A Visit to the Football World Cup of the Digital EraKategorie: Computer & Technology
Artikel veröffentlicht von: Catalina Martinez
The football World Cup is the largest media event on Earth. More people are passionate about football than about any other kind of sport. Petra Hedorfer, chief executive of the German National Tourist Board, expects the World Cup to boost the host nation’s economy by about €9 billion or €10 billion. The retail, bar and restaurant businesses in other countries will benefit from the World Cup, too. An extensive range of merchandise well beyond the traditional tricot of the favourite team have been launched to market. For example, an internet company specializing in photo printing offers a World Cup Photo Book in Germany, printed combining the official photos and texts with the user’s own pictures.
Last week I travelled from London to Germany to observe a World Cup match. It was a fabulous experience in many ways. More than any previous trip I have done I used the advances of what is called Web 2. First, when searching for a flight I came across the new meta travel search engine http://www.mobissimo.co.uk. This does not compare to any traditional online booking service. According to Mobissimo, it runs a search across over 160 websites for relevant travel information, presenting the results in a clear, interactive list from where bookings can be made. It stands out for its ‘Activity Search’, from where it is possible to search for example for a "ski-trip, parting from London with four people on a certain date” … and the ‘TravelConcierge’ will find the most attractive options. I only needed to go from London to Leipzig and Mobissimo found me the most convenient and economical connection, as it covers not only flag carriers but also many budget airlines.
In Germany everything was impressively organized. Security was from time to time tedious, though this is probably part of modern life, too. In the stadium and the party afterwards I took photographs which I shared on a new social network called http://www.Miaplaza.com, which operates a special World Cup Photo Sharing platform. This interactive site visualizes the events as seen through the fans’ eyes (or lenses) from different parts of the world. The site is new and completely free. As it has only a few thousand members so far it forms a rather cosy community. On another extreme as far as virtual social spaces are concerned there is the MMO Game http://www.ogame.org/ which claims to have 2.5 million users on its games communities in 17 languages. These are really global dimensions.
The company which invited me to visϊt the World Cup in Germany managed to surprise me within a week with a delivery containing a World Cup Photo Book including images of our visit to the stadium and the corporate get-together that followed. The photo book was mailed to me directly by an internet company that specialises in photo printing and photo books http://fotobuch.fotoinsight.at, and which operates in the UK as http://fotoinsight.co.uk. I have visited their web site, where they offer a service to print photo books from digital camera photos.
This trip was a mishmash of experiences from virtual and real life. Unfortunately and very real, the hard disk of my laptop got damaged during the trip. I escaped havoc thanks to having started to use an application called Langmeier Backup Software <http://www.langmeier-backup.com/index_en.html>. In view of the importance of digital information to our daily life it is recommendable to have a safe back-up which allows to re-establish with ease the digital images, travel arrangements, flight reservations, appointments, texts, contacts etc. Well, at least it saved me.
Veröffentlicht von: Catalina Martinez
Web: http://iitm.info
Kontakt: e-mail
| Über den Autor: |
| Catalina Martinez is a mother of two who has lived in Mexico, the USA, Denmark, Sweden and the UK. An accountant by training, she graduated from the ITESM in Monterrey. She frequently writes about photography, digital art and yoga. |
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