Do you like Google Maps. We do.
Since last May we use Google Maps on visitsweden.com to guide our visitors to Swedens greatest attractions.
On December 3, we launced a Mapplet in Google My Maps for these attractions. You need a Google account to view the Mapplet named “Top 100 highlights in Sweden. The Mapplet leads traffic back to our website. We hope of course that this Mapplet will attract many new visitors to Sweden.
Archive for the 'web 2.0' Category
We launched CommunityOfSweden.com nov. 1st on schedule. I think it’s time for an update on the status of things.
How did it go?
The launch went great! We had a couple of major bugs the first few days. Mostly related to the internet explorer browser and some issues with inputing tags correctly.
November will always be remembered by me as the month of bug hunting.
And probably by the developers as the month of bug fixing 
We’ve come a long way and although there are still a list of issues to fix there’s nothing big that will impact the user experience negatively and that’s the most important thing.
What’s happened since?
We’ve held off with the marketing of CommunityOfSweden.com during november to make sure we’ve got a good and stable service for our users. We’ve only leaked the launch a little by word of mouth, through this blog and our CEO’s blog.
The marketing activities will start now and continue to grow during december and januari and we have a huge list of marketing activities for 2008. It’s very exciting!
What’s next?
First priority is to fix the remaining issues.
Then we’ll start implementing some functionality that we didn’t have time for before november. Such as search functionality!
Yes of course, you didn’t think we’ve forgotten search did you? 
Also the share functionality so you can easily send tips about good content you find on CommunityOfSweden.com to your friends.
And more…
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have already found your way to CommunityOfSweden.com and become members. Many of you have also helped testing actively and also helping a lot just by providing content to make the community feel alive. Keep it up!
Thank you!
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About blog communication development News Online Community pr social network Sweden Tech travel VisitSweden web 2.0 weblogI’m happy to be able to show you a big glimpse of what the community will look like.
Below you can see the whole process.
And please, write a comment and say what you think
Above: The wireframe that was the foundation for the design work.
Above: The first design proposal by Oakwood based on the wireframe.
Above: The final design proposal by Oakwood after VisitSweden’s feedback.
A few words on what you’re looking at above.
We liked the first proposal by Oakwood very much but we also felt that the community should be less power design and instead warmer, soft and more playful. Oakwood then came up with new proposals which finally resulted in the last design seen above.
I’m not going into details about the functionality seen in the designs but I can promise you that the Explore Sweden map will be something very special
Notice something missing?
Yep… there’s no name for the community yet!
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Design News Online Community web 2.0Last week we invited tenders for the design of our online community. A couple of web design companies now have until the 25:th of July to submit their offers.
The invitation by email included a descriptive document, general design guidelines, company information and a few selected wireframes. We’ve asked for design prototypes on two of the wireframes, first page and member profile page, and a rough time and cost estimate.
We will choose a few of the best design prototypes that arrive and publish them here for your viewing and voting. You will have the chance to make yourself heard and say which design you prefer the most!
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About blog Business Design development News Online Community pr process project social network Sweden travel VisitSweden web 2.0 weblogLast week was the week of the wireframes, literally.
Me and Hans from Trive worked hard on getting the community wireframes as finished as possible before he would leave for his summer vacation. It was essential for the project to make the best of the time we had so there were a couple of late working nights and many long meetings last week.
All is well that ends well they say and it’s true also in this case. We were almost done with the wireframes when the friday came. We got to celebrate with some gourmet food and drink (read: pizza and sweet cider…).
I’m very happy with the work we did last week. Hans did a great job!
Since then I’ve done the finishing touches and the wireframes are now finished - as finished as a working document can ever be, that is. I’ve done two presentations with the wireframes in house, both very successful. It’s great to see and hear how others now can visualize what I’ve had in my head for so long.
I will explain more about wireframes and how we’ve used them in a future post soon. For now I’ll leave you with this photo taken last monday during a brainstorming session that laid the groundwork for the wireframe.
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Design Meetings Online Community Tech web 2.0The popular blog about Google Maps - googlemapsmania.blogspot.com has written a post about our new map service.
“They have now implemented many points-of-interest, in an easy clickable way to use. This is how all Tourist Agencies should use their website to allow visitors to quickly see, what all can be done in a country. “
Wonderful!
Read the entire post here!
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post we will be implementing Google Maps in the online community as well. But perhaps not in the way you think…
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Design News Online Community Planning pr web 2.0I’d like to say a few words about our launch strategy. By just looking around at other new online communities it’s obvious that there are many ways to go. Launch everything at once. Private beta phase. Public beta. Launch a little, then a little more etc.
These are our thoughts
- We’re planning a private beta
- Then a public beta period (phase 1) which is the official launch
- Phase 2 launch, end of beta
- Phase 3, slower continuous development
It’s hard to wait with functionality to later phases when we know it will add a lot of value but there are a few good reasons.
First of all we don’t want to put all the eggs into one basket. Also I don’t think the users want an overwhelming amount of features to hit them at once. Better to let them discover the features one by one and give feedback on what works and what doesn’t. We can then take this feedback and compare to our own release plans. Hopefully they’re in sync, otherwise we will have the opportunity to adjust our plans for the next phase.
This strategy helps the development process. If we see a demand for a particular feature we can prioritize amongst what’s in the pipe line to accommodate our users. We want to respond to their needs and to show that we listen and care.
Nothing new under the sun here. I think this is how most other community drivers think. I just wanted to bring it out in the open so we can discuss it if you feel like it
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Business Online Community Planning Tech web 2.0Some time ago I was approached by a french travel blogger named Claude Bernard who was interested in an interview. He runs the french blog Les Explorers which is a part of the network Creative Weblogging (8 million pageviews / month)
Some of the questions were quite good so I urge you to read the interview on Claude´s blog if you’re interested in some more extensive answers.
Here’s an excerpt:
Internet is going faster and we talk now about Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0. What do you think about this evolution in the tourism & hotel market place ? Social media and User Generated Content are the big trends for Travel 2.0 ?
The way we use internet is constantly changing and evolving. I think the current trends are a natural progression of this development.
What’s interesting is not so much about these trends or buzzwords but more why some actors in these businesses are so slow or unwilling to adapt themselves to what the users want.We see important impact of news technologies (RSS, AJAX, podcast, blog, socialnetworking tools, Google mashup,Vidéo etc), what is your point of view in the travel area ?
All these technologies have some important things in common: they put the importance on the individual and it’s content and they make things easier for the user to consume their content of choice.
We’re already using many of these technologies and plan to use more. For example we use RSS feeds in our external and internal blogs, like the devblog(http://devblog.visitsweden.com) and the swedish CEO blog. We’re implementing Google maps in our map service which is almost ready for release. The online community will probably have some ajax where appropriate and surely some podcasts and video.
We’re also looking on how we can improve our PR-work on internet by using some of these technologies.
Any advises for DMO’s and Tourism Board who want to start a online community!
They might want to read our Development blog where I blog openly about our process. I’m sure there will be some lessons learned along the way
Don’t underestimate the amount of work the community will need after the launch. I think we’ll need to be active in our own community to support and encourage the members.
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