty if, when, and how emails are being read and interpreted. Trackable, loggable real time communications allow for the instant addressing of issues. The reason for using Gizmo as opposed to Skype is to deter and cut down on staff social communications via the more common Skype.

4. Install an ethos of collective intelligence within the company – which is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. This can be done by offering the ability to share news, research, event information via threaded discussion. For instance – a sample thread may be on data and image sources for copywriters for a new artist or concert.
Software(s) should/could have collaborative management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business environment so workers can communicate, evaluate, prioritize and study their work load and should:

1. have easy browser based workflow management – with a drag-and-drop modulized user home page for each staff member with all their productivity and information tools at their grasp with integration of built in a news management system, where “company news” can be published on all home pages.

2. have the ability to add or remove application functionality to suit requirements via a dashboard and widget framework

3. have an instant messaging, real time collaboration tool such as Gizmo

4. have a tasking tool to schedule, track, and chart the steps of tasks, projects and duties as they are being completed – includes issue/ticket based worklog, weekly planning and and daily/weekly/monthly timer based recording.

5. inclusion of electronic calendar integrated with tasking tool, CRM and David Infocenter to create visual shared and individual agenda and automatically notify and remind group members of tasks via email and Gizmo alerts

6. possibly have desktop sharing for training new staff and meetings.

7. have the ability to create new permission-based Wikis (with a WYSIWYG Editor for easy content authoring) to create content in a matter of minutes and make updates fast and easy. All relevant editors and lists should have a corresponding “printable version”, which can also be in PDF format.

8. include outgoing RSS for staff and management to allow tracking of tasking, documentation ect. (”subscribe to this feed” button)

9. have integrated file management capabilities; graphics, documents, etc at the project/tasks entry points as project/task attachments. With Versioning, file locking, authoring and classification supported.

10. have user/staff reporting – most active, content creation, etc. as well as export report capabilities

11. have permission system ranging from wide open Wiki -edit mode to granular user and page level access and be able to create custom access permissions for groups of users, as well as control access by different groups at the section or page level 12. have full text search, search by section or sub-section, the ability to tag pages with additional keywords for improved search and display, and control search results based on users assigned access levels. Staff will only view the sections and pages they are authorized to view.

13. have threaded discussion support for projects, procedures, products, ideas, best practices – which can later be added to Wikis

14. have the ability to share news, research, product information via threaded discussion

15. Consider the use of a voting system for contributions to discussions. (continue your reading )

Tags: Collaboration, collaboration tools, collaborative work, content management, control search results, corporate culture, CRM, David Infocenter, Document Library, Enterprise, firewall, good tool;, Instant Messaging;, intelligent architecture, Liferay, Liferay Social Office, Liferay's Message Board, Microsoft, on staff social communications;, Open Source, Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software;, open source software, real time collaboration tool, SMS, Social Media, social networking, Social Office, standalone products;, Team, text search, web-based collaboration, web-based shared drive

About

Why should you hire us? Who are ‘we’?

At Agora Media, we are the builders of Appmarket.tv… we are curators of a fair chunk of market intelligence – we truly have a firm grasp on the emerging landscape. And this space will be an important one in the future. We know many key players and have a divergent network representing media from all sides of the convergence.

Read why here:

TV Applications and Widgets Market Worth over €1 Billion Euro by 2013
One Billion TV Apps Downloaded by 2015: GigaOM Analyst Michael Wolf

And we have built Social TV already – back in 2007, with the Twinners Platform which piloted on SuperRTL, RTL, SBS and TV Copenhagen in Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. We are open source evangelists, and have built, designed, managed and led communities online as well as commissioning and been part of scores of applications and widget builds online. We have have concepted new formats around both augmented reality and social TV.

Who are we? A collective of like-minded folks – a strong network per se’ – who share the same passion for innovation, creativity and building cool things for TV, The Web and Mobile Devices.

Just as social networking reshaped the online landscape I feel the same will come for television. The convergence of TV, internet and social media is an awesome model and we are right in the middle of it.

Forty years ago, the brilliant Canadian media theorist Marshall Mcluhan, the “patron saint” of Wired magazine, (who brought us Electronic Interdependence, The Global Village and The Medium is the Massage) metaphorically considered the TV to be an ‘electronic’ hearth – a collective centralized event for the family on the cusp of it’s appearance in the home 50 years ago. By the end of the millenium, TV’s peppered houses and became a more individual experience. In the USA, the average house now has 2.24 TV’s and 66 per cent of households have three or more TV’s.

It’s clear that TV is about to become social again (says Forbes, The NYT, The BBC) and the Wall St. Journal) But who, what, when, where, why, how and how much? The questions have yet to be answered. Will the TV continue to evolve as an individual device in a new ‘TV Everywhere’ world? And just become part of a matrix of interactive devices available to each individual? We think it will and can do a lot of things.

Contact here.