TalkShoe - Categories Listing - Travel

TalkShoe - Categories Listing - Travel

TalkShoe has become the destination for podcasters and podcast listeners who want to record live, synchronous, call-in episodes. I usually listen to these after they have been recorded, but if I were more on the ball, I could partcipate in them by either voice or text message. For both podcasters and podcast listeners this service is free, and although the content is entirely user generated, looking at their website they really do resemble a more formal podcast network.

The reason I bring it up TalkShoe here is because they have a Travel category that contains some interesting programs. You can listen to their most recent episodes and see when their next episodes are scheduled.

Not everyone is organized enough to schedule episodes in advance (I could never do that with my podcasts!), but some are. At the time of this mini-review, the following podcasts had scheduled programs:

• Florida Travel Deals -LorenGray 15 minutes (each week) of information regarding destinations in Florid... Next Episode Time: 06/07/07 02:30 PM EDT Talkcast ID: 27267
• PlanIt Podcast Live Call Ins - David Martin - Are you looking for the next great party or event location? Do you wa... Next Episode Time: 06/06/07 08:00 PM EDT Talkcast ID: 20394
• The TRAVELERS JOURNAL - David Bear - The TRAVELERS JOURNAL is a series of 2 minute audio postcards delivere... Next Episode Time: 06/04/07 09:00 AM EDT Talkcast ID: 14057

Blogging in the Tourism Academy

I recently sent out a question to some 1000 or so tourism academics (professors, lecturers, graduate students, and other researchers) on email discussion lists, asking them "Do You Blog?" The purpose was to see how blogging is used by tourism academics. A summary of my findings can be found here:

http://tourismplace.blogspot.com/2007/05/why-dont-we-blog-university-faculty.html

The major categories or types of blogs that people told me about include:

• Blogging about Tourism
• Blogging for Classes and Students
• Research (and) Blogs
• Personal Travel Blogs
• Podcast Blogs
• Email Lists as Blogs

Click the link above for details. I have been updating these as new blogs are brought to my attention.

Travel Planning Your Way: TripBase.com & TripWiser.com

Links to two new travel planning website arrived my inbox in the last couple of months that I thought were creative and useful. They both help you decide where to go and what to do when you get their.


TripBase.com has a nice ajaxy interface where you indicate your preferences and trip characteristics, and it gives you a list of suggested destinations, which you can then click on to get more information. You can also click to remove the most popular destinations, for those looking for alternatives to the beaten paths. Variables that you can adjust include Nightlife, Dining, Shopping, Nature, Attractions, Dates, Departure city, Budget, Type of trip (backpacker, middle, luxury), Desired temperature, and Continent.


The interface is clean and quick, with limited scrolling and new page openings. Resources include a list of starred must see attractions and links to online magazine articles and prominent webistes, such as Wikitravel.com. There are also links to air, hotel and car rental reservations, though these did not work for me in the alpha-released website. Which kind of make me wonder how they are making money.


TripWiser.com is somewhat similar to TripBase, but makes its recommendations from a database of trips that have been saved by users. It has a very nice and easy to use interface for building a day-by-day itinerary for a trip, which you can make public or private. You can access and add suggestions for each day, and you give your trip tags which other people can then use to search the public database.

If you are searching for experiences, you can enter a trip name (destination and type) and receive a list of suggestions from the database. You can adjust your preferences by sliding Families-Couples, Luxury-Budget, Adventure-Relaxations, and Nature-Culture. The results change instantly as you change your preferences.


Some of the suggestions did not seem very real -- like an itinerary that included the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, Balboa Park and Mission Beach all in one day! (That itinerary was listed as a "Top Family Trip" -- I think my kids would kill me if I tried to make them do all that in one day.) Others, however, are very realistic and provide some great suggestions.

Interestingly, both websites make use of sliders as a way of showing preference. One big difference is that TripWiser is (currently) only for the US, while TripBase is international (yay!).

Best Travel Podcasts of 2007 - Nominees

The following podcasts have been nominated for the People's Choice Podcast Awards for the Best Travel Podcasts of 2007. Congratulations!

- 808 Talk [url] [rss]

- Alaska Podshow [url] [rss]

- Beachwalks with Rox [url] [rss]

- Living in Las Vegas [url] [rss]

- The Amateur Traveler [url] [rss]

- The Dis Unplugged [url] [rss]

- The Meandering Mouse [url] [rss]

- Travel with Rick Steves [url] [rss]

- Trucker Tom Podcast [url] [rss]

- WDW Radio [url] [rss]

Anyone can vote for their favorites, starting July 28th and closing August 11th. The Podcast Awards website is a great place to find new podcasts that you have not heard before.

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OK, so I wasn't nominated, but since this is my blog, I can still mention my own travel podcasts: Travelography: World Travel and Tourism News, and Geography for Travelers, both of which got a great plug on the July 1, 2007 episode of the Home Based Travel Agent podcast -- one that I personally listen to more than any of the nominees above.

