Altovoo.com Blog

Aviation has taken its time to fully embrace the Web 2.0. and I often wonder why… Surely, early writing talents ventured into the blogosphere and launched some of today’s favorite blogs, such as RunwayGirl, Flightblogger and PlaneBuzz. However, until recently, aviation websites consisted mainly of two types: aviation news sources and aircraft (or aviation jobs) markets. Both types are immensely popular with thousands of weekly visitors.  As a much needed business tool, these sites are functionally great, providing a trading floor for buyers and sellers. Yet, they leave very little space for user interaction and participation, with no discernable trend towards increasing user participation.

 Other successful ventures in Web 2.0. appeared in the world of podcasting like AirplaneGeeks and UncontrolledAirspace.  Podcasts, however, because of their own dynamic and recording requirements, have been slower to multiply than blogs.

www.Flightaware.com, a website to file flight plans, or track anyone flying over US territory, (excluding Air Force One and Dick Cheney, probably), also appeal to the “user-powered” followers of the Web 2.0. And of course, talking about followers, Twitter now allows anyone to follow or disseminate aviation news, to and from millions of users. Yet, being a big Tweet myself, I wonder really how many people read my micro-blogs…

Finally, we have the ultimate marriage between aviation and the Web 2.0. in the recently sprung social networks dedicated to aviation.  Meet www.avpronet.com, and the freshly launched www.aviationclub.aero The former is a creation of Aviation Today, with quite a large number of followers, counting 4889 (as of 05/07/2009).

The latter, originated as a Forum topic on ASW (the first of the “über chic,” social networks) that gathered so many followers it decided to free itself from the censorship of ASmallWorld. It currently holds 304 members.

Both of these aviation social networks provide different platforms for user interaction: forums, walls for posting notes, photo albums, networking with friends, and the usual accoutrements of a traditional virtual club. Yet, with so many social platforms available online today, how popular will these aviation-targeted websites can become? Some of the larger online clubs already offer “sub-clubs” based on affinity. For instance, Orkut has over fifteen aviation communities, each of them with thousands of members. Linked-in has groups for several categories in aviation, including IT, Advertising & Marketing, Merchandising and every other business school topic you can think of.

As a participant of several social networks, I am also a believer. But as usual, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Barbara Abello, AltoVoo.com

barbara@altovoo.com