I was chatting about this with a project manager who just joined us here named Micael. He excitedly proclaimed he was having the same problem, but get this...when I asked him how he solved it, he said, "We went to a local travel agent."
Let me rephrase this astounding scenario...rather than go online to search for and find the best travel options, something the Web has been very successful at offering over the last several years, Micael found his offline travel information services more useful to him than the online services. In 2005, that seems preposterous to someone who spends as much time living online as I do.
There is so much information out there, so much valuable information, that the old models are starting to show weaknesses. Micael didn't want to spend all day finding the right information online. He wanted information to compete for his business. It shouldn't compete for his screen real estate through the old advertising methods. It should come to him in ways that he invites. His behavior should indicate what he needs, and he should be able to permit certain sources (whether directly or through degrees of separation in his social network) to send him information that he wants, when he wants it.
More specifically, Jessica should be able to watch a price ticker on her desktop that shows the going rate for flights from SFO to Heathrow. It should offer alternatives for adjusting what data she wants to see in the feed. It should pull data from sources that she finds credible. It should give her the best source for purchasing the ticket. And it should go away after she purchases her ticket.
The technology and data is all there. It's a matter of assembling the pieces.
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