Spirited News and Observations and Opinions ...

[flynnibus]

People need to put the bracelet aside because what matters is the RFID and readers/trackers that are all over property.

But there isn't anything to suggest yet that location services will work for the cards. The bracelets have the radio that allow for detection at range. That is what allows detection 'incognito'

The cards probably won't have this ability. Non-powered RFID antennas need to pass through a EM field to be energized or reflect the signal (think those electronic Toll stickers you have in Florida). A requirement that limits their effective range and limits them when obscured. A passive RFID enabled card is not going to be readable from a distance, especially when in your wallet or purse.

This is why I believe Disney will have a tiered offering. The cards are the baseline and might just be ticket media (with associated customer demo data for correlation) and then bracelets for the upsold experience. The bracelet would enable the interactive elements in the park as one of the ways Disney can upsell customers to buying into the second tier. Or maybe the tier becomes part of the vacation bundles and that is how Disney uses the system to encourage higher hotel traction. And then offer other services with the bracelet like photopass, etc. There should be enough opportunities to offer the bracelets as a upsold experience - yet make the pick-up enough to make location services valuable to Disney's own operational gains from the system.

 

[Lil Fort]

But on a 30-foot range and the explicit, fearmongering statement of "24 hour surveillance" you're looking at hundreds with line-of-sight visibility. Surely someone would have seen at least one.

RFID is a radio frequency technology. They can easily be installed in inconspicuous areas (within walls, door framing, etc...) and not be visible to guests. I'm sure they wouldn't put them everywhere, just the areas of the park that they are interested in gaining additional information about (entrances to stores, attractions, restaurants, etc...). I'm sure they aren't interested in how many guests are frequenting the new Tangled restrooms. Or maybe they are...

 

[SirOinksALot]

You mean seen a NextGen tracking system the same way people have seen those hundreds (thousands?) of surveillance cameras Disney already employs?

Those are visible though. If you miss them, you're blind.

 

[marni1971]

That's like the difference between a tear and a cut

I edited it out to not sound overly disrespectful - needless to say they want it gone and will go to any lengths to do it.

I think it's a bit more than 20K.

 

[Lil Fort]

I thought of one way that this technology could be used to improve the guest experience - more accurately predicting ride wait times. Right now they randomly give a guest a RFID enabled card as you enter the ride queue. Right now these estimates are really rough. With the RFID bracelets they could monitor the ride times more or less continuously as the guests enter and exit the queue, which could make them more accurate.

 

[SirOinksALot]

RFID is a radio frequency technology. They can easily be installed in inconspicuous areas (within walls, door framing, etc...) and not be visible to guests. I'm sure they wouldn't put them everywhere, just the areas of the park that they are interested in gaining additional information about (entrances to stores, attractions, restaurants, etc...). I'm sure they aren't interested in how many guests are frequenting the new Tangled restrooms. Or maybe they are...

So let's be ridiculous and assume they inconspicuously ripped out walls at the Emporium and have an RFID reader in the doorframes of entrances. The things have a range of 20 feet. RFID can only read the presence of tags. What about all those people walking past on the sidewalk? That's going to be a nightmare.

 

[Lil Fort]

So let's be ridiculous and assume they inconspicuously ripped out walls at the Emporium and have an RFID reader in the doorframes of entrances. The things have a range of 20 feet. RFID can only read the presence of tags. What about all those people walking past on the sidewalk? That's going to be a nightmare.

Yes, one reader would be omni-directional. Add a second reader that works in tandem and you have a 'gateway'. Think of the RFID readers at your local wal-mart. They aren't triggered unless you walk THROUGH them. You can stand next to them with active RFID tagged merchandise and not trigger the alarm. The second that you walk through them, the alarms sound, they send out the swat team, and suddenly one guy has grandma pinned against the wall while another checks her bags.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I just can't wait for them to start telling my health insurance compnay how many drinks I had, how many packs of cigs I bought, and that I ate bacon and fettucine alfredo.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I just can't wait for them to start telling my health insurance compnay how many drinks I had, how many packs of cigs I bought, and that I ate bacon and fettucine alfredo.

Believe it or not it was things like that that led to some of the legislation we have here. The Insurance Companies said it would allow them to more accurately load your risk. Nice to know given our big 3 supermarkets all push financial services.

 

[david10225]

Somehow I keep picturing this project in my mind with a huge menacing laughing Stromboli, but each puppet string is attached to a FP+ bracelet on the wrist of a tourist.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I just can't wait for them to start telling my health insurance compnay how many drinks I had, how many packs of cigs I bought, and that I ate bacon and fettucine alfredo.

Where can I get this Bacon and Fettucini Alfredo? It sounds delicious.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Where can I get this Bacon and Fettucini Alfredo? It sounds delicious.

