[Sigia-l] Do Make Me Think!

[Patrick Walsh]

Does all information have to be via a web page? Human beings are quite good
at answering 'soft queries'. Most sites have 'Contact Us' sections where
you can e-mail queries and usually get a reply anytime from a day to a
month. The company that provides me with a skilled human online and
interacting in real time when I have a difficult query will always get my
business.
I work in enterprise IA and the most frequent observation I hear is that IT
is dehumanising. In certain areas an improved web/human interface might
restore some balance.

Patrick C. Walsh,




                                                                                                                                        
                      Skot Nelson                                                                                                       
                      <skot at penguinstor        To:       Malahat Hosseini <malahat at telus.net>                                           
                      m.com>                   cc:       SIGIA-L l <sigia-l at asis.org>                                                   
                      Sent by:                 Subject:  Re: [Sigia-l] Do Make Me Think!                                                
                      sigia-l-bounces at a                                                                                                 
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                      16/10/2006 01:41                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        





On Oct-15-2006, at 17:32 , Malahat Hosseini wrote:

> I want to go to trip with this ( x) budget any time in fall...I
> dont want to
> give you a fixed date... I just want to see whatever you have and
> pick...
>
>
> is this a rare case? :)

No, but I think that the problem here is a slightly different one:
how to deal with "fuzzy" queries. I do agree that the inability to
query  travel sites in seemingly natural ways is a problem.

That's both a technological and an architecture issue.

On the architecture side of things, how you structure queries and
present responses will play a hugely significant role.

On the technology side, the needs here are quite interesting. Travel
sites get most the information that they sell and redistribute from
external sources. There's no such thing as "inventory" in most
case....Expedia doesn't have 5 trips to Mexico sitting on a shelf,
and what they do have changes from moment to moment. A seat on KLM is
available now but...ooops....now it's gone.

So the travel sites themselves may benefit from some impression
ability to deal with "soft" queries, but the people providing their
"inventory" require absolute precision -- it's a fun conflict.
--
Skot Nelson
skot (at) penguinstorm (dot) com
http://www.penguinstorm.com/

skype. skot.nelson

             "In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when
              there is no longer anything to add, but when there
              is no longer anything to take away."
             -- Antonine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars



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