Avvenu - Remote Computer Access for Road Warriors

Few things drive me more crazy than buying (or buying into) something and then finding a better deal or product at the same or lower price. I use Gmail, for example, even though I know that Yahoo Mail is better. I just keep hoping that Gmail will be updated some day to be more like Yahoo Mail. At least Gmail is free.

In April paid for an account with Logmein.com so I can access my desktop files remotely using my office computer and my new Fujitisu P1610 mini tablet pc. I like Logmein, except for two things: (1) it does not have a search function in its file transfer and sync utility, and (2) you cannot view photo icons in the file transfer and sync.

So now I stumble across Avvenu.com which is a lot like Logmein, but offers remote file search and tranfer in its free version (not sure about photo icon viewing). Its paid version allows access to files even when your home/main pc is off by uploading the files you want to access to the Avvenu website. Very cool, and a lot cheaper than Logmein.com, or the even more expensive GoToMyPC.com.

Avvenu.com also allows you to listen and share music on your home computer from a remote computer or PDA. Although I have not tried it yet, it looks to me like Avvenu.com is a great utility for the traveling road warrior!

(Click Here to read about my Office Anywhere efforts.)

Blog link: http://web20travel.blogspot.com/2006/05/avvenu-access-files-and-share-photos.html

What is Travel 3.0 ?

From the many podcasts that I listen to, I have basically heard of two definitions for Web 3.0:

1. Web-Everywhere Technology - Always connected portable technology
2. Total Immersion Web - Virtual worlds and MMOGs

Web 1.0 was the static, expert knowledge web. Web 2.0 is the interactive, user knowledge web. So these definitions of Web 3.0 as an always connected technology and total environment knowledge web make sense to me.

And either way, the significance for travel and tourism is enormous. An everywhere web is a traveling web. It means being connected when you travel locally to work, to the grocery store, to the gym, as well as on business trips and family holidays. The Web 2.0 tools that I review on this website are among the leaders into this everywhere web space, which I predict will move toward greater convergence in the coming decades.

I have personally not bought into the the Second Life virtual world phenomenon, which I think is far from ready for prime time. In the long run, however, I think that online virtual worlds will become an important way of communicating with other people, initially, and with distant environments, ultimately. The newly emerging Web 2.0 sites that have video tours of hotels and destination are important baby steps in this directions -- even more so than the experimental hotel building in Second Life because they are more accessible for the masses.

Travel 3.0 is clearly not here, yet. However, because we can conceptualize it -- imagine what it will be like -- it is an important force shaping the visions of todays Travel 2.0 engineers and entrepreneurs.

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UPDATE: Check out the Sunverse.net blog, which is "All about Virtual Worlds and the Tourism Industry". The site mostly focuses on the development of real world tourism destinations in Second Life.

UPDATE: March 26, 2008: Bill Ryan, heard on Kenradio.com : "Web 2.0" was setting interoperability standards (including AJAX and web services, etc.) and creating communities and user-generated content. Web 2.0 was very exploitative of user generated content. "Web 3.0" is engaging more professionals to create user-generated data/content communities by compensating them. Also the semanitic web as the new tech-side supporting the new communities.

What would this mean for the travel and tourism industry? I am not sure. As an academic working on a couple of textbooks during my sabbatical, I think it is involving other academics who may adopt my books to create teaching and learning communities that provide value both for the teachers, students and the world at large. I had not thought about the potential role of compensation -- but am considering it now. I will be working on this over the summer.
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(Originally posted on my Web 2.0 Travel Tools Blog - Alan A. Lew)

User-Generated Airports and Airport Wifi

I saw this on new service from Updates.Orbitz.com on TechCrunch.com:




It is basically a user generated airport news services where users can instantly post the good and bad things they are experiencing at US airports -- like parking problems, unusual TSA delays, flight delays, etc. -- as seen in the Youtube.com video, above. This is in addition to more static information about airport and flight conditions.

Do people really use things like this? I suppose I might if I spent a lot of my life in really large airports that have enough geeks using them to generate some useful up-to-date information, and if wanted to shave off some potentially wasted minutes. However, I do not fly through SFO or LAX that often. For my main hub aiport, PHX, the latest postings tell me that 4 hours ago there were long lines at the US Air and Southwest checking counters -- so what else is new? The lines are almost always long at those two airlines. In my opinion, air travel these days is so unpredictable, the best insurance is to arrive early and be prepared to wait. I may be wrong, but I think that user-generated information can have its limits.

There was a user generated gem in the comments on the TechCrunch posting. It was for AtLarge.com -- a site where users submit reviews and tips on wireless connectivity at airpoirts around the world. I found it one of the better looking and most useful sites of this kind that I have seen. Travelpost.com has a good listing of paid airports wifi services, but no user reviews like AtLarge.com, which is a real plus!


And remember to watch out who/what you are connecting to at an airport, as there have been reports of fake wifi services out to capture your personal information. JiWire.com also has a good guide to using airport wifi, along with a summary of availability at US airports.

PS: I found two other site that have reviews of airports around the world: AirlineEquality.com and ReviewCentre.com. Both have more of a discussion forum approach and have a limited number of airports and/or reviews. And, of course, neither is "live" like Update.Orbitz.com.