Web+2.0


 * 1) What did social media do for the ongoing unrest in the arabic world (try to compare Egypt and Libya)?

The usage of the social media obviously increased enormously over the past years. In case of Egypt, the social media strengthened the inside into Egypt’s situation drastically which obviously wasn’t the case thirty ago when Mubarak became president. The strong usage of web 2.0 gave people in Egypt or around the world an insight of where the next protests are held, together it was also a source of mass communication to the external countries. Throughout the media, Egyptians could share the situation and people around the world had the chance to get more emotionally attached through posts of images and texts throughout facebook, youtube and other social websites. However, Mubarak felt the intensity of the media which probably pressured him to turn down his presidentship. “ So, it seems that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube stopped the process of protests in Egypt. There has been some backlash about the use of social media, with some pundits calling it a 'Facebook Revolution', as without Facebook this would not be happening”

In the case of Libya, the usage of web 2 is more restricted. The pressure on Libya regarding the social media unfortunately didn’t have the same impact than it had on Egypt. Gaddafi rather sees the use of the media as a supporter to share information about his actions throughout the world rather than pressuring him to give up.

2. What did social media do to tourism industry, showcase samples

Travel consumers have until now relied heavily on travel journalism and traditional media to help guide them through the best places to go and most exciting things to do. Web technology has now become more easily accessible and the creation of good content has shifted to the customer and the traveller using blogs, podcasts, wikis and map mashups the consumer can share, experience and research their own travel adventure.

As an increasing number of people research and reserve travel online, Web 2.0 is providing consumers with countless tools to find, and design, not just the cheapest trip, but the perfect trip.

Recent research has shown that more than 6 in 10 leisure travellers use the Internet or an online service to obtain information and prices, further highlighting the need for Tourism and Travel Web sites to make the best possible use of technology to enhance usability, provide useful tools and increase bookings.

3. How active are yourself in Web2.0, what role does it play in your life (private, student)?

I am a very active web 2.0 user. To an extend that I have to tell myself to check Facebook, Hotmail, Messenger…for no more than 5 minutes when using my Laptop to do work. Facebook offered our generation an easy and a free option to stay in touch and communicate with our friends or keep contacts in such an easy way. Certainly, people like us working in the hospitality industry not just get to deal with so many different people from all over the world but also tend to travel so much that we always have an eye on where people are right now. Moreover, having done my A-Levels in England, Bebo and Facebook helped me to still stay in touch with all my friends and further hear from them in a daily manner. Unfortunately, you tend to end up looking at your friend list, noticing there is a clear need to delete few of them.

Youtube is another great way to listen to the newest songs without paying and finding your results so easily by just typing in the keywords. Regularly, I write blogs about my stay in Luzern and throughout my internships to share my experience with my friends and family back home by passively sharing, giving only my friends the inside.

__ Integrating social Media with Marketing for Business: __

__ Lokalisten (//Social Network)// __ the german MYSpace, rather used in the Bavarian part of Germany (Munich area). It seems advertising restaurants throughout a social network just like Lokalisten will be rather difficult since users have networking in mind when signing in rather than looking at ads regarding restaurants.

__ Flickr (//Share)// __ is an image, video hosting website, web service suites and online community created later by Yahoo. It became a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs. For mobile phone users, Flickr has an official app now for IPhones and BlackBerry users but also various functions on the IPad.

__ ICQ (//Discuss)// __ is an instant messaging computer program and stands for ‘I seek you’.

__ Skype (//Share// __// ) // a great tool consisting of chatting options, video calls, instant messaging, file- transfer, video conferences and additional features.

__ Micro-blog (– (blog publishing __ service provided by Google. It allows private or multi- user blogs with time-stamped entries. It is an open platform for discussion for everyone. It further gives people, who participated or those who are going to an idea through comments and experiences shared. E.g. Luzern marathon.

__ Justin.tv __ is a website that allows users to produce and watch live streaming videos. It is similar to youtube, however Justin.tv users are called ‘channels’ and users are encouraged to broadcast a wide variety of user-generated live videos, called ‘broadcasts’.

__ Meebo __ is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It is a browser based instant messaging program, connecting right to other IM services, such as Facebook chat, Windows Live Messanger, ICQ, Google talk and more.