It's actually a dish called Pasta Carbonara. The Cheescake Factory has a pretty good version.

http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/menu/Pastas/pasta_carbonara

 

[GoofGoof]

It's actually a dish called Pasta Carbonara. The Cheescake Factory has a pretty good version.

http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/menu/Pastas/pasta_carbonara

Cheesecake Factory doesn't have FP+ so you will just have to wait the 2 hours for a table

 

[roodlesnouter]

Data mining has been going on for years in many different guises, facebook, google, logging into a favourite forum, store cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, memberships, using your Ipad, Iphone the list is endless. People also give up personal information far to easily, hell they will advertise when there house is empty via twitter or FB. The picture is bigger than Disney.

The biggest disgust is that they are trying to sell it as something great for the customer, when clearly it is not.

Personally I am pleased about it. yep im chuffed to bits. why?

Well they will see me check in using my DVC, after that they will see me not enter any parks, not buy any merch, not use their restaurants, and not drink at their bars. My only hope is rfid has enough range to track me all the way to Busch, Uni and Seaworld, parks with ambitions.

2billion PMSL if they asked me I would have told them for free.

Have a magical day my .

 

[marni1971]

Harsh but fair I guess.

 

[orky8]

But see your 'tude -- I believe -- is part of the problem in our country. It was why so many of our fundamental and basic rights disappeared after 9/11. ''I've got nothing to hide,'' was always the common refrain.

I guess to me there is big distinction between actual Big Brother (i.e., the Government) and a private company like Disney being nosy. I want to visit Disney -- if the tit-for-tat is that they want to know where I am at all times (while on their property), that's their prerogative, but there could be backlash if people decide this is not a bargain they are willing to make, though I'm sure Disney PR will spend another billion dollars convincing most people that this is a good thing. Now, the fact that the FBI can apparently read our e-mails for something so basic as a nutjob mistress sending e-mails to a professional socialite telling her to stay away from her man, actually concerns me (see the whole Petraeus incident).

Don't get me wrong -- I think this is a giant waste of money from Disney, and, much like Lee and others have opined, I'm just not really sure what they hope to accomplish from this datamining experiment. And if the goal is to sell the datamining process (not the data), then I still shake my head because I can't understand why Disney thought this was good line of business to start up instead of focusing on their already existing and profitable lines of business. It seems that Disney wanted to jump on the datamining bandwagon because it was the fad of the moment several years ago, but most companies are struggling to actually make any profit from this activity -- hence the clusterduck that was the Facebook IPO.

But, I am far, far more angry about what a giant waste of money this is than I am concerned about what Disney may do with the data. I mean, if we are being honest, Google probably knows more about us than our spouses. Google has read every singe one of my e-mails and knows every time I have done a search regarding what those bumps are and whether I should be concerned and every other stupid thing I have ever done or searched for on the internet. In exchange for this, though, Google gives me products I like to use, and, not coincidentally, products that are designed to data mine, which is why their business model works. And their motto is Don't Be Evil, so, it can't be all bad, right?

 

[roodlesnouter]

its no inconvenience what so ever, driving really is not that difficult, If Disney gets back on track I will return.

Disney will not be winning at all because my holiday/vacation money will be going to places that deserve my money and dont sqaunder it on billion dollar + crap.

Thats a 2500 dollar loss for Disney.

Thanks, hope you got that.

 

[GoofGoof]

But you could get the same type of information without knowing who specifically is buying it by looking at total product sales for a particular item.

Yes, they have the total sales numbers. What is missing is the why people buy what they buy. The name of the game is squeezing every dollar out of guests. The generic mouse ears and WDW 2013 shirts most definitely outsell unique items by a long shot, but having just raw sales numbers doesn't tell the whole story. If through data mining they determine that the demographic of repeat guests is only spending money occasionally if at all on more unique items they may see an opportunity to maximize sales by introducing more unique parks or ride specific merchandise to cater to this demographic.

 

[WDW1974]

So ... what happened here? I release info that WDW does NOT want out/discussed and suddenly an internal memo to 'certain' CMs allegedly from Thursday appears on one site online of a man currently interviewing for a job with WDW Co. (which also has a social media position open).

Hmm ... and somehow as much as this in no ways discredits any of my information (just reinforces a lot of it), this is an 'official' position from the company?

Um ... no, it isn't.

Disney releases press releases to all accredited media outlets when it has something official to say. This is nothing but internal PR ... and PR that seems to state that NEXT GEN is as big a mess as I've stated and that Disney is very concerned about the implications of it and all the discussions relating to it (both internally and externally).

 

[SirLink]

So ... what happened here? I release info that WDW does NOT want out/discussed and suddenly an internal memo to 'certain' CMs allegedly from Thursday appears on one site online of a man currently interviewing for a job with WDW Co. (which also has a social media position open).

Hmm ... and somehow as much as this in no ways discredits any of my information (just reinforces a lot of it), this is an 'official' position from the company?

Um ... no, it isn't.

Disney releases press releases to all accredited media outlets when it has something official to say. This is nothing but internal PR ... and PR that seems to state that NEXT GEN is as big a mess as I've stated and that Disney is very concerned about the implications of it and all the discussions relating to it (both internally and externally).

So how many months will the Board give it to get its money back/how long does it take to not work before the Board gives the program it's last rights?