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Working with Wikipedia

Aug 27th

What’s the deal with Wikipedia? We all use it. We all know what it is. But does anyone really know how confusing it is?!?!

Over the last two weeks, I have been working to make Global Traveler a Wikipedia article. When I started, I figured I would just need to do some research about the company, add in the things I knew and then put in the finishing touches. I was mistaken.

First of all, Wikipedia has a ton of rules. Rules that you never thought would matter but that Wikipedia thinks is super important. There are rules about making lists and including people’s names. One large rule is the “Point of View” rule. You have to be unbiased and present your article from a completely neutral point of view. That tends to be incredibly difficult when you are making a page about a company that you work for. One of my favorite obstacles is that you cannot have a user name that is a company name. Despite reading hundreds of pages about Wikipedia and articles, I never came across this rule. I learned this the hard way when trying to find out something on a help chat. The person in the chat was so serious about this rule that he would not help me until I filed a “name change request.” Wikipedia is not for those people just playing around.

Wikipedia has its own language. Everyday tasks done on the word processor become difficult and bothersome. Pressing ctrl and “B” no longer makes something bold. The Wikipedia user has to use apostrophes (‘’’) to initiate the bold and then another set of three apostrophes to end it. Similar programming techniques are used to get italics, bullets, lists and headings. I would tell you how to underline, but I don’t even know if that is possible in Wikipedia world.

So after you master the rules and the language, there is one more problem. People and robots continually check the site to make sure that people are posting things fairly and legally. I tried to upload the GT logo and immediately two people were leaving messages on my “MyTalk.” If only they knew I had no idea what was going on and didn’t even know how to find their messages! Right now I have my page up for feedback. We shall see how that works out.

Working with Wikipedia has given me a new-found respect for the articles that people put up. Every link is the result of hard work, and every picture is the result of an intense copyright law. It has been fascinating learning the ins and outs of the Wikipedia world, and by the end of the process I hope to be so knowledgeable that I can call others out on their mistakes. My interaction and work with Wikipedia has confirmed my opinion that teachers and professors should count it as a reliable source. If they only knew how hard it was to get information published on it!

– Mary Carpenter, intern

A New Twist on Bargain Hunting

Aug 19th

Posted by Kim in Amanda's Blog

1 comment

I was reading Forbes the other day and on the cover was a guy named Andrew Mason, who founded Groupon. As the name suggests, Groupon is a blending of the words group and coupon. I had never heard of the company before, so I was curious to see what was so interesting about him and his company that they garnered the cover of the magazine.

Groupon is a website, and each day it features a product, activity or service available for purchase at an unbeatable price. The deal is only available at the cheap price if a certain amount of people purchase the offer. Deals are specific to location. It’s a really awesome concept.

An example of a Philadelphia-area deal? A 14-day all-access pass and a 30-minute massage at the Sporting Club at the Bellevue for $45. Normally, this would cost about $355. That’s an 87 percent discount.

It’s amazing, every few years it seems a young person is discovering world-changing websites. Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, was only 20 years old. Andrew Mason is 29, still very young. I wonder who the next web genius will be.

– Amanda Smith, advertising and editorial coordinator

Playlist Picks

May 20th

Posted by Kim in Courtney's Blog

No comments

For those of you who enjoy music playlists but do not have the time or extensive music selection required to put them together, I highly recommend the free music website Stereomood. Stereomood has playlists ready for you. The website offers a range of playlists suitable to specific moods or scenarios. Some of the playlists include Work, Sunday Morning, It’s Raining, Reading, Summer, Dance, Spring, Cleaning, Nostalgic and Just Wake Up.

My favorite playlist for a relaxing work environment is Elegant. Stereomood even has the option of creating and saving your own playlists. Pandora has become very popular recently, especially in the office environment. However, it has become almost too popular, with commercials popping up every few minutes.

I am interested to know what type of music our readers enjoy listening to while at home or at work. Music genres certainly have a direct correlation to moods, and Stereomood has got that all figured out for you!

– Courtney Centeno, account executive

Misguided Hawaii

Jan 4th

Posted by Kim in Advertising

3 comments

Last year I vowed not to stay home for the New Year’s holiday this year, but guess what I did? Stayed home. I did some quick Internet searches, several times, on Orbitz, Travelocity and Kayak, but I found nothing that jumped out at me. I wanted to reach out to some of my client friends in the industry, but I was so bogged down with business and year-end work, I just never got around to reaching out.

So I was here the day after New Year’s, watching the news, when I saw that Hawaii is continuing a two-year downward slide. I happen to be a big fan of Hawaii and think it is a great destination. Many people think it is too sterile and too expensive, but when you go to Hawaii, everything works and the people cannot be more friendly. As far as the expense, I have a friend who refers to it as “Hawaii money,” and when I traveled there with my family, no matter where we ate dinner, it was always the same price. Expensive, but orderly, friendly and tasty; so definitely worth it.

But have you see a lot of promotions for Hawaii? Have you seen any spectacular marketing or advertising about the Islands? I haven’t. Additionally, Hawaii and its hotels cannot get their sights off the West Coast market. This is where they spend nearly all their marketing dollars. In case they haven’t heard, California is in the dumps, so perhaps they should open their minds and reach out to the less-recession-hit East Coast?

Several years ago, Hawaii won Best Domestic Tourism Destination from the readers of Global Traveler. When I reached out to the CVB, I received a less than “aloha” response. I was a little shocked. Not only did they seem not to care, but they were not interested in coming to the awards ceremony or responding to me as if they were honored.

Now they think President Obama’s trip to Hawaii is their best marketing tool. This is the same guy who told travelers not to go to extravagant meetings and not to travel (the AIG effect), which resulted in the loss of 100 meetings in Hawaii. Companies canceled their meetings in fear of what these meetings would look like in the AIG effect-hungry press. In my opinion, Hawaii could not have picked a worse spokesperson.

Hawaii is obviously misguided and has no idea how to get people back to the islands. It was an easy out to blame the economy. Perhaps the CVB needs to talk to some of the people who check guests in at hotels, who serve the meals and who attend to your needs while in Hawaii. They are the people that make Hawaii great. The guys at the Royal Hawaiian‘s Tiki Bar have better insight on the true Aloha spirit than anyone at the CVB.

To all our blog readers, subscribers and friends of Global Traveler, a Happy New Year!

– Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO