Also, there's not a lot of point putting from $290 in an RSS feed around destinations. You'd have to do it for individual flights for it to have any use for the user and then an API is needed really. But like you say Ian data = "" and the risks of a competitor just undercutting BA on key destinations by taking info from their feeds is currently greater than any potential benefit.
Google Earth is still a PR tool tho, let's be honest. As an application it's still too indulgent for this sort of use case [journey planning], partly because the data layers are proprietary [usually]. What interests me about this are the *conditions* needed for a business to foster an open system, to release its data for people to build on. What would it take for BA to do this? Where could the potential benefits be increased to mitigate the risks? Perhaps like you say Ian to create a service layer over the price data around availability?
And thinking aloud with this question in mind are there any general rules around data 'value' i.e. price data for standardised products being of more value than differentiated products - because competition would be price based rather than service based...??
JBOn 9/11/06, Ian Forrester [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I couldn't really comment on BA Google, but imho there's certainly a lot of companies holding on to their data very tightly. This was discussed at great length at barcamplondon.
Html is still pretty painful to parse and so provides a safe (ish) haven/container for commercial data. With the move to xhtml, pages are easily parsed and that data becomes much more accessible. From a closed company point of view this is not good because your important/commercial data can be duplicated. The same arguments are used for RSS/ATOM.
I'm not a fan of above, it reminds me of the backwards mindset of the recording industry suing there customer.
I'm sure BA could open up there flight information and still find a market for providing much more detailed or/and upto date information for google earth. I guess the weather channel would be one such example.
Cheers,
Ian forrester
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk
backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk
Sent: 09/09/06 18:48
Subject: [backstage] Google Earth and ba.com
This seems to be one of the first serious geo-'mashups' in the corporate
world. But I believe that using the Google Earth app means that ba.com is
not willing to give any kind of rss feeds on their offers or flights
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/goearth/public/en_gb?redirect=woffers_g
oearth
Ogle your British Airways holiday with Google
In a first for air travellers, British Airways and Google have teamed up to
make holiday preparation even easier by launching a new interactive service
through the airline's website, ba.com.
To celebrate its 'World Offers' fare sale, with more than 3 million seats
available, which launches today (August 31), the airline will feature Google
Earth satellite technology on ba.com, allowing travellers to zoom in on
their destination of choice as they take advantage of the excellent
discounts available on flights and hotels.
British Airways has created special 'layers' of information for Google Earth
to enable visitors to ba.com to see popular tourist hotspots and their
proximity to their chosen hotel - the ultimate planning tool for
holidaymakers, so they can organise their itinerary before they arrive.
Jayne O'Brien, head of brands and marketing communications at British
Airways, said: Not only is this a great sale with discounts to more than
110 destinations but it also has the added customer benefit of allowing them
to familiarise themselves with the local area, hotels and amenities through
Google Earth. Be it families checking how near their Florida hotel is to
Disney World, their Caribbean resort is to the beach or avid skiers
comparing the topography of different pistes - there's something for
everyone.
Obi Felton, Head of Consumer Marketing at Google, said: We hope
holiday-makers have fun with this specially created tool. People have
always enjoyed finding their own home on Google Earth and now they can see
where they'll be laying down their beach towel or enjoying après ski before
they fly.
The Google Earth layer is a further extension to ba.com's host of holiday
planning tools such as the travel checklist and online check-in, all aimed
at enabling travellers to prepare for their trip in advance and arrive at
the airport relaxed and ready to fly.
The US features heavily in the sale with London Heathrow to New York
starting at just £269 (saving up to £138). Flights from Heathrow to Miami
and London Gatwick to Orlando and Tampa are on sale for £299 (saving up to
£183, £187 and £188 respectively). The Far East is also within even easier
reach with flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing starting
from just £399 (saving up to £158, £125 and £145
