The most recent example of this was tonight, with my little sister coming home to Vancouver on an Air Canada flight from Calgary set to arrive at YVR by 5:50pm. The plane was diverted (I guess?) to Victoria due to the weather conditions. Now that much is understandable – stuff happens. However, updates to the condition of the flight were only posted about five minutes before the posted arrival time. So if the flight was delayed to 6:50, at 6:45pm the flight would be further delayed to 7:45pm. So conceivably many people would have come to the airport for 6:50 and be stuck until 7:50, at which point the flight was further delayed. Eventually the flight was delayed again and arrived at YVR at 10:45pm. Of course, as is normal for ill-equipped airlines during this weather, the luggage compartments required de-icing and despite the passengers coming off the plane at 11pm, the luggage did not come off the plane until much later. Now, these technical topics are not so relevant as the issue of what happened on the plane.

I posted on Twitter:

My sister’s flight was grounded for FIVE HOURS & apparently Air Canada did not offer them ANYTHING to eat or drink. I’ll have to make sure. about 3 hours ago from web

Responses:

	megsmitley @kulpreetsingh Typical! How awful. Hope she’s arrived safely. 3 minutes ago from web
	ValerieMacLean @kulpreetsingh No need to check, not when it’s Air Canada. about 2 hours ago from web
	kabutar @kulpreetsingh I’ve heard of this happening before with AC (with variations i.e. food & drink ran out since deplaning wasn’t allowed etc) about 3 hours ago from twhirl
	erikmagraken @kulpreetsingh Air Canada or Westjet? I’ve heard some stories of AC being woefully prepared for this winter weather. about 3 hours ago from web

When I asked my sister basically she said that they gave the passengers water and pretzels over those five hours. Perhaps the airline was also not equipped for these types of emergencies, but you’d have to imagine with Air Canada running so many flights day in and day out across the world, they’d have some experience with delays and how to keep customers happy. I’m not sure if it was just a shortage of real food on the plane, or if it’s Air Canada’s policy to just keep their passengers at basic sustenance level for as long as the delay lasts, without considering spending more money on real food. Admittedly, this is a mild issue compared to some of the travel nightmares caused to entire families by Air Canada in other instances.

Obviously we “baby” our little sister so I was a little frustrated for her, and posted on Twitter:

If WestJet was the larger carrier, would it have as poor, negligent treatment of customers as Air Canada? about 1 hour ago from web

People responded:

	rmdstudio @kulpreetsingh I think we need one or two more air carries so the competition would have driven them to improve their services. about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox
	jeffkee @kulpreetsingh So my answer is no, even the dominating company can still put the values into the actions of their employees. about 1 hour ago from web
	jeffkee @kulpreetsingh A corporations policy and education of its employees to feel ownership of the company is important based on my corporate exp. about 1 hour ago from web
	PureEminences @kulpreetsingh If Canada had more than one major airline about 1 hour ago from web
	raincoaster @kulpreetsingh No. Service is its edge. My dad used to work for Canadian, and they were proud of their service. Air Canada has ALWAYS sucked about 1 hour ago from Power Twitter
	kabutar @kulpreetsingh (2) that no deplaning allowed incident was actually due to Transport Canada safety regulations I believe about 1 hour ago from twhirl
	kabutar @kulpreetsingh I’m not sure, really – on one side WJ built themselves on service, on the other they’re also bound by regulations, like (1) about 1 hour ago from twhirl

It was interesting to get feedback on Twitter about this topic but I wonder how many others have discussed their frustrations about Air Canada on Twitter. If Air Canada is the target of customer complaints in general, the same is being reflected on social media as well.

Replies to my post on Twitter (and blog comments below):

	erin337 @kulpreetsingh You might have an easier time asking who has NOT had a problem with Air Canada. 3 minutes ago from web
	buzzbishop @kulpreetsingh fly westjet. That’s what you can do about it. 4 minutes ago from twitterrific
	duanestorey @kulpreetsingh yup.. but they don’t care.. http://tinyurl.com/4bugqe 11 minutes ago from web
	mluu1179 @kulpreetsingh i’ll have to be flying back to Vancouver shortly too. I’m not looking forward to it b/c of the snow about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
	jeffkee @kulpreetsingh Yeah I always felt AC was a bit off.. Prefer Westjet for sure. about 10 hours ago from web
	raincoaster @kulpreetsingh Good one! They have it coming, but don’t care. about 10 hours ago from Power Twitter

You have to admit it – for most social people, Facebook is more a habit than a hobby. We’re so accustomed now to logging in, a few times a day, checking photos, notes, groups, etc. Posting on peoples’ walls, making graffiti, and wasting time defining our relationships. Facebook has us like coffee has… well most of the working population. Some people can’t get through a few hours, let alone a day, without their coffee. Now what happens when, the thing that you kind of depend on every day, is bought out by the super mega company that kind of monopolizes all computers in the world? Hmmm! Huge potential for evil!

According to Kara at All Things Digital, Microsoft has been gauging Facebook’s interest in being taken over.

After failing to court Yahoo!, Microsoft is a little anxious for a partner. Well, I think Microsoft-weds-Facebook would be a match made in heaven. You all know Facebook’s real goal is to control and influence large amounts of people to make profit from them. It’s like Orwell’s 1984 2.0. And who better than Microsoft, well besides Google, to help Facebook reach that goal?

Comic: Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan

The Tazzu WordPress Camp on Wednesday was a great event, and I’ll be discussing it in detail in a day or two. However I just wanted to post a few thoughts that I had during and after the event.

I thought it was kind of ironic that originally WordPress had been built as a blogging platform, and the majority of WP users only know it from that angle. However, I have been using WP for the last two or more years for everything but blogging. I’ve been using it to design websites, make catalogues, create mashups, and I’m currently planning a WPMu Social Network (God help me if BuddyPress doesn’t come out soon!).

I think WP is supreme for blogging, but my experience highlights the uniqueness of WP as a CMS application. There are many content management systems out there. I’ve used Microsoft CMS, Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. I found WP to be quick to set up, easy to manipulate, and very flexible depending upon the developer’s goals. Some of the larger applications have more powerful engines that can do great things out of the box. However I think WP is so flexible and light-weight that using it has been irresistable for me.

The point of this post is to hint at the future. Over the next two years, I know WP and WPMu will start competing more head-on with the mainstream solutions out there. However, I wonder, will the concerns of the blogging community outweight the concerns of CMS developers who use WP? To whom will Automattic and the WP community give preference? At some point, for the community and for the application core, there is a fork in the road. Both paths leading out from there are great and worthy, but they are different and will be interesting to different types of audiences.

What I’d like to see is the WordPress core product splitting into two editions: WP for Blogs, and WP CMS. This way, we could grow out of the “posts” and “blogroll” terminology, and start using more website/content specific terminology. We could allow developers to not only custom sites for clients, but also custom dashboards and admin panels.  I know Matt Mullenweg hinted at his interest in the growing use of WP as a CMS during the recent WordCamp in Dallas (video), but how serious are they about it? I would love to see “WordPress Suite 2009″ of unique products, some of which are already available, each with its own focus: BBPress (forum), BuddyPress (social network), WordPress Mu (multiple blog hosting), WP CMS (websites & mashups), and the original WP Basic (blogs). I think it would help expand the WordPress brand, and provide unique solutions for all types of content developers and managers.

stay in high spirits

-k.s.