Social media is emerging as a tool that may replace corporate and physical infrastructure of market capitalism. Social Flights is attempting to sort and match people, airplanes, and destinations with community organization and interaction rather than the massive infrastructure of Hub airports.
Social flight introduces a Community Leader to the “last mile of social media” who can interpret and manage Value Game data to drive social and financial revenue. In order to articulate this real-life gaming system we need to specify a baseline game scenario such that all future “real-life” scenarios will simply be some unique variation on the baseline game.
The Baseline Scenario
Consider a condition where 4 persons (group A1) from a metropolitan area (point A) self-organize to initiate a flight plan to another metropolitan area (point B). An 8 passenger jet is available at the local airport near point A. The group seeks to return 3 days later. Price sensitivity is high.
The responsibility of the Community Leader at Point A is to:
1. Deploy social media strategies to find 4 more people to fill the remaining seats.
2. Contact Community Leader at point B to notify them of the empty leg that will originate there (when aircraft returns to base).
3. Coordinate with Community Leader B to promote vendor attractions that influence 8 new travelers to fly the jet back from Point B to Point A.
Three days pass and Group A1 needs to return home from point B:
1. Coordinate with Community Leader at Point B to determine who will originate the flight plan and who will own the resulting empty leg (the passengers are agnostic as to where the plane originates).
2. In either case, Community Leader B will deploy social media tools to fill remaining empty seats if any.
3. In either case, Community Leader A will use social media tools to fill the empty seats if any.
Variables:
In this scenario; 32 seats must be filled to support a flight plan for two round trips in an 8 person aircraft AND the 3 steps outlined for each and every flight remain relatively constant – only their order may change. Most of the variables to the baseline scenario are factors of social influence and may therefore respond to game mechanics and rewards, i.e.; the number of initial passengers, social draw in each community, 3rd party vendor incentives, social influence of passengers, price sensitivity, traveler schedule, etc.
Re-introducing Human Infrastructure
Social Flights needs game data from which to match supply and demand of corporate resources. The Community Leaders need game data to match supply and demand of social influence. Finally, the passengers and support vendors need game data to match supply and demand of social value, etc.
By structuring the game around a baseline scenario and introducing “Human Infrastructure” responding to game data, we hope to increase our likelihood of replacing physical infrastructure in the operation of point-to-point air transportation.
