> The first we could do to make start is create "the Ringleader" as the people at the Cluetrain did...http://www.cluetrain.com/ringleaders.html. The cluetrain was put together by 4 rebels. Well on the digets we've quite a few people that fit description, and are equally capable of writing compelling texts. SO ALL WE NEED ARE 4 digesters that are willing to have a go at creating the statement.

> Once we have the Manifesto, it's a matter distributing it worldwide via the web. All connections to do this are also available. An added bonus is the impact Thomas has made within the industry.

> USTAR has already created global alliances and worked out a sustainable business model. Thanks to the fact that supplieres refused to suport it, this is the FIRST AGENCY OWNED intitiative that offers areal alternative. As instead of allowing third parties to live on our money (creditcard companies, airlines etc) every bit of savings are returned to the users ( = agents).

> Now it's up to the herd, to make it work. In this respect we may need to look at how dot.coms are handling this. Take Paypal: Started in 1999 they now have over 3 million users world wide, and their e-mail based payment system is avaialable in 23 countries. How did they succeed?

1. A few positive articles in leading financial media. 2. stategic alliances with companies like e-bay, where they filled in a need for a value added service. Whenever an e-bay user wants to receive money the receivng party, not yet a user, is prompted to subscribe. As an added bonus the new member get's USD.5,00 to play with. Paypal lives from the outstanding funds, and these sytem is paid for by services charges.

the point I am trying to make is it doen't stop by putting up the system. It's us that make it work. We have contacts witht both clients and suppliers = volume users. even if each client would pay us via our own infrastructure, you allready have enough basis to run a system like USTAR. (now we loose 2-5 % to credit card companies, and international suppliers a small fortune on banking charges. Effectively the money is under our nose, and we keep trowing it away.

In order to keep track of your comments I have set up a seperate forum on http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-post-new.tcl?topic=Next%20Generation%20Travel%20Professional . (only because that system allows easy editing and managing the messages).

if you are interested in discussing the "Next Generation travel professional", and help building the manifesto, leave your thoughts up there. (TravelWeekly reported last week the main source for travelinfo is 1. airlines sites, 2. supplier sites, 3 robots like Expedia!!! Next years survey should show Agents as well, if possible as #1.

Thomas is aming at increasing the number of hackers to 4000...Get on your horses, and round them up...I'd say, make sure we've got more than 4000 within 12 months. You may have seen the movie "how the west was won"... It's about to repeat itself, but now in a diffrent arena.

Ben(not a cowhand) in Tulip Country BTW many dot.coms failed before they got out of diapers, because they didn't have management experience. so old cowhands are realy needed here.

-- Ben Koot (ben@travelcompass.zzn.com), November 14, 2000