Xperts Wanted
Jon Udell has noted a new expertise shortage at IDG, in Ace
travel agents available:
In my column a
few weeks ago, I wrote:
Why, for example, does Expedia ask you to specify the number of children traveling with you, and even their ages, and then proceed to show you hotel rooms that can't accommodate the kids?
When I'm traveling on business, I get to bypass this nonsense. I just call up IDG Travel and talk to Bruce or Michael. These guys can hack through the plane/hotel/rental-car system like hot knives through butter. It's true they have access to privileged information, but I'm sure they could also make better use of public information than you or I. Their ability to recognize and exploit patterns is what makes them so effective.
Sadly, as of today, because of a restructuring at IDG
Travel, I can't just call up Bruce Powell or Michael McCarthy. But my
loss could be your gain. If you know of a Bay Area opportunity for an
ace travel agent, I'll be happy to pass it along.
And thanks again, guys.
You'll be sorely missed.
This is a great example of the loyalty that buyers have for
valued sellers. Jon had formed a bond with Bruce and Michael whose absence
will
cost him a lot of time and inconvenience. It's also an indicator that a pleases
buyer will not arbitrarily rate a good seller under the Xpertweb rating system.
Behind the Music
There's a minor back story here.
I had an email and phone exchange last spring with Jon Udell that I found
depressing,
"I'm certainly interested in the concepts behind XpertWeb. I'm not sure
I buy the implementation envisioned in the docs on the website."
After my
best attempt
to explain Xpertweb to Jon, he
was still unimpressed–testimony
to my powers of persuasion. He continued to be skeptical of the Xpertweb
requirement that each participant
have and manage their own
web site. I wrote at
the time:
"But yesterday I couldn't articulate the protocol's
plumbing and its larger promise to a guy who totally gets the Internet
and believes it's destined to connect individuals in unprecedented, useful
ways. His commitment to the assumptions behind Xpertweb may precede and
exceed mine, but he seems so sated with the failure of people to embrace
small procedural changes that he can't imagine a subculture of process-driven
zealots embracing the ritual of an alternate economy, filling in forms
to hire a plumber. That view seems to me to ignore our willingness to
use a form to buy a $6.95 paperback. Certainly he can't imagine the protocol
growing beyond the early adopters and scaling through the use of their
servers. Mitch says it's exactly the position he took before he dug beneath
the surface."
Whether Xpertweb can work, fortunately is easy to
disprove. You make it work and then it's
workable. Of
course it might not work to force all those people to get and use their
own Xpertweb sites but, like all innovators, I'll just say I'm still working
on it. As Dave Winer says about shitty software, "Still diggin'!"
BloggerCon Xpertweb Demo
Roland Tanglao and I will be attending
Dave Winer's BloggerCon,
and will be demonstrating the Xpertweb tools at the Hotel@MIT.
If you'd like to have a look, please contact me through the little envelope
icon, or contact Roland directly.
10:58:38 PM 
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