Compucast in the News

"It is important for those in the hospitality industry to fully realize the value of the Internet and how much it can contribute to their success," Weitz adds. "A website can represent a property beautifully, but it must be found by visitors. The number one consideration is ensuring the website has visibility, meaning that people can find it easily. Geo-specific marketing is key. The site should be properly coded so it shows up in the major search engines and has incoming links from popular sites."

Weitz recommends that all restaurants have current menus and prices on their websites, and restaurants that can accommodate group events should include floor plans with pictures and dimensions.

As for hotels, they should always have any ongoing specials or promotions included on their websites.

"Specials should be announced on the home page to entice the visitors to respond. Visitors should be allowed to subscribe to a mailing list on the website for upcoming specials, allowing the hotel to gather email addresses for future promotions."

She continues, "Hotels offering online reservations on their websites should make online inventory management a priority. As many room types as possible should be included, encouraging the visitor to reserve online."

Also for hotels, she highly recommends a photo gallery or a 360 tour: "Visitors using the Web to make decisions appreciate visuals."

However, don’t get overzealous and feel like you have to add a little of everything to your property’s website. Contrary to what you may have seen online, Weitz recommends not having an intro page with nothing but graphics and a "skip intro" link.

"The Internet is an informational medium, and although it is important for your website to professionally represent your business, visitors want to see the information they seek right away. Having Flash (for animated effects) is advisable only when it is used to highlight your business, definitely not for text. Search engines cannot see Flash."

http://www.southernhospitalitymagazine.com/pdfs/SHM_SPRING07_WEB.pdf

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Even as Hurricane Dean approached, one-fourth of potentially at-risk Texans surveyed said they would not evacuate, either.

Clearly, when it comes to disaster preparedness and response, millions of Americans remain in a state of denial, precisely when risks appear to be rising.

Over the past year alone, across America, people have lost lives or property in incidents including floods, tornadoes and wildfires. And that is apart from the threat from terrorists who could attack without warning and inflict serious damage and loss of life.

By their nature, disasters can be unpredictable. First responders cannot always get to everyone immediately. If your community is affected, it might take hours or days before they reach you.

Residents who refuse to evacuate are not only risking their own lives and the lives of family members, but are needlessly putting first responders in harm's way if a rescue is ultimately needed.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that if we think about and prepare for such emergencies today, we can help protect lives and property tomorrow.

Recognizing this, our Department of Homeland Security works closely with Citizens Corps, a community-based emergency preparedness and response movement with headquarters in FEMA, and sponsors our nationwide Ready campaign to equip Americans for emergencies, such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Every September, with the help of Ready and Citizens Corps, we promote National Preparedness Month. Throughout this month, we and our public and private-sector partners will be encouraging Americans to increase emergency preparedness in their homes, schools and businesses.

We are asking Americans to do three things: Get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan and be informed about different kinds of emergencies and how to respond to them.

A basic kit should include at least a three-day supply of water and nonperishable food, a battery-operated radio and an NOAA weather radio; a flashlight and batteries; a first-aid kit, a whistle for help, a dust mask, personal sanitation items, a wrench or pliers, a can opener, local maps, and possibly prescription medications, infant formula and pet food.

A family plan should describe how members will contact one another if they are separated. It should include an out-of-town contact number in case local telephone service is disrupted. A family should identify potential evacuation locations and think through how to "shelter in place" at home if needed.

Emergency information should include knowledge about the potential disasters, such as hurricanes, floods or fires in one's area.

How vital is emergency preparedness? Ask Judy Weitz.

I recently met with Judy in New Orleans. She owns Compucast Web Media, an Internet services company for more than 250 New Orleans-area businesses. Before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, Judy had secured dedicated computer servers in San Francisco and Philadelphia. She wanted to ensure that her clients' Web sites would function in a hurricane.

Thanks to her foresight, Compucast became one of the few area Web providers still online after Katrina's devastation.

Working from Houston, Judy helped stranded employees find places to stay, employers to communicate with them regularly, and businesses to begin rebuilding. She also offered to match job seekers with job creators.

