5WA - Robert Neff
I found Firehole Springs to be the best find. The copper blues were exciting. This was not on the main road and the turn was not well marked. I think this kept it from being overrun with tourist like the other major geysers. Fireshole and other geysers are at the end of the photo narrartive. https://www.flickr.com/photos/5wa/sets/72157649009962602/
With Social Media and a hashtag, you can create a story line in real time and continue this story. This is no longer about the short or long form. Its about adding content with photography, video and interaction with an audience over an event or an adventure. Its OK to to be corrected as the story line is a learning tool and a narrative. User interaction is encouraged. We all end up sharing and learning more about the event or adventure. I find this method to be a means to put people there and allows them to feel and see what I am experiencing in realtime.
When traveling, what I find missing on web and blogs are the things to do divided up by genre. Difficult to sift through all the information and has you analyzing the writer and web site to see what they are interested in. The response time is lacking, if there is a response, and those who do respond may have an agenda.
I have found social media to be more helpful. I find the city, park or event hashtag and research. Then I can contact the profile who will usually reply right away. I have even met people who have given me tours. Of course this is what I do here. Gets me out and about ;) My time is now 80% hashtag and 20% web sites.
I deviated from this approach on the Yellowstone trip. Wish I had more time...
Oops! In this day and age? The marketing must be under great pressure.
What you see at Yellowstone is driven by the entrance. These are not clearly marked and searchable (SEO) and you need to find the right map for this. When I visit National Parks, this is the first thing I search for.
The Range on the lodging reservation line was helpful and full of advice.
Its the end of the professional photographer. I am seeing more and more photographers with point and click covering events. Ia m also seeing events not pay for photographers. This is mentality from the old web days, "My kids can do it."
Photography sales are slumping at art festivals.
The only issues is print magazines still need pro work.
There are benefits to the smartphones and point and shoots. I can cover faster and the iphone6 is amazing. The point and shoots are more forgiving and I dont need the lenses.
The key is still post processing and photographers have had to learn digital and become gurus at Photoshop, Lightroom and DxO.
I dont always post the best work. For events or covering fast assignments, I keyword, meta data, albums and description and process fast in post Lightroom. For the final, I take the photo over DxO/Photoshop,
These programs take investment not only in camera and lens, lighting but also laptop and software. Events and travel industry do not understand this. So they like taking the cheaper way...
Changing world!
Simplicity is key. The Guardian spent around 6 months testing in beta with users and actually used the suggestions. What was interesting to me was the switch to use color not for categories but for functionality. Eye scans are even more important.
The key today is the site has to work across all platforms and scale down and in and out. This is called responsive design. This is critical.
The Tampa Bay Times (News) spent $10million and it doesn't work right. even on mobile and people hate it.
The site must have functionality and download fast and have solid SEO. This means the pages need to be lighter.
I was Chief Web Operations at United States Mint and bit the ecommerce operation and repeated that as an executive in retail and luxury goods. Politics are just as important as the design. You need leadership that cane write functionality, adjust and a content and developer and MARKETING team that can work together. A web site redesign is not done when it is launched. There is new functionality and updates.
Testing is lacking in today's market. This is very much needed for the entire lifecycle.
A strong content management system is equally important as this allows marketing and content to make adjustments and post articles and products without bothering the technical team.
I sat on the World Wide Web Consortium ((W3C)'s Web Accessibility initiative and helped shape Section 508 in Government which ensured sights are accessible with People With Disabilities. After Internet Bubble and 9/11, those lessons were lost and are not really taught in school. I have extensive usability experience and am continually dumbfounded what I see. I have presented ineternationaly and the biggest issue is a manager or leader who gets it...
I now know where Cappadocia is! Added the ballon ride there to my list of things to do!
Incredible resource, I would also be interested in the business objective for each. How is this being monetized funded? What is the exit strategy? Barriers, risks or disruptive technology. How can these weather the storm.But more importantly how is this monetized and sustainable? Or are they sing the AOL model to get people to register and use that to sell advertising and the business. After the internet bubble crash, investors started to wise up to "churning" users. In today's market, user's brand enthusiasm is the "Best call to action" to attract new users.
Great research tool! I could get lost in there!