What Judy did with her business, people can do with their families. Simply stated, they can prepare.

So during this year's National Preparedness Month, our threefold message remains: Get a kit, make a plan and be informed.

You can go to www.ready.gov and learn more about implementing your own preparedness plan. To get involved in your community's preparedness efforts, visit www.citizencorps.gov.

By acting today, you can protect your family, your community and our country for tomorrow.

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When Katrina was forecasted, Judy made arrangements for a pet-friendly hotel with high-speed Internet access, so work could continue and so she could evacuate her whole family, including her three dogs. By Saturday evening, when the worst of the storm was impending, Judy packed all computers and equipment and left with her family for Houston.

As soon as she checked into the hotel and set up the new "office", Compucast was immediately able to reach several clients. As one of the very few Web site providers able to keep in touch with their clients, they were soon spending each day updating Web sites and helping businesses reach out to their employees who had been scattered throughout the United States. "All e-mail addresses remained fully functional for all our clients, which was so important during that critical time," said Judy.

Due to its emergency planning, Compucast became a hub of activity. The Internet became one of the only ways to keep in touch and both employers and employees were searching for each other online. Employees who were stranded were able to find a place to stay and employers were able to announce to their employees all arrangements being made for them, i.e., where to send paychecks, when they planned to re-open, etc. The ability for employees and employers to keep in touch allowed many businesses to begin the rebuilding process.

For local non-profit associations, Compucast set up mailing lists to reach out to members who had been dispersed to different cities and contacted authorities when they heard of anyone who was still stranded.

Shortly after Katrina devastated much of the New Orleans area, news organizations contacted Compucast because they were one of only a few local Web site providers still online. Compucast was able to put the media in touch with businesses that had been severely affected so they could cover rebuilding efforts. Compucast also created a free job search site to help businesses and potential employees find each other.

"We are thankful we were able to play even a small role in helping people during this time," said Judy. "Next time around, we will be even more prepared, as we have replaced all of our desktop computers with laptops! We will now have room in the same car for our family and pets and our customers' lifeline communication resources."

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How has your business changed in the last 6 years-- have you seen any type of evolution?

Yes, as more and more tourist-oriented businesses have realized the value of the internet, the business has grown. Only rarely do I meet with anyone who still questions its value or does not allocate sufficient marketing funds for the internet. Once they are online and successfully marketed, they are happy and often surprised at the results ... several clients now do almost no other form of advertising.

I have also seen an evolution in the marketing of web sites, particularly the advent of paying for search engine results due to the decrease in banner ad sales. Design is also undergoing a constant evolution with the advance of flash technology and the increasing number of people with high-speed internet access.

Have you developed a particular niche and is it important to do so?

Our original sites were created to promote the beauty and culture of New Orleans, and included live streaming video of the positive side of Mardi Gras. So, yes, we developed a particular niche, but only because we were determined to change the negative way the city was being portrayed online.

Although it happened quite by accident and due to word-of-mouth advertising, I believe developing this niche was important from an internet marketing perspective. Since our online marketing efforts now concentrate on the tourism industry, we have created an enormous amount of traffic that benefits all of the businesses we represent.

Is there anything in particular you would want the state of Louisiana to do to help make the technology sector grow?

Yes, I believe they should do everything within their power to encourage the growth of technology. This includes providing tax benefits to those who are helping the state's economy grow through the use of technology.

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Corresponding online over the next several years, the two hatched a plan for the site (mardigrasneworleans.com). "Our goal was to show the world what Mardi Gras really is," Ms. Weitz said. The debauchery associated with the day, she said, is the fault of eager-to-imbibe tourists congregating on Bourbon Street.

Residents, she said, are much more sober about the celebration. "I was upset to learn when I first got online people assume it's got something to do with women getting undressed. It's meant for children. That's what it's all about."

The site offers information about the origins of New Orleans's big day, as well as guidance for those planning a visit. Now that her husband is back home, Ms. Weitz said they planned to spend Mardi Gras (Feb. 8) not online but on St. Charles Avenue, viewing three parades as they were meant to be experienced.

"Hundreds of things pass," she said. "You know your relatives and friends. There are picnics all day long. Music is playing. That's what we do. That's Mardi Gras day."

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"I had an interest in looking at how video on the Internet would work, so I went to the Orpheus organization and asked them if they would be willing to take part in an experiment," Marc recalls. "Of course, they were quite willing and they really supported us and liked it a lot. The broadcasts are done live and in real-time. Locally, no one has done anything at all [like the Orpheuscapade Internet broadcast] to speak of. It's really very costly."

"The first year we just did that one event, then the second year we turned it into a four-day event," Judy continues. "We did the first night on the balcony of the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, the second night at Anne Rice's house for a celebrity party, and the Orpheuscapade the following night. It was very, very popular, too. We have a chat room, too."

Many krewes revel in the secrecy masking provides and the exclusivity of many of the older Uptown organizations. Orpheus -- at only five years old in 1998 a new parade by New Orleans standards -- took to the idea of a worldwide broadcast of their party wholeheartedly.

"They really enjoyed it," Judy says of last year's Internet broadcast. "In fact, during the Orpheuscapade a number of times they had someone on the mic saying, 'Tonight we're live on the Internet.' We had a proposal on-line -- someone proposed to their girlfriend on-line and she accepted. It was exciting even to celebrities, they walked over to say hello and tell everyone they were there. The mayor welcomed everyone on-line to the city for Mardi Gras. The celebrity interviews were interesting because a lot of the celebrities don't want to be approached by a lot of people, but they really did enjoy sitting down at a table and just talking to people throughout the world on the Internet. It was exciting to everyone at the ball, largely, I think, because it was such a new thing.

"What we had that was so interesting was the interactivity. We had people in Japan and Australia typing in questions to Delta Burke asking if she was going to come out with a line of make-up, Francis Ford Coppola was holding up his new magazine and telling everyone about it -- it was more of an interactive thing because they were able to ask questions while the event was happening. I think people felt they were actually part of the event. That was what was exciting and what we want to do again this year."

As the Orpheuscapade broadcasts continue to grow in popularity, a number of large technology companies, like the party's attendees, are excited about being a part of the event. While many details were still being ironed out at press time, the Weitz were noticeably excited about the development of the project in its scope and technical advances.

"The first year we really had no tracking mechanism, at that time the ISP [Internet Service Provider] did not have that in place very well," Marc says. "Last year it was a phenomenal success and it really stressed the loads on that particular ISP. He claimed that we had over 11,000 people an hour. This year it looks like we need a major, major player -- we're talking to one organization whose server capacity is phenomenal, there's no ISP in the country with a capacity like these folks, and they're very anxious to get involved. You know how 'net traffic can slow things down? If you've got a guy whose got 20 servers at his disposal just for your event, then throughput should be pretty swift and pretty easy, even at 28.8 [modems]. We have a variety of different formats at our doorstep. One is a very solid, proven technology that's very common, an acceptable streaming format. We're getting a lot of support from a major player in the industry. Everybody wants to be a part of a super big event on the Internet and have their name on there."

As well as broadcasting Mardi Gras events, the Weitz offer bits of previous years' broadcasts on their Web site all year. While few locals would argue Mardi Gras needs more national exposure and the influx of tourists that brings, the Weitz feel strongly that their involvement with Mardi Gras is not about making it a bigger event, but a better one.

"There is a year 'round interest in New Orleans, and anyone that has an interest in New Orleans has got to be curious about Mardi Gras," Marc explains. "So, having what we have on our site that relates to past events certainly piques their interest and sets the stage for our next program, because if they like what they see now, they're really going to enjoy our next event."

"I think a lot of people do visit the site, especially starting in about November," Judy says. "I mean, people are visiting the site all year, but in November it starts getting pretty overwhelming.

"You know what we think is important? We feel loyal to the krewes we represent and to the city of New Orleans. We want to represent Mardi Gras as an insider, to show people the excitement and the magic of Mardi Gras the way we grew up with it. We're really aggravated with the way its been portrayed in the news lately as an R-rated or X-rated event that no one can come down to unless they leave their children at home. We see it as a beautiful event, parties, parades, formal events, entertainment, celebrities and a lot of wonderful things that go on down here. I grew up seeing that my whole life, and now in the last ten years the world seems to thing it's just a big hoopla in the French Quarter. I spend almost half of every day telling people that it's not just a crazy party, that it really is a family event, that they throw stuffed animals and toys from the floats. One of the things we try to do with the live event is show the real Mardi Gras. That's what we want to do, we're trying to represent Mardi Gras in that way, and a lot of the krewes respect that and know our hearts are in the right place."

To watch this years' Mardi Gras Internet broadcasts, visit the Weitz's site at: mardigrasneworleans.com.

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Vendors Show a Parade of Intel-Based Products
From Tablet PCs to mobile displays and computers shaped like Aliens, a wide variety of devices are on display at IDF.
By Tom Krazit, IDG News -- Sep 12, 2002 9:00 am

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- Between the keynote speeches and technology briefings, attendees at the Intel Developer Forum had a chance to wander about the convention floor and check out new and existing products that make use of Intel hardware. Following is a small selection of the many devices on show here.

Tablets on Display
ViewSonic demonstrated its Tablet PC V1100, which is expected to debut when Microsoft releases its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition in November. The size of a small laptop, it weighs 3.4 pounds and lets mobile workers take handwritten notes on a touch sensitive screen.

It uses Intel's Mobile Pentium III processor and has a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of synchronous dynamic RAM. Data is entered using a stylus, and the V1100 shows high-resolution images on its 10.4-inch thin film transistor XVGA (1024 pixels by 768 pixels) screen. Users can access the Internet via an 802.11b wireless LAN connection.

A ViewSonic representative at the company's booth said the device would be priced at "more than $2,000 but less than $4,000."

Going Mobile

Symbol Technologies showed a number of handheld devices for mobile workers including the PDT 8100, which uses the Pocket PC operating system from Microsoft for several different applications. Delivery drivers for PepsiCo use the device to record inventory and order information, according to Symbol. It uses a 206-MHz StrongARM processor from Intel, and comes with 64MB of RAM.

Several add-ons were shown for Hewlett-Packard's iPaq that transform the PDA into a General Packet Radio Service phone. The plastic add-ons were somewhat bulky in appearance but allow iPaq users to access always-on 2.5G networks in Europe and Asia, and will also work on 2G Global System for Mobile Communications networks. A model is available at HP's Web site for $399, and similar products for the U.S are expected in October.

A Smarter Display
Shown off during at least two keynote speeches, Intel's SmartDisplay serves as a portable second monitor and home remote control, or a "cordless PC," in the words of an Intel representative at the company's booth. The product is a reference design, meaning Intel won't sell the device but expects that other manufacturers will.

It wirelessly connects to a desktop PC, allowing users to play PC games or surf the Internet while sitting on the couch. By itself it has limited computing power and is designed only to work in conjunction with a desktop. It runs Windows CE .Net. and will be available from other manufacturers by about the end of the year, Intel says. Pricing has not been announced.

Odds and Ends
One of the new products taking advantage of USB 2.0 was a Flash drive from Lexar Media. The small data storage unit connects to a PC or notebook through a USB 2.0 port and allows data to be read at an average speed of 6MB per second and written at 4.5MB per second, according to Lexar. Users can transfer photos from PCs to handhelds, or quickly back up important data. The product will cost $150 for the 256MB version, and will be available in time for the Comdex tradeshow in November, according to a Lexar representative at the company's booth.

Intel placed PCs made from wildly different materials and form factors at the entrance to the convention floor. One, a menacing "Alien Head" design from Marc "Geezer" Weitz, uses an Intel 2.53-GHz Pentium 4 processor.

It is about twice the height of a normal desktop PC and its exterior, molded from Styrofoam and fiberglass, alternates between iridescent purple and green. Weitz has developed several unusual PCs for competitions. The mouth of the Alien Head is actually a CD-RW drive, and power switches are concealed beneath the Alien's breastplate